Preston anti-fascist rally to condemn Sir Oswald Mosley commemoration in the city

The annual meeting of Ribbleton-based Heritage and Destiny is set to take place somewhere close to the city centre.

However, its organisers have not made the venue public and attendees - who seem to be expected from far beyond Preston’s borders - will be transported to the location from one of two “redirection points”.

The event has attracted condemnation from across the political divide in the city and has also prompted a “unity rally”, organised by Unite Against Fascism, which will be staged at around the same time that the meeting is being held.

A member of the city’s small Jewish community told the Lancashire Post that Heritage and Destiny was “beyond the pale”.

The invite to the private gathering sets out how Mosley - who founded and led the British Union of Fascists between 1932 and 1940 and infamously visited Hitler and Mussolini - will be one of four people remembered and honoured.

The others are the late Poulton-born musician Ian Stuart Donaldson, frontman of ‘White power’ band Skrewdriver; current British Democrats’ politician Derek Beackon, a former British National Party (BNP) councillor for Milwall in East London; and Andrew Brons, who represented the BNP in the European Parliament for 15 years and was chairman of the National Front in the early 1980s.

Two of the speakers at Saturday’s event - which is being held under the banner "Honour the Past – Conquer the Future” – are from the far-right group Patriotic Alternative. Amongst the organisation’s plans for a “successful and prosperous United Kingdom” is to offer “those of immigrant descent who have obtained British passports…generous financial incentives in order to return to their ancestral homelands”.

The Heritage and Destiny website links to a 1979 interview with the British-born French academic Robert Faurisson , entitled: “The Gas Chambers: Truth or Lie?”

Jeremy Dable, a Jewish Preston resident, said of the group: “They’re very careful in how they couch their words, but [the Jewish community] is used to reading between the lines, we really are - so we know who we're dealing with.

“Their reference to Jews has been largely by insinuation - but we absolutely get the message. The criticisms are left hanging in the air by implication only.

“[The philosopher] Karl Popper's paradox of tolerance [states that] we should tolerate all views, however divergent, even if we disagree with them.

“But there comes a time when you have to be intolerant of the intolerant, otherwise, your core disappears altogether. These are people who demonstrate that principle - they are beyond even the outermost limits of tolerable political and philosophical expression and they should be opposed.

“These ideas threaten me, they threaten my family, they threaten our community. There is no room for doubt [about] anybody who honours Oswald Mosley.

“He isn’t an intellect that needs to be re-examined - he's a byword for Nazism in the UK. He was a traitor who was locked up during the war,” Mr. Dable added.

Heritage and Destiny has told the Post that Mosley has been selected to be remembered this year because it is the 75th anniversary of his founding of the Union Movement - the successor to the British Union of Fascists.

Matthew Brown, the Labour leader of Preston City Council, condemned what described as the “disgusting views” that were being propounded by the group.

“I’m very disappointed that they are coming to the city. We don't need people with minds of hatred like that coming to our community.

“I really do hope they think again, they're not welcome. We’ve got very strong communities within Preston and we do challenge all forms of racism.

“We just don't need to go back to that really scary politics of hatred that we had decades ago. They don’t address any of the issues that people are facing in our community.

“We would ask the organisers to think about not coming here - and we would ask them to think about their own thought processes and having views like that,” Cllr Brown said.

Conservative opposition group leader Sue Whittam added: “In Preston, we pride ourselves as an inclusive and tolerant society - so it is disappointing and very sad that this group would choose to hold their annual meeting here.”

Meanwhile, Cllr Neil Darby, the Liberal Democrats’ Parliamentary spokesperson for Preston shared Cllr Whittam’s dismay, but conceded that people had a right to meet as Heritage and Destiny were doing.

"Selling hate has always been easier when economic times are tough. As a liberal who believes in equality, fairness and kindness to others, it's sad to hear about far right groups in my city.

"Nationalism will always end up on the wrong side of history; however, they have the right to gather and the right to their political beliefs."

"I hope the event passes peacefully and is quickly forgotten, “ Cllr Darby said.

As well as organising the unity rally - at midday at the memorial outside the Corn Exchange on Lune Street in the city centre - Unite Against Fascism has joined forces with the Preston and South Ribble Trade Union Council and the Lancashire Association of Trade Union Councils to draw up a “unity statement”.

It calls on any venue hosting Heritage and Destiny to cancel the event and stresses that the signatories - including from the city’s faith covenant - “oppose Islamophobia, antisemitism and all forms of racism, and celebrate Preston's multi-racial, multicultural and multi-faith community”.

Unite Against Fascism North West Regional Organiser Paul Jenkins told the Post that it was vital “to show the breadth of opposition to this fascist meeting taking place in Preston”.

“It’s completely abhorrent to be celebrating the life of Oswald Mosley - and it’s very important that two of the speakers at this event are from the fascist organisation Patriotic Alternative.

“I think this is key to why it's important to show opposition to this meeting,” Mr. Jenkins said.

According to the invitation to the private event, “socials” were in the offing – both for those arriving in the city on Friday and also after the meeting on Saturday evening. A raffle will also be held.

The group says that several attendees are staying in Blackpool and on the Fylde coast this year, “where there is a far greater choice of B&B and hotel accommodation”.

The invite concludes: “Thank you all once again for your fantastic support and we look forward to meeting you – fellow-nationalists – in Preston on Saturday 9th September.”

Although there is no suggestion that anything planned by Heritage and Destiny in Preston would be breaking the law, Lancashire Police told the Post that they were aware of the event and had never had to attend any previous meetings of the group in the city.

CHURCH CLUB ‘DUPED’ INTO HOSTING CONTOVERSIAL GATHERING

A Preston social club run by the Catholic Church inadvertently hosted last year’s Heritage and Destiny annual meeting after the group allegedly concealed the nature of the event.

St. Anthony’s Social Centre on Cadley Causeway staged the gathering after it was booked as a “memorial”.

The venue’s steward has told the Post that, earlier this year, the group attempted to reserve the facility again for this today’s meeting - this time under the cover of it being for armed forces veterans.

However, Karen Harle - who learned of the true nature of last year’s event only in the weeks after it had taken place - says that her suspicions were raised and so she cancelled the booking, which had been provisionally made by a colleague.

That move prompted a text from an unnamed member of the group in which she was accused of having fallen for “fake news and lies”. It also made bizarre claims that hundreds of armed police had been poised to swoop on the 2022 gathering if any laws had been broken.

Karen told the Post: “Last year, they [said it was] a memorial - and we do have stuff like that. I took [the booking] in good faith. But they asked [for] the bar staff to serve in the lounge so as not to 'disturb the meeting'.

“I thought that was a bit weird - but I thought, if that’s what they want [then fine]. But now I’m thinking is it because they didn't want us to hear what was being said? I don’t know.

“This year, on [one of] my night[s] off, my assistant took a provisional booking for an ‘ex-veterans meeting' - and a red flag went up straight away.

“I messaged them and wrote ‘no chance’ across it in my diary. They tricked me once, they won’t do it again.

“St Anthony's does not and will never support [anything like] this. We’ve just taken a booking for Diwali for later this year - everybody’s welcome here.

“As a Catholic club we don't hold any political or spiritual meetings - or anything that goes against the Catholic ethos,” Karen explained.

In response to the cancellation of the provisional booking for this year, Karen received a text saying: “I apologise you have fallen for fake news and lies. We are not and never will be right-wing extremists.

“We are not members of the National Front - a) it is illegal [and] b) we hate [their] rules and outlook and views. It's not what we are about..

“You have been judge, jury and executioner without any evidence.

“There was undercover police attending the meeting [last year]. If we had broken the law, There was over 250 armed police ready to swoop down on the club…please ask yourself why did that not happen[?]

“No prosecutions were made. The meeting was posted on YouTube and no government officials have issued warrants, warnings or cautions to anyone that attended the meeting.

“You have been provided with lies and deception.”

‘KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON IS PART OF THE PROBLEM’, ACADEMIC SAYS

A security expert at the University of Central Lancashire says that a lack of trust in – and understanding of – politics could be fuelling an increase in recent years in the number of people drawn to far-right groups.

Dr. Evan Lawrence, who is also a senior lecturer in international relations, told the Post that the British mentality of “keep calm and carry on” meant that some issues were never discussed.

“We just kind of get on with it – we don’t complain about things. [That] has really bred this group [which is] very disassociated with politics [and] thinks that [politicians] are all corrupt.

“It’s that we just don’t trust politics at all – so you don’t talk about politics. So most people don’t know how our government functions.

“Look at the [most popular] search after Brexit: [it was] ‘What is Brexit?’

“It’s because people aren’t taught what politics is or how politics works, or even what their rights are really. So when we start looking at the way that extreme right recruits…they really play to that idea of, ‘We’re the poor white guys who, because the government doesn’t listen to us [etc.]… they are letting all of these immigrants come in – that kind of sentiment.

“And…they understand the way that social media plays – you start looking at one thing or you agree with one meme – and it spirals into this echo chamber,” Dr. Lawrence added.

WHAT DOES HERITAGE AND DESTINY SAY?

One-time Blackburn councillor Mark Cotterill has edited Heritage and Destiny's magazine since 1999 and lived in Ribbleton since 2009.

He told the Post that he was surprised at the interest in this annual meeting, given that it had taken place for most of the last 15 years.

Responding to the condemnation of the group’s gathering this year, he said: “Those local politicians condemning the meeting have an absolute right to do so in a free a democratic society - just as we are entitled to our views and opinions.

“If these ‘disgusting views’, on Brexit, mass immigration and overseas aid, are so disgusting, how come they are felt by 50 percent of the Prestonians - of all races, religions and creeds - who voted for Brexit, and support the ending of mass immigration and overseas aid, including the billions sent to India who are spending it on their space programme now?

“As to nationalism ‘always being on the wrong side of history’, I guess Winston Churchill was wrong then, when he put forward a very nationalist policy for the UK during World War II? And Margaret Thatcher during the Falklands War, played up nationalism - was she wrong to want to liberate the Falkland Islanders from Argentina?”

Mr. Cotterill added that he was “an English nationalist and proud to be one”, stating: “I don't personally support all that Oswald Mosley stood for, but it can't be denied he was a first class politician”.

He said that two of the magazine’s regular writers are both Jewish themselves, one being a Rabbi - “So some Jews will agree with us and some won't, the same as Christians and other religions.”

He described the branding of Heritage and Destiny as “fascist” as being “a very odd statement to make, as what is ‘fascist’?”

"Margaret Thatcher was described by many on the left-wing as ‘fascist’. Many people on the political ‘right’ would describe those people organising the protest on Saturday in Lune Street as ‘left-wing fascists’. So the word ‘fascist’ means many different things to different people.

“I would not describe myself as ‘fascist’ in any way at all. I'm an English nationalist and a loyalist - and support many aspects of social-conservatism,” explained Mr. Cotterill, who stressed that he was responsible only for the Heritage and Destiny magazine, not its website.

The group did not respond to questions about the way in which it secured the use of St. Anthony’s Social Centre last year.

***NOTE >>> This article was updated on 13th September to change the picture which had originally – and mistakenly - shown a St. Anthony’s parish building that is unconnected to St. Anthony’s Social Centre, the facility which is referenced in the piece as having unwittingly hosted the 2022 Heritage and Destiny annual meeting.

The building initially pictured is an annexe used by a pre-school playgroup, an after school club and members of the Scouts and Guides Association. We wish to make it clear that neither the organisations operating from that building, nor its management committee, had any knowledge of or involvement in the staging of last year’s Heritage and Destiny gathering at the social centre - and we apologise for the confusion.