Will Wright
The history of the British extremist Left
I have always believed that in any group of people, those individuals who are most sure of themselves will influence the rest of the group. In politics, a person who is convinced that he is right will influence someone who is not sure what he really believes.
When a convinced political type is placed among people who are already halfway towards agreeing with him, the job of winning them over should be so much easier.
When the Trotskyites infiltrated the Labour Party, in the 1970s, they formed an organised group, originally called the Militant Tendency. I believe that they influenced a lot of more moderate socialists and dragged the Labour Party leftwards.
The Militant was especially effective in recruiting the Labour Party Young Socialists. From a British Nationalist perspective, Labour Party Trotskyites were largely indistinguishable from Socialist Workers Party Trotskyites.
The ‘Entryist’ Trots were so successful that Neil Kinnock (himself very left-wing) had a tough job expelling all of them from the Labour Party. Outside of Labour, they formed the Socialist Party and were never as effective again.
A second attempt
Much more recently, a campaigning group within the Labour Party, called Momentum, threw its weight behind the leadership ambitions of Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn was always careful to insist that he was a “democratic, mainstream socialist.”
Gormless Ed Milliband had changed Labour’s internal rules, so the rank-and-file members could elect the party’s leader. Corbyn was twice elected as leader, by a big majority.
Momentum had to avoid what Militant did and not identify too closely as a party within a party. But they were successful in enthusing left-wingers inside the party. The Labour Party was dragged leftwards, from an already left-wing position.
A personal experience
In the 1980s, I worked with a member of the Militant, at the Post Office. Whenever I worked with him, he was fine and we got along okay. But we clashed at union meetings.
He would put forward a motion, that had nothing to do with the workplace – some far-Left cause, often involving donating branch funds. Trade union membership was compulsory, at that time, but only the more left-wing people actually attended union meetings.
Our Trotskyite colleague was intelligent and articulate and could easily persuade more moderate people to go along with him – until I spoke up. When a vote was taken, his motion was voted down.
After a meeting, about ten of us would go to a pub. That included the Militant and me. He usually sulked with me for the first half an hour but then came around.
This experience showed me how the extremist Left operated and succeeded.
Nigel Farage’s parties
UKIP, the Brexit Party, and currently Reform UK have all constitutionally barred the way to membership for anyone who ever belonged either the National Front, or the British National Party.
Either Farage, or someone working with him behind the scenes, recognised that authentic British Nationalists might very likely turn the rank-and-file membership Nationalist. That would be likely to happen even without an organised bloc. Because we Nationalists have an ideology, which Farage’s parties have always lacked.
Farage clashed with UKIP’s National Committee and so he wanted to rule the party as a dictator. When that could not happen, he left to start another party.
Both before and afterwards, Farage has always driven out those who disagree with him, as well as anyone who appears to have an independent charisma of their own.
When Farage did that with Rupert Lowe, Lowe created his own party and had a success that surprised Farage. Restore Britain was born.
The opportunist mind of Nick Griffin
Nigel Farage had boasted to Establishment figures and the mainstream media that he was the bulwark against ‘far right extremism.’ He claimed that his presence in British politics destroyed the BNP. When Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons entered a Brussels bar that Farage’s MEPs frequented, Farage boasts that he had them thrown out.
Rupert Lowe complicated the picture. Restore Britain did NOT ban British Nationalists from membership. Nick Griffin quickly spotted that.
In his Substack column, Griffin stated that ALL British Nationalists should now join Restore Britain. Nationalists are very thin on the ground these days. But some followed Griffin’s suggestion and did join Restore Britain.
Others decided to do that quite independently of Griffin, people who are not fans of his. I am told that included Steve Laws of Remigration Now.
Griffin believes that the patriotic cause cannot succeed electorally. But he also thinks that British Nationalists could influence and eventually recruit Restore Britain’s members for the community-building work which Griffin believes will become necessary for White survival.
I think Griffin is right that ideological Nationalists could and should influence Restore Britain’s rank-and-file. Griffin points out that Restore Britain’s membership is ten times the strength of the BNP’s membership at its peak.
I think that both Reform UK’s and Restore Britain’s rank-and-file members are closer to us than to their own leaders.
In the era of internet influencers and online booksellers, any party which does not have an ideology is open to influence from people who do have an ideology and clear aims.
Can two strategies both work at the same time?
Nick Griffin is not the only prolific Nationalist writer on Substack. His former protégé, Mark Collett, writes there too.
I now think that Collett has matured into a good Nationalist. He is now a middle-aged married man and a father. He has had other ‘mentors’ since he parted company with Griffin.
Collett too has been observing Reform UK and Restore Britain. Collett, like Griffin, now appears to think that Nationalist efforts at elections are futile. But unlike Griffin, he has not abandoned hope of remigration.
Collett thinks that Nationalists should want a Reform UK general election victory. But why? He believes that would destroy the Conservative Party. I am not sure without re-reading him whether he also believes that Labour could go into terminal decline too.
Collet states that the two main parties have been entrenched for a century, but Reform UK would have much shallower roots, if ever a real Nationalist revival takes place.
I do not disagree with Mark Collett, in principle. Both main parties certainly deserve to die.
But if Reform UK is to win, that would need Restore Britain to disappear. Either to merge with Reform UK or have a pact. That thinking puts Collett up against some of his colleagues in the Patriotic Alliance. Those following Griffin’s entryist strategy with Restore Britain.
Could Griffin’s and others’ ‘entryist’ strategy with Restore Britain work in tandem with hoping for a Reform UK government? It seems unlikely. That puts me in a quandary.
It depends on whether you think Reform UK could actually win a general election and whether you believe that is desirable. It is far less likely to happen if Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain takes say 10 percent of the votes, that would otherwise have gone to Farage and Reform UK.
If we were to believe that instead of Reform UK, Restore Britain could win a general election, then we should support them. But no one believes Restore Britain could do that.
Are both Griffin and Collett right? Or are they both wrong? Or should we choose one strategy over the other?
Copyright (c) 2026 Will Wright. For permission to reproduce this post please contact the author through this web site.
