Misplaced Pages

#752247

42-620: The party evolved out of the Flag Group wing of the British National Front (NF), which gained control of the NF during the early 1990s. Party leader Ian Anderson sought to change the name of the NF to the National Democrats. 72% of the membership voted for the change in a postal ballot; by changing the name it was hoped to avoid the connotations associated with the NF name. However, the move

84-475: A Strasserite by conviction rather than a disciple of Julius Evola and ruralism, largely supported the young radicals and co-operated with them to remove Martin Webster , the former ally of Brons' predecessor John Tyndall , from the party in 1984. However cracks between the two factions soon began to show and a power struggle ensued. This culminated in 1986 when the two wings of the party split, with around 3000 of

126-572: A member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich and West Bromwich West from 1973 to 2000. A member of the Labour Party , she served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1992 to 2000. She was previously a Deputy Speaker from 1987 to 1992. She was the first and to date only woman to serve as Speaker. Boothroyd later sat in the House of Lords as, in accordance with tradition, a crossbench peer . Boothroyd

168-609: A Government-appointed member of the then European Common Assembly (ECSC) until she was discharged in 1977. In 1979, she became a member of the Select committee on Foreign Affairs, until 1981, and of the Speaker's Panel of Chairmen, until 1 January 2000. She was a member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee (NEC) from 1981 to 1987, and the House of Commons Commission from 1983 to 1987. Following

210-637: A leader of the British branch of the Ku Klux Klan and a former BNP parliamentary candidate. A plan to hand out extreme right-wing literature was abandoned when Curtis Sliwa , leader of the Guardian Angels vigilante group, turned up with members, some of whom were non-white. People Power's literature was produced by Ian Anderson, from his printing business in Dagenham . Following this, the National Democrats set up

252-478: A legislative assistant to American Congressman Silvio Conte , between 1960 and 1962. When she returned to London, she resumed her work as a secretary and political assistant to various senior Labour politicians including Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Harry Walston . In 1965, she was elected to a seat on Hammersmith Borough Council , in Gibbs Green ward, where she remained until 1968. Running for

294-605: A website called Paedophile Watch to "out" suspected child abusers with leaflets and demonstrations. The site also listed newspaper reports containing the names and addresses of convicted sex offenders. Reporters from the News of the World sought information from Ian Anderson for their "name and shame" stunt. By 2000, the National Democrats had ceased to exist with only the Flag newspaper being published as an independent publication, without reference to

336-575: Is destruction that hasn't been thought through properly." She was concerned that an elected Lords would rival the Commons, risking power-struggles between the two. Boothroyd neither married nor had children. She took up paragliding while on holiday in Cyprus in her 60s. She described the hobby as both "lovely and peaceful" and "exhilarating". In April 1995, whilst on holiday in Morocco, Boothroyd became trapped in

378-513: The 1987 general election Boothroyd became a Deputy Speaker to the Speaker Bernard Weatherill . She was the second female Deputy Speaker in British history after Betty Harvie Anderson . In 1992 she was elected Speaker , becoming the first woman to hold the position. There was debate about whether Boothroyd should wear the traditional Speaker's Wig. She chose not to but stated that any subsequent Speakers would be free to choose to wear

420-600: The 1997 general election , the party contested 21 seats and received a total of 10,829 votes, compared to 35,832 for its rivals in the British National Party (BNP), and 2,719 votes for the NF. The party's best result was in West Bromwich West , where Steven Edwards received 11.4% of the vote. However, this was not a normal constituency, since this was the constituency of then House Speaker Betty Boothroyd , which major parties by convention do not contest. The party

462-531: The 2001 general election . In the early 1990s, the National Front was left a legacy of almost one hundred thousand pounds by a party supporter. Following the 1995 name change to the National Democrats the legacy remained with the National Democrats under the control of Ian Anderson. The money was spent on the purchase of Britannia House – the building doubled as party HQ and the site of Anderson's printing business. The National Democrats attempted to give

SECTION 10

#1732851177753

504-516: The Atlas Mountains in the country's biggest storm in 20 years. Her vehicle was immobilised by a landslide ; she and a group of hikers walked through mud and rubble for nine hours before they were rescued. Boothroyd died at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge on 26 February 2023, at the age of 93. Her death was announced the following day by Lindsay Hoyle , Speaker of the House. Her funeral

546-715: The Epping Forest by-election of December 1988 , the European Parliament election of 1989 in which the West Midlands seat was fought by Wingfield and the Mid-Staffordshire by-election of March 1990 in which the party finished behind even parody candidate Screaming Lord Sutch . This policy of contesting elections, invariably with very disappointing results, left the Flag Group with a significant funding shortage. By 1989

588-411: The Labour Party , Boothroyd contested several seats – Leicester South East in 1957 , Peterborough in 1959 , Nelson and Colne in 1968 , and Rossendale in 1970 – before being elected Member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich in a by-election in 1973. She represented the constituency for 27 years. In 1974, Boothroyd was appointed an assistant Government Whip . In 1975, she became

630-661: The London Palladium . A foot infection brought an end to her dancing career and she entered politics, something then unusual, as the political world was heavily male-dominated and mostly aristocratic. During the mid-to-late 1950s, Boothroyd worked as secretary to Labour MPs Barbara Castle and Geoffrey de Freitas . In 1960, she travelled to the United States to see the Kennedy campaign . She subsequently worked in Washington, DC as

672-691: The National Front in the 1980s. Formed in opposition to the Political Soldier wing of the Official National Front , it took its name from The Flag , a newspaper the followers of this faction formed after leaving and regrouping outside the main and diminishing rump of the rest of the party. During the early 1980s the Political Soldier wing of the NF held sway within the party and was on good terms with chairman Andrew Brons who, although

714-616: The Open University from 1994 until October 2006 and donated some of her personal papers to the University's archives. In March 1995, she was awarded an honorary degree from the Open University as Doctor of the University (DUniv). In 1999 she was made an Honorary Fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford . Two portraits of Boothroyd have been part of the parliamentary art collection since 1994 and 1999, respectively. On 15 January 2001, she

756-523: The Third Way . This allowed the Flag Group to assume sole control of the name, mantle and traditions of NF and effectively signalled the end of the Flag Group as a name. Soon they would attempt to relaunch the NF as the National Democrats . Betty Boothroyd Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd , OM , PC (8 October 1929 – 26 February 2023) was a British politician who served as

798-704: The 5000 registered NF members breaking away with Brons to form a new separate group. The immediate actual cause of the split had been the refusal of the Political Soldiers to contest elections and the Brons group made this the issue on which they started their own group, initially called the National Front Support Group before adopting their more usual Flag Group moniker. Activists such as Martin Wingfield , Ian Anderson , Joseph Pearce and Tom Acton emerged as

840-474: The Flag Group although his other favoured idea, his opposition to Christianity in particular and religion in general and his desire to see a purely secular basis for Flag Group nationalism, was not taken up. Wingfield's strategy for growth included recruiting new members at football grounds, a tactic that initially paid dividends. Brons had a history of low-level co-operation with the British National Party whilst he and BNP leader John Tyndall went back to

882-598: The Flag Group had around 1,500 members with most activity centred on the West Midlands . Another activity centre had been Tower Hamlets although following the failure of the 'Nationalist Alliance' initiative this group, which included future BNP Campaign Director Eddy Butler , switched en bloc to the BNP. As the 1980s drew to a close, the ONF disintegrated with its place being taken by the International Third Position and

SECTION 20

#1732851177753

924-543: The Government had won by one vote. She was keen to get young people interested in politics, and in the 1990s appeared as a special guest on the BBC's Saturday morning children's programme Live & Kicking . Her signature catchphrase in closing Prime Minister's Questions each week was "Time's up!" On 12 July 2000, following Prime Minister's Questions, Boothroyd announced to the House of Commons she would resign as Speaker after

966-465: The National Democrats or the Campaign for National Democracy. By the beginning of 2002, the party continued as a pressure group under the name Campaign for National Democracy ; until 2008. The party officially ceased to exist after the death of its leader at the beginning of 2011. The party contested 21 seats, receiving a total of 10,829 votes (less than 0.1% of the total). No candidates were elected, and

1008-539: The ONF the Flag Group was not a direct copy of the earlier NF as it was also influenced by ' left-wing ' economics ideals of Strasserism , albeit whilst emphasising anti-immigration and anti-Semitism alongside this. As time went on and Brons was sidelined in favour of Wingfield and Anderson the Flag Group began to look more towards the populism of the Front National , which was enjoying comparative success in France at

1050-625: The early 1960s when they were both active in the National Socialist Movement and so not long after the split Brons contacted Stanley Clayton-Garnett, the BNP's Northern leader, with a view to closer co-operation. Tyndall and Brons met formally in Leeds in May 1987 to discuss the formation of a 'Nationalist Alliance' to be organised along the lines of the SDP–Liberal Alliance in existence at

1092-403: The former NF paper, The Flag , continued, now in support of the new party. In January 1998, Ian Anderson accompanied members of the anti-paedophile campaign People Power when they delivered a letter to Downing Street demanding tougher action against child abusers. Also in attendance were other extreme right wingers, including Paul Ballard of the BNP and Bill Binding, exposed by Searchlight as

1134-419: The group also published a monthly magazine Vanguard and Lonheart , a quarterly. As a separate group, the Flag Group contested Bristol East in the 1987 general election . By the 1989 Vauxhall by-election , they had resumed using the National Front name, even though their candidate Ted Budden faced opposition from Official National Front candidate Patrick Harrington . Other elections contested included

1176-403: The impression of attracting a mass membership. It never did; most people who left the NF joined the BNP instead, resulting in the legacy being used for election work and costly deposits, all of which were lost. The party printed a glossy monthly magazine called Vanguard that was edited by Blackburn-based Stephen Ebbs which lost money on every print and was subsidised by legacy cash. Publication of

1218-495: The latter as NF organiser in Sussex some years earlier, a struggle that resulted in Wingfield's temporary expulsion from the NF. Nonetheless the parties did continue to co-operate unofficially whilst Tom Acton also managed to win support for the Group from the influential publisher Anthony Hancock who had initially favoured the ONF in the split. As well as their monthly newspaper The Flag

1260-522: The new leading figures within this group and the Flag Group initially grew at a much faster rate than the Official National Front, although this was in part due to the Political Soldiers closing off membership of their wing. The Flag Group rejected the mysticism of the Political Soldiers and the ONF's technique of establishing contacts with non-white groups such as Black Power and Islamic fundamentalism activists. Despite these differences with

1302-426: The party and make himself sole leader whilst within the BNP it was suggested that the Flag Group's Strasserism made them incompatible with the party. It has also been argued that Flag editor Martin Wingfield, who published an editorial denouncing notions of merger, sabotaged the move because he bore a grudge against Tyndall and his father-in-law Charles Parker after Wingfiled had attempted, unsuccessfully, to replace

National Democrats (United Kingdom) - Misplaced Pages Continue

1344-403: The party lost all but one of its deposits. * West Bromwich West was the Speaker's seat and was not contested by the major parties. The candidates were Betty Boothroyd (Speaker, 54.8%), Richard Silvester (Independent, 23.3) and Steven Edwards (ND, 11.4%) Source: Source: Flag Group The Flag Group was a British far-right political party, formed from one of the two wings of

1386-464: The summer recess. Tony Blair , then prime minister, paid tribute to her as "something of a national institution". Blair's predecessor, John Major , described her as an "outstanding Speaker". She stepped down as Speaker and resigned as an MP on 23 October 2000. Boothroyd was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Civil Law (Hon DCL) by the City University London in 1993. She was chancellor of

1428-483: The time, resulting in a return to more basic racist sentiments and less emphasis on economics as opposed to Strasserism. Amongst their more crudely racialist policies the Flag Group stressed the importance of having large families and included ideas about the white race being bred out of existence in their election literature. Steve Brady, formerly a leading figure in the National Party , championed this idea within

1470-454: The time. A Liaison Committee was set up as a result of this meeting and Brons put the idea to the Flag Group's steering committee that same July. The plan however came to nothing as it was rejected by the steering committee and so disavowed by Brons in October 1987. Within the Flag Group it was widely reported that the rejection had happened because of a fear that Tyndall intended only to swallow up

1512-545: The wig or not; none have since done so. In answer to the debate as to how she should be addressed as Speaker, Boothroyd said: "Call me Madam". In 1993, the Government won a vote on the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty due to her casting vote (exercised in accordance with Speaker Denison's rule ). It was subsequently discovered that her casting vote had not been required, as the votes had been miscounted, and

1554-597: Was Patron of the Jo Richardson Community School in Dagenham , East London, and President of NBFA Assisting the Elderly. She was, for a period, Vice President of the Industry and Parliament Trust . In January 2011, Boothroyd posited that Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg 's plans for some members of the upper house to be directly elected could leave Britain in constitutional disarray: "It is wantonly destructive. It

1596-521: Was born in Dewsbury , Yorkshire, in 1929, as the only child of Ben Archibald Boothroyd (1886–1948) and his second wife Mary ( née Butterfield, 1901–1982), both textile workers. She was educated at council schools and went on to study at Dewsbury College of Commerce and Art (now Kirklees College ). From 1946 to 1952, she worked as a dancer, as a member of the Tiller Girls dancing troupe, briefly appearing at

1638-675: Was created a life peer , taking as her title Baroness Boothroyd of Sandwell in the County of West Midlands. Her autobiography was published in the same year. In April 2005, she was appointed to the Order of Merit (OM), an honour in the personal gift of the Queen. Boothroyd was made an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Light and Lighting (Hon. FSLL) in 2009, and she was an Honorary Fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford, and of St Edmund's College, Cambridge . She

1680-546: Was held on 29 March at St George's Church, Thriplow , Cambridgeshire; she had lived in the village in her later years. Hoyle, the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak and Leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer were among those in attendance, and her close friend, actress Dame Patricia Routledge , sang. Boothroyd received at least eight honorary degrees in recognition of her political career, including: Boothroyd

1722-655: Was resisted by other NF members and so the National Democrats came into existence as a new party. The party contested two parliamentary by-elections in 1996. In Hemsworth , Mike Cooper received 111 votes (0.5%) and, in South East Staffordshire , Sharron Edwards received 358 votes (0.8%). Although the NDs never took part in regularly scheduled European elections, it did contest the Merseyside West by-election in which Simon Darby stood but only gained 718 votes (1.2%). In

National Democrats (United Kingdom) - Misplaced Pages Continue

1764-562: Was severely damaged immediately before the 1997 election when it was revealed by The Sunday Times and the Daily Mail that leading member Andy Carmichael was working for MI5 . Where the West Midlands had been a stronghold, it now began to fall apart, and in 1998, the local branch, which included leading ND activist Simon Darby, defected to the BNP, leaving only a small number of party loyalists behind. The party did not nominate candidates in

#752247