Anne-Marie Waters closes down For Britain Movement
Posted by admin978 on July 13, 2022 · Leave a Comment
H&D has for the past couple of years been reporting on the crowded yet feeble state of British nationalism (both racial and civic). It’s been clear for a long time that several of the parties now competing for the same political space couldn’t survive for much longer.
Today there was news of the first major casualty. Anne-Marie Waters, leader of the For Britain Movement, announced that she was closing down the party – although it’s not yet certain that she has the legal / constitutional power to do so.
Ms Waters told her followers that “support for patriotic politics has collapsed, at least publicly, in recent years”. We don’t disagree with her, though we might question her reasons.
Characteristically, Ms Waters blames opposition violence, which she claims is supported by the mainstream media and politicians. She doesn’t explain why in the face of far worse violence during the 1990s and 2000s, nationalist politics made progress.
Ms Waters says that she is immediately moving away from electoral politics but will continue her anti-Islamist work, with a particular focus on “a support service for victims of rape and sexual assault”. She asks for financial support in this work, but states that “the process of closing everything down” at FBM has started today.
H&D understands from several FBM organisers that they will resist their leader’s decision and will if necessary argue that she does not have the legal power to close down the party. The Electoral Commission requires political parties to abide by their constitutions, and FBM remains registered as a party. In the first instance, however, anyone wishing to stand as an FBM candidate would need the signature of the party’s nominating officer Mike Speakman, a former police officer who is a long-time ally of Ms Waters.
Those FBM activists who accept that the party is over are likely to join the British Democrats and/or Patriotic Alternative, though the latter is not registered as a political party. The sole elected FBM councillor – former BNP councillor Julian Leppert – is due for re-election in his Epping Forest ward next May.
In the next H&D we shall look back on the strange history of the For Britain Movement, a party founded by an ultra-Zionist but which attracted (notably in its most successful branch) significant figures from the old BNP. Perhaps the party’s death (if confirmed) goes to prove that ideological consistency still matters, even in the ‘post-modern’ politics of 2022.
