The Radical Right in Britain

This recent volume from the British History in Perspective series provides a significant addition to the study of the far right in recent British history. It fills an important gap in the literature, providing a historical overview of the evolution of what Alan Sykes defines as the adical right Although there are continuing semantic difficulties in using this term, common sense suggests that this is still one of the best concepts for discussing his subject, which includes that partial oxymoron, the British fascist tradition, but also radical, reactionary and far-right influences which were critical of British imitations of Mussolini and Hitler. The difficulty with the term, radical right, is that Margaret Thatcher was both radical and right-wing in her policies, yet her policies were far removed from the radical right which the author discusses. She combined free-market economics and individual self-interest with nationalist patriotism, and a little England scepticism towards Europe with a revamped, special relationship with American neo-conservatism, as well as going to war with Argentina's military dictators to regain the Falkland Islands. Whereas Mrs Thatcher emphasised, or so she claimed, that there was no such thing as society and the need to reduce the power of the government to that of the night watchman, the underlying connection uniting the disparate bunch of the radical right considered by Alan Sykes is the belief in the organic holism of the nation, and that the individual's rights are subordinate to the duties the citizen owed to the British nation/state. It is this latter characteristic, and the need for the state, to varying degrees, to plan management and organisation of the economy and society, to exert social control and increasing its role in everyday life, which provided a connecting link between the Edwardian believers in national efficiency, tariff reformers, social imperialists, the eugenics movement and anti-alienists, with the interwar fascist and social-credit movements. After 1945 the survivors of the defeat of fascism resurfaced in a new guise, anxious to distance themselves from the catastrophic failure of Hitler, Mussolini and Mosley in the interwar period. Racism, nationalism and hostility to immigration were, however, pronounced themes which linked them to earlier traditions. Similarly, there were still significant tactics borrowed from the left, both in ideas and organisation. These included populist methods, such as mass rallies, marches, demonstrations and printed propaganda and weekly newspapers. Publicity was the aim, and if their ideas could not be taken seriously then provoking opposition, particularly on the left and on the part of immigrant minorities provided an alternative strategy for kicking one's way into the headlines. One of the major characteristics of the radical right is that in political terms all such ideas and movements have operated outside the political mainstream, and that, at best, had a bee-sting effect on consensus politics. This has been most obvious with the issue of immigration, where increased public concern about the problem has led the state, in the 1930s, the 1970s and in contemporary society, to introduce restrictive controls to defuse the problem and to counter the threat of right-wing extremism. Sykes has provided a valuable introduction to this submerged but significant tradition in twentieth-century Britain

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