Manifesto, by Tommy Robinson and Peter McLoughlin. A review

By Esmerelda Weatherwax

Before I start, a disclosure. As you probably know Peter McLoughlin’s first book, Easy Meat, about the atrocity of the mass rape Muslim grooming gangs preying on young English girls is published by the New English Review Press. I know Peter and we are on good and friendly terms. Having said that, I always strive to be objective and honest.

There have not been many reviews of the book so far since it was published earlier this month despite racing to the top of the Amazon best seller list within days. It is currently out of stock but a new printing is expected shortly.

The only review I know of was by Zoe Williams in the Guardian. She didn’t actually read it, being reluctant to have funds go to Tommy (what about Peter?) but she felt able to comment on the basis of having read the Amazon reviews by those willing to purchase.

From this she knows all there is to know; the comments make for worrying reading . . . when the far right is on the march.

To quote directly from Manifesto (Page 8 which is still the introduction – Miss Williams would not have had to read far)

It’s increasingly obvious that “far right” is code for “a white person who offers some resistance to the Fascist state”.

But fear not, gentle reader, I have read it. I was fetched up to do a job proper.

In the introduction the writers set out what they call the basic synopsis of the book, which I paraphrase as ordinary people need to mingle and talk as their individual knowledge should be shared, because together they will know much more from their various perspectives than they will have received from a biased elite. Hence the need for free speech and free association.

Chapter 2 introduces George Orwell’s Animal Farm, a book they consider to be even more important than 1984 because of its simple language that even a child could understand. I studied both books at school 50 years ago and they remain part of the syllabus and I have never been able to understand why, when so many of the population will have read them at least once, the messages are ignored. My generation seem more aware so I can only conclude that it is the way the books are taught in a modern school. The authors believe it is the confidence of the elite that neither book will be fully understood.

The authors go on to explore the nature of Democracy or Oligarchy?

We do not live in a democracy; we live in an oligarchy. Government by a small group. Definition of a member of the oligarchy; anyone who has more influence on politics and social policy than the average voter. They examine this with reference to the work of early 20th century sociologist Robert Michels and the little-known novel by Jack London The Iron Heel, which was a great influence on George Orwell, some of whose fears he explored more deeply in 1984. The Iron Heel was published in 1907. Our present situation has taken a long time to construct around us.

And don’t forget the Fabians. George Bernard Shaw and the Webbs may be long dead but the Fabians are still with us; shadowy and dangerous.

This chapter is a complex one but worth persevering with, in particular for this sentence on P139.

“A conspiracy is not a plot, it’s something far less planned – the root of the word “conspire” means ‘to breathe together’ (Oxford English Dictionary). The fundamental meaning of the word is that a group of people can share so many assumptions, so much background, so many future prospects, that they will act in unison without a need for every move to be planned or plotted: they are so intimately connected that they breathe as one…”

I think that might be what is sometimes described as ‘the hive mind’

Certainly my personal observation in my own field before I was retired early in a government diversity drive gives credence to this with the judiciary. The old ‘tap on the shoulder, you have been selected old boy’ method didn’t sit right in an egalitarian world. But paradoxically it produced independent free-thinking men who were honest, conscientious and who had confidence in their own judgment. The current method of encouraging every diverse minority to apply for a judicial post has been a godsend for many a disappointed solicitor unhappy with private practice. A Judge’s wage is steady, there is a good pension and the prestige (especially back home to an ethnic minority) inestimable. And while in the old days the right fit was perceived to be (although in reality it wasn’t always the case) the proper public school or regiment, today it is the correct, complaisant world view.  The Prime Minister may have mentioned to the Muslim Lady Chancellor that the deplorable rioters needed stern sentences to set an example. And she may have cascaded this down via heads of circuit. But it wouldn’t have been absolutely necessary. The cases would have been allocated to the Judges known to sing to the correct hymn sheet.  But I digress.

Chapter 4, Economics and Finance covers a wide area.  Not just the dangers of digital currency, inflation, and the Money Bubble but the war in Ukraine.  Examining how Ukraine isn’t a squeaky-clean innocent victim of the massive state of Russia but contains rather too many unnazified old nazis and new minted neo-nazis for complete comfort.  Ukraine may be the final conflict that sparks WWIII.

Chapter 5 is the important one, in my opinion; Population Replacement. In the course of that chapter Robinson and McLoughlin detail the efforts of Enoch Powell from 1950, when he was first elected to parliament, through his famous speech in 1968, his support from the working class in to his demonisation later in the 1970s by his own party. This is probably the best account of those years, which I remember and took an interest in (my own uncles marched across London in his support, although to my shame I needed to be older before I properly appreciated his worth) Dates vary according to who you consult and their method of calculation but the consensus is that white British will be a minority in our own country by the end of the century; the white English first and quite possibly in my lifetime.  The Oligarchy don’t care about the colour of the animals they farm rule; they only care about their power.  If the population don’t vote the right way they don’t change the government, they change the population. I wasn’t the only person of the opinion that the permitting of a constant flow of undocumented illegal immigrants since 2016 is our punishment for daring to vote leave. This is a sobering chapter.

Chapter 6 – Real Democracy looks at methods of achieving real democracy and weighs up the pros and cons of such things as electronic voting, selection of representatives for short terms and by lottery (it had its merits in some ancient societies) and referenda. Also the iniquity of so much legislation passed without debate or publicity by delegated legislation, or as you may have heard them called, Statutory Instruments.

Chapter 7 is the concluding remarks.

I spent much of my Sixth form years arguing with my classmates that I saw hope in 1984.  That while Winston Smith and Julia were crushed by the party, that they had lifted their heads at all showed the resilience of the human spirit. Others would follow; eventually there would be enough of them.

50 years later I spent several hours with Manifesto thinking how wrong that girl was.

We’re doomed Mr Mainwaring, Doooomed I tell you.

But in the concluding chapter there is hope, advice of things we can do. I won’t lazily list them here but they include such things as how we teach our children, making sure we know our neighbours and keep a community going with them, resisting the cashless society, fostering our own independence, working together in the manner of the General Strike of 1926, although we must do it without any assistance from our trades unions who are a mass of Trotskyists.

Look for other ways to become ungovernable. Let a thousand flowers bloom. The Fascist State relies on eliminating your leaders. Disperse. Decentralise. Organise. Be imaginative. You have to destroy the Oligarchy in order to get direct democracy.

Every chapter ends with the references to verify every statement in the book. They maybe a website (including the BBC, the Guardian, the New York Times, the London review of Books…) or an academic or reference book, a government report… At the end are a dozen appendices with a variety of information referred to earlier.

My one constructive criticism is that I would have appreciated an index. The references and information is sufficiently complex that being able to go straight to a particular event or a writer mentioned many times would be convenient.

Finally the only other press interest in the book, in particular by the Independent, has been to scoff and jeer at the front cover. Which they perceive as being printed in the font Comic Sans, a font they consider only suitable for children’s books and nursery class notices. Do they really think Robinson and McLoughlin are that ignorant of printing and publishing possibilities? The fonts (they are several) are not comic sans. Peter McLoughlin explains the thinking behind the cover design here.

They have fallen into the trap of mocking a font they perceive to be ‘simple’ in an attempt to convince people that the book is not worthy of their attention. Whereas intelligent people can think for themselves. Those that scoff are either ignorant of the assortment of fonts available, or they know that none of those used are Comic sans, but are happy to lie.

The book is a collaboration between two men; it combines Tommy Robinson’s passion and drive with the meticulous research that Peter McLoughlin first demonstrated 12 years ago in Easy Meat. It is a formidable combination producing a book which I believe will remain relevant for many years.

I recommend it to our readers.