Poachers, Gamekeepers and the Brexit Party

 

When it comes to radical politics in Britain, there is a long tradition of poachers turning into gamekeepers. That is to say, of political activists, radical in their youth, who move towards the centre ground and join "The Establishment" as they grow older. Examples include the late Dennis Healey, who left the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) when the USSR attacked Finland in 1939; Bessie Braddock , who was an active communist in Liverpool before becoming a rabidly anti-communist Labour MP; Jack Jones, who fought as a communist in the International Brigade in the 1930s, before becoming a Trade Union leader and Labour Peer.

More recent examples include John Reid (now Lord Reid), who became Defence Secretary for a while and is an ex-CPGB member, as was Lord Peter Mandelson. Steven Byers, who became a cabinet minister under Tony Blair, was a member of the Militant Tendency in the 1980s. Peter Hitchens, himself a former member of the International Socialists (IS), says:

"The veteran Left-winger George Galloway remembers former Chancellor Alistair Darling as an active sympathiser of the IMG (International Marxist Group) in Edinburgh in the 1970s."

The most recent, and most remarkable example of such political apostasy, however, is that which has happened to members of the organisation to which the young people in the photo above belonged - the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). which existed from 1981 to 1997. Its founder was a sociologist at Kent University, Frank Furedi, who led a breakaway group from the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP) in the late 1970s, becoming the RCP in 1981. After 1997, some key members drifted (or swam) to the political Right. They were certainly effective. Guy Rundle says here:

"The post-RCP message began to spread through the UK right-wing press, The Times and Telegraph. Boris perhaps first encountered it through Bruno Waterfield, an RCPer and Brussels correspondent for The Telegraph, when Boris arrived. Something, in those years, made a failing wastrel like Boris into a man with a plan. The combo of bootstrap optimism and techno-society — the public/private split irrelevant — has the RCP brio all over it."

Other ex-RCPers to flourish on the Right include Munira Mirza, who now heads the Downing Street Policy Unit. (Dominic Cummings is said to be in awe of her). Gerry Gable, editor of "Searchlight" magazine , refers to the way that the RCP had erratic policies, but:

"...regardless of its twists and turns, its members always landed on their feet. Furedi, Mick Hume and Brendan O' Neill appear regularly in the Spectator, which formerly employed Johnson and now seems to be Downing Street's house magazine." (Editorial, Autumn Edition, 2020).

The most astounding example of post RCP success, however, must be that of the ex-Brexit Party MEP and new peer to be raised to the House of Lords, Claire Fox.

Fox was a leading member of the RCP , which strongly supported the IRA during the Troubles, even creating a group called the Irish Freedom Movement. In 1993, as is now well known, the RCP issued a statement following the Warrington bombing, which took the lives of two young boys: Tim Parry (no relation) and Jonathan Ball. It said that they supported :
"the right of the Irish people to take whatever measures necessary in their struggle for freedom".

These words have come back to haunt Ms Fox. When she stood as MEP candidate for the Brexit Party in the North West last year, she was widely criticised. One Brexit Paty MEP candidate, Sally Bate, resigned in disgust. Tim Parry's father, Colin, now a renowned peace campaigner, said, in April of last year:

"For somebody to come out with comments I believe she made, and being an apologist for the IRA, is absolutely disgraceful. If this woman would care to explain her comments back at that time to me and my wife, I would like her to do so."

Fox phoned Colin Parry to placate him and his wife, although he later told the press that she "repeatedly refused to disavow her comments supporting the IRA bombing..."

Colin Parry now opposes Ms Fox's elevation to the House of Lords. Both Warrington MPs, one Labour and one Tory, have also spoken out against it. Andy Carter, Tory MP for Warrington South has said:

“I will be very clear, I do not support her appointment to the House of Lords and I understand fully why so many people in Warrington feel the same".

Now, you might have expected a bold British patriot such as Nigel Farage, seen above with Ms Fox, to take a vigorous stand against the presence of an ex-Bolshie and IRA supporter in his electoral menagerie. After all, this is the man who opposes the early release of convicted terrorists from our jails. Er, well, not quite. He has been quoted as saying that he thought the criticism levelled against her as being irrelevant. Ms Fox has not responded with gratitude for his support, and that of the Brexit Party. In January, she accused Nigel of "whipping up fear" during the EU Referendum campaign. What a shame she didn't notice that before she joined the Brexit Party!

In conclusion, I'd like to provide another perspective on the RCP's take on the Irish "Troubles". It comes from a writer I remember from my SWP days - Eamonn McCann. He remembers the RCP in Ireland before and after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement:

"Naturally enough, local supporters of the ‘Ra (IRA) reckoned this crowd sound enough. But the amity only lasted until the IRA’s declaration of a ceasefire in July 1997. Claire and the Comrades went bat-shit crazy. The Irish people had been sold out again!...
Claire was so distressed by this misfortunate turn of events that she stormed along to the Blutcher Street home of one of Derry’s top Sinn Feiners, banged on the door and demanded an explanation. His response that she should – to use a technical term – fuck off, appeared to dampen Claire’s fervour. Shortly thereafter, she left town, possibly grinding her teeth at the crass ingratitude of those who’d abandoned the armed struggle which she had travelled so far to solidarise with."

In his article, McCann observes that Ms Fox has not been back. I wonder - why? Besides this, if McCann's article is accurate, Fox's outrage at the end of hostilities is difficult to reconcile with her more recent statement, quoted here in the Liverpool Echo:

"My political views have never made me insensitive to the pain and suffering caused to the innocent victims of events such as the Warrington bomb".

It seems that Ms Fox has more questions to answer on this issue. We can only hope that there are many members of the House of Lords willing to ask them.