Thread by @BrexitBin

I'm going to post some historical videos on this thread which I believe are necessary if you want to see the whole Brexit movement, including its core players and supporters, in context. There are no graphic images in the videos. But what is said is sometimes hard to bear.

This is a 1975 interview with Sir Oswald Mosley, 6th Baronet of Ancoats: former Tory MP, former Labour minister, and founder of the British Union of Fascists.
What strikes me here is how much Mogg and Farage seem to have learned from his style of delivery

This is a Mosley interview from 1967. In between the disgusting bouts of anti-Semitism, watch how Mosley clearly and convincingly explains his economic and political agenda without making them sound insane or dictatorial. Mogg and Farage do this too.

This is Mosley in the 1930s speaking as head of the British Union of Fascists in his "black shirt" uniform. His imitation of Hitler is obvious. These snippets of his speech, "England lives, and marches on!" are still being echoed by many supporters of UKIP

"The will of the people", "Democracy" "Empire" ...
This is a modern UKIP supporters video using Mosley. It is glorifying fascism and nationalism. And of course Brexit.
Brexit really is an episode in England's History X.

Enoch Powell is another hero of the far right. The sentiments expressed here in his "rivers of blood" speech from 1968 are still being expressed by many Leavers today.

Enoch Powell began his campaign to Leave the EEC/EU in 1975, on the very night we voted to remain in it by 67%. There was no "accepting the vote" for him! The arguments used, "European Superstate", "Sovereignty" etc remain the same to this day.

Enoch Powell again, in a rather rambling speech which basically expands on the "sovereignty" issue. Although he doesn't use Mogg's phrase "Vassal State", he clearly implies it.

This anti-EU speech by Powell could easily have been made by Farage, Mogg or Johnson. His dismissal of EU democracy is still used today. Elsewhere, Michael Foot employs the "them and us, giving up power" argument, and chooses Leave even if it does us harm

Tony Benn was vehemently against EEC membership. Like the hard left today, his main argument beside "sovereignty" was that entering the EEC prevented political change in the UK. Demonstrably wrong, given how Thatcher altered the UK just a few years later

Here Tony Benn argues against EEC membership in 1972. Just like now, there is no convincing PRACTICAL argument against it. Just some vague, xenophobic notion of a "threat. A threat which incidentally still hasn't materialised 40 years later.

(Part 1) Foot and Heath square off about "sovereignty" and the "undemocratic EEC". Foot's views are basically those used by Corbyn for the last 40 years. The "undemocratic" argument remains purely theoretical, as no EEC/EU law has ever been imposed on us.

(Part 2) More of Heath vs Foot on "Sovereignty ". Foot uses the well known threat of a Superstate and being forced into a common currency. Most interesting is his notion, like Corbyn supporters, that EEC membership stops Labour from implementing Socialism

In 1959 the racist "White Defence League" wanted to repatriate working immigrants to stop Britain becoming "unrecognisable". Many UKIP supporters used the same "send them home, save our culture" mantra against EU workes.

Here the racist BNP in 1991 latches onto the traditions of Oswald Mosley and Enoch Powell. Intetestingly, their spokesman is no longer upper class, but an early Farage-style "Geeza". The racist had now become "a man of the people who tells it like it is".

This 1985 show went for cheap laughs at the EEC's expense. It was the beginning of a long line of half-truths and lies that eventually led to the Boris banana story. Interesting to note that at that time, it was Labour MEPs who were behaving like UKIP

That's all for the time being.
Some of these vids are long, but well worth watching.
Three things spring to mind:
1. England has always had a racism problem.
2. Leavers' arguments against the EEC/EU haven't changed in 40 years.
3. The main players then and now are interchangeable