From a Euroracist list. Michael Pugliese--- Original Message
---
>From: flandersfl <EKEditor at ziplip.com>
>To: EuroKnowledge at yahoogroups.com
>Date: 4/29/02 8:23:59 AM
>
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>Tory leader's trail of links to global extreme Right
>
>A new French revolution
>
>Antony Barnett and Paul Harris
>Sunday April 28, 2002
>The Observer
>
>Iain Duncan Smith, the leader of the Conservative Party, did
not
>hesitate
>last week when he vowed to oppose the racist British National
Party.
>He was
>also quick to warn that the rise of the far-right French presidential
>candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, was 'very worrying'.
>
>But closer scrutiny of the Tory leader's recent history shows
the
>distance
>between Duncan Smith and those he now demonises on the far Right
is
>not as
>great as he would like many to believe.
>While he talks about moulding a more moderate Tory party, some
>suggest his
>past reveals a dangerous right-winger with supporters linked
to a
>number of
>shadowy extremist groups - including Le Pen's National Front,
pro-
>apartheid
>South Africans and the Ku Klux Klan.
>In October 1995, Duncan Smith was one of several Tories who
met
>senior
>figures in the French National Front and later drank with them
in a
>bar at
>Westminster. Bruno Gollnisch MEP, Le Pen's deputy, was at the
>meeting,
>which was said to be about the European Union.
>
>People at the meeting say the NF veteran and the Tory MPs -
including
>their
>future leader - found common ground in their hostility to the
EU.
>Gollnisch
>recalled: 'I came to meet members of the Conservative Party
>sympathetic to
>our views... I met Duncan Smith and others in their offices
and later
>we
>got together for less formal talks in a bar somewhere in the
>Parliament
>building.
>
>'I remember meeting Iain Duncan Smith best of all because when
I saw
>he had
>been elected leader of the Conservative Party I instantly recalled
>that
>meeting.'
>
>The meeting was set up by the extreme right-wing Western Goals
>Institute,
>whose one-time president was Clive Derby-Lewis, deputy leader
of
>South
>Africa's Conservative Party. Derby-Lewis is now in prison for
>involvement
>in the murder of black anti-apartheid activist Christopher Hani.
>
>The Tory party confirms Duncan Smith took part in the meetings,
but
>denies
>he knew Le Pen's representatives were in the room.
>
>Derek Hunter, editor of the far-right magazine Right Now!, claims
>other
>Tory MPs and officials have had more recent meeting with Le
Pen's
>people.
>'Various MPs have met privately with Front National people when
they
>have
>been in France,' he said.
>
>During Duncan Smith's campaign for the leadership last year,
he was
>embarrassed by the revelation that Edgar Griffin, the father
of BNP
>leader
>Nick Griffin, was a vice-president of his campaign team in Wales.
>When this
>became public, Griffin was immediately sacked, but Duncan Smith's
>past
>continues to haunt him.
>
>A number of right-wing groups flutter on the fringes of the
Tory
>party,
>giving their support to Duncan Smith. One is the Swinton Circle,
a
>bland
>name hiding a set of hard-right ideologies on immigration and
the EU.
>The
>Circle has links with the Springbok Club, a group of supporters
of
>the
>South African apartheid regime, and is led by Alan Harvey, a
former
>NF
>activist.
>
>It backed Duncan Smith for leader, because he was 'pro-capital
>punishment,
>voted against the age of homosexual consent being reduced from
21 and
>opposed legalisation of cannabis'.
>
>An active member of the Circle and one of its former leaders
was Bill
>Binding, who was deputy head of the British Ku Klux Klan. Last
>October, he
>expressed his admiration for Duncan Smith and has now rejoined
the
>Tories.
>
>In 1997, Binding stood as a BNP parliamentary candidate in Dagenham,
>east
>London. He now says he quit the KKK four years ago after concluding
>that
>all races were genetically alike.
>
>Tories claim the views of Duncan Smith supporters do not mean
the
>leader
>shares them. They also point to the fact that under him the
Monday
>Club -
>which favours a ban on coloured immigration and, like the BNP,
wants
>'properly financed voluntary repatriation' - has been banned
from the
>Tory
>party.
>
>This may be so, but it wasn't very long ago that one of Duncan
>Smith's
>Shadow Cabinet stars was a leading light in the Monday Club.
>
>John Bercow, the Shadow Treasury Minister, was secretary of
the
>Monday
>Club's Immigration Committee in the 1980s, when he called for
the
>voluntary
>repatriation of black and Asian people, repeal of the Race Relations
>Act
>and abolition of the Commission for Racial Equality.
>
>Bercow has impressed MPs with the way he has abandoned his extreme
>views,
>but he remains a council member of the Freedom Association,
which
>campaigns
>for British withdrawal from the EU. Recently he said: 'I don't
give a
>tinker's cuss about the European Convention on Human Rights.'
>
>Another senior member of Duncan Smith's front bench, Shadow
>Attorney-General Bill Cash also has a history of links with
>extremists. In
>1998 he addressed a meeting of the Italian neo-fascist Alleanza
>Nazionale.
>He has also met the party's leader, Gianfranco Fini, in a bid
to form
>a
>European right-wing parliamentary alliance with the Tories.
>
>
>
>--
>The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in
the
>palpably
>not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind. (H.L. Mencken)
>
>
>
>
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