Nick Griffin is no longer attending a garden party at Buckingham Palace. Big deal. This isn’t a victory for justice, since neither Buckingham Palace nor the Royal Family has any connection with ordinary people or can be seen as anything remotely resembling a force for good in this world. In fact, the Royal Family has a history of flirting with fascism, so no doubt Griffin would have felt right at home.
The Queen’s own Uncle was both a political admirer and a close friend of Hitler, with similar connections to Oswald Mosley of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) fame. Even amongst those Royals who haven’t demonstrated any public affiliation with fascism, racism is pretty rife. Take Prince Phillip, for instance. He’s well known as a bigot, guilty of racism, sexism and homophobia alike. Aside from his desire to be reincarnated as a “deadly virus” to end the population “problem”, there’s also the question of his sister’s marriage to a SS Colonel and her own son, lovingly named Adolf.
In the event that the BNP were attending a garden party in a community centre, outside a mosque or synagogue, in our streets or anywhere else that ordinary people have some semblance of a claim over, there would be reason to get upset. We can’t, however, no platform the BNP from a place that the vast majority of us will never be invited to enter. The British establishment has a long history of support for fascism (think of the pro-Hitler clubs, dinner parties and fundraisers that occupied large swathes of the upper classes in the 1930s) and there is no greater symbol of the establishment than the British monarchy.
In light of all this, the statement released by Unite Against Fascism is both ridiculous and hysterical:
“The Queen does not just represent Britain but the Commonwealth. Her staff or whoever invited him really need to take a long, hard look at what this day represents – Nick Griffin and racists or multi-culturalism.”
Firstly, it should be fairly obvious to anyone with the slightest inclination towards democracy that the Queen doesn’t represent anyone. She wasn’t elected. We didn’t get to pick her and neither did the people of the Commonwealth. In fact, the Commonwealth is the living descendent of the British Empire, the colonial project which led to the massacre of millions in the name of imperial expansion. No doubt it’s the stuff of Griffin’s dreams. As it happens, even today strong anti-monarchist sentiment is growing in many corners of the Commonwealth.
Secondly, nothing about Buckingham Palace and Royal soirees has anything to do with “multiculturalism”. Even if we accept the notion of multiculturalism as a valid one – and I don’t – it begs the question: when was the last black monarch? Heck, when was the last non-Christian monarch? The Royals descend from a tiny inbred gene pool of the Royal Families of Europe; they stand for nothing more than historic white Christian privilege.
Refusing to acknowledge these simple truths and clouding the issue with words like “multiculturalism” isn’t helpful. It’s pandering to that particular brand of liberal outrage that isn’t rooted in the real and serious political struggle against fascism and the far right. Perhaps UAF are themselves a tad embarrassed at this statement, given that is has disappeared from just about everywhere.
Let Nick Griffin go to Buckingham Palace. It will discredit the monarchy even further… And it’s the best place for him.
