Over the last few weeks I have had several people ask if I intend to stand for Parliament again. No matter how often I say ‘no’ the message never quite seems to get through. I can use phrases like ’I’d rather stick needles in my eyes’ or ’I’d rather eat my own sick’, but still people don’t quite believe me. Well let me kill off any further speculation by repeating something I said in 2008. I believe Nazisim and Fascism to have far more in common with socialism than conservatism. I believe them to be intrinsically left wing ideologies.
The clue is the phrase ‘National Socialism’.
This is not an uncommon belief on the right, but it has cost Rachel Frosh (nee Joyce) both her job as Deputy Police Commissioner for Hertfordshire and her place on the Conservative Party Approved Candidates List. She retweeted someone who made the same point, and using the above graphic [You can see the offending tweet at The Commentator], and then her world fell apart. She mounted a spirited defence, invoking my blogpost from 2008 but the Conservative thought police were out in force and determined to do her in. Strangely they haven’t yet disciplined a Cabinet Minister who has said something far more offensive, but that’s another story. Can anyone seriously disagree with this, from my 2008 blogpost?
I can understand why those on the left don’t wish to be branded in the same political mindset as the BNP. Now they know how those of us on the right feel. But the fact remains that BNP beliefs DO have more in common with Socialism than with Conservatism – centralised command control, trade tariffs, state owned businesses … I could go on. I struggle to think of a single issue which joins the BNP and mainstream conservatism. The Nazis were called National Socialists for a reason. Fascism is invariably described as a creed of the right. It isn’t. As with the BNP, fascism has far more in common with the left, at least in political theoretical terms.
Rachel commented today…
“I was simply retweeting something in line with a widely held opinion about the roots of Nazism. Of course I was not calling all socialists Nazis. That a retweet should be allowed to be misrepresented and used against me such a way is a something that all right-headed individuals should openly reject.”
I feel incredibly sorry for Rachel. She has devoted many hours to working for the Tories and at the first hint of trouble, they suspend her from the Candidates List. I thank God that I resigned from it in June 2010 and can enjoy total freedom of speech without ever wondering if it will ruin my political career. Rachel Frosh deserves better. I don’t even know who the Vice Chairman in charge of Candidates is nowadays, but whoever made this appallingly intolerant decision should be hauled in by Grant Shapps for a dressing down.
Are you listening Grant?
