And he means it most sincerely

Successful leadership demands character

Trust me, I'm a politician

Sarkozy: Don't we turn left here?

Adviser: Ah non, Monsieur le President, we turn left further on.




 

                                   

Learning the old goose-step

"Back To the Army Again"



Rudyard Kipling


I'm 'ere in a ticky ulster an' a broken billycock 'at,

A-layin' on the sergeant I don't know a gun from a bat;

My shirt's doin' duty for jacket, my sock's stickin' out o' my boots,

An' I'm learnin' the damned old goose-step along o' the new recruits!



Back to Army again, sergeant,

Back to the Army again.

Don't look so 'ard, for I 'aven't no card,

I'm back to the Army again!



I done my six years' service. 'Er Majesty sez: "Good day --

You'll please to come when you're rung for, an' 'ere's your 'ole back-pay:

An' fourpence a day for baccy -- an' bloomin' gen'rous, too;

An' now you can make your fortune -- the same as your orf'cers do."



Back to the Army again, sergeant,

Back to the Army again.

'Ow did I learn to do right-about-turn?

I'm back to the Army again!



A man o' four-an'-twenty that 'asn't learned of a trade --

Beside "Reserve" agin' him -- 'e'd better be never made.

I tried my luck for a quarter, an' that was enough for me,

An' I thought of 'Er Majesty's barricks, an' I thought I'd go an' see.



Back to the Army again, sergeant,

Back to the Army again.

'Tisn't my fault if I dress when I 'alt --

I'm back to the Army again!



The sergeant arst no questions, but 'e winked the other eye,

'E sez to me, " 'Shun!" an' I shunted, the same as in days gone by;

For 'e saw the set o' my shoulders, an' I couldn't 'elp 'oldin' straight

When me an' the other rookies come under the barrik-gate.



Back to the Army again, sergeant,

Back to the Army again.

'Oo would ha' thought I could carry an' port?

I'm back to the Army again!



I took my bath, an' I wallered -- for, Gawd, I needed it so!

I smelt the smell o' the barricks, I 'eard the bugles go.

I 'eard the feet on the gravel -- the feet o' the men what drill --

An' I sez to my flutterin' 'eart-strings, I sez to 'em, "Peace, be still!"



Back to the Army again, sergeant,

Back to the Army again.

'Oo said I knew when the troopship was due?

I'm back to the Army again!



I carried my slops to the tailor; I sez to 'im, "None o' your lip!

You tight 'em over the shoulders, an' loose 'em over the 'ip,

For the set o' the tunic's 'orrid." An' 'e sez to me, "Strike me dead,

But I thought you was used to the business!" an' so 'e done what I said.



Back to the Army again, sergeant,

Back to the Army again.

Rather too free with my fancies? Wot -- me?

I'm back to the Army again!



Next week I'll 'ave 'em fitted; I'll buy me a swagger-cane;

They'll let me free o' the barricks to walk on the Hoe again,

In the name o' William Parsons, that used to be Edward Clay,

An' -- any pore beggar that wants it can draw my fourpence a day!



Back to the Army again, sergeant,

Back to the Army again.

Out o' the cold an' the rain, sergeant,

Out o' the cold an' the rain.

'Oo's there?



A man that's too good to be lost you,

A man that is 'andled an' made --

A man that will pay what 'e cost you

In learnin' the others their trade -- parade!

You're droppin' the pick o' the Army

Because you don't 'elp 'em remain,

But drives 'em to cheat to get out o' the street

An' back to the Army again!

The shortest way with dissenters

EDL leader sentenced for headbutting fellow protester

Stephen Lennon given 12-week term suspended for 12 months for common assault and judge rejects asbo application

Helen Carter

3 November 2011

The leader of the far-right English Defence League has been given a suspended jail sentence after he assaulted one of the group's members at a rally.

Stephen Lennon, 28, from Luton, was given a 12-week term, suspended for 12 months, at Preston magistrates court.

At a day-long trial, the court heard that Lennon launched a tirade against Alan McKee, 33, calling him a "degenerate mug", at a rally in Blackburn in April.

McKee later confronted Lennon, who stepped forward and headbutted him.

McKee refused to give evidence against Lennon, but the court heard from two police officers who said they clearly saw the incident.

An attempt to prevent Lennon from organising or attending rallies outside Bedfordshire was rejected by the district judge Peter Ward at the sentencing hearing.

The CPS and Lancashire constabulary jointly applied for an anti-social behaviour order against Lennon that would have effectively prevented him from involvement in the EDL. But Lennon's legal representatives said an asbo would be "disproportionate" and claimed the police were "desperate to stop him being involved with the EDL at all costs".

Outside the court, Lennon said: "This was an attempt to silence me and take away my democratic rights. I respect the judge for this decision. If the asbo had been imposed, it would have meant me going to jail. I would have broken it and broken it."

Lennon was warned he would be brought back before the courts if he committed another offence within 12 months. He will be required to perform 150 hours of unpaid work for the common assault conviction and pay £200 costs.

Thirteen arrests were made at the Blackburn rally, which cost £500,000 to police. The court heard that Lennon had been in charge of, or assisted in the control of, 70 such demonstrations nationwide.

Guardian

Jonathan Bowden - nationalist orator

I was saddened to hear the other day of the untimely death last month of Jonathan Bowden.

I was privileged to hear him speak on several occasions. 

Although he was a man of many talents, I think it will be above all for his spellbinding oratory that Jonathan will be best remembered.

EDL 'leader' headbutts EDL member

EDL leader Stephen Lennon convicted of assault

29 September 2011


The leader of the English Defence League (EDL) has been convicted of assault after headbutting a member of his group during a rally in Blackburn.

Stephen Lennon, 28, goaded his followers during a rally attended by 2,000 EDL members in April, Preston Magistrates' Court heard.

He verbally abused Alan McKee, 33, before attacking him.

Lennon who denied common assault, was found guilty of the charge. Sentencing was adjourned to 3 November.

The bench heard Mr Lennon launched a tirade against Mr McKee, calling him a "degenerate mug", before trouble broke out.

Mr McKee was pulled from the crowd for his safety. But he later confronted Mr Lennon about his speech, the court was told.

Lennon, who was surrounded by his own security guards and EDL stewards, then stepped forward and headbutted Mr McKee.

Probation report

The EDL leader, of Luton, denied assault and said he had not targeted Mr McKee during his speech.

Lennon said the man he targeted was another man who he said was part of an EDL splinter group, the North East Infidels, intent on causing trouble.

The court heard from two police officers who told the court they were on hand when the incident happened and they clearly saw Lennon headbutt Mr McKee.

After a day-long trial, District Judge Peter Ward said that he believed the police officers and convicted Lennon of common assault.

The judge said he wanted a probation report on Lennon before passing sentence.

He said: "I don't think one can rule out a custodial sentence, but at the same time I'm keeping it open in light of the report and what is said to the court next time."

Sentencing was adjourned until 3 November when police will apply for a criminal (anti-social behaviour order) to prevent Lennon attending EDL rallies.

BBC

Wilders in the wilderness?

Wilders back on the barricades

22 April 2012

John Tyler

Early elections in the Netherlands are all but certain after negotiations on austerity measures broke down on Saturday. Geert Wilders, leader of the populist Freedom Party, dramatically walked out of the talks at the last minute, just as an agreement seemed imminent.

After one and a half years helping govern the Netherlands by supporting a minority government, Geert Wilders has had enough. Now his Freedom Party movement can go back to a more comfortable role as protest party.

Since leaving the free-market liberal VVD party seven years ago, Mr Wilders has fashioned himself into a populist, anti-establishment politician. The champion of the average working class Joe, a constituency he refers to as ‘Henk and Ingrid’.

Strange bedfellows

That anti-establishment image was severely challenged the moment he signed a governing agreement with two stalwarts of the Dutch establishment, the VVD and the Christian Democrats. Wilders did keep a modicum of distance by not actually participating in the government, merely supporting it from parliament. The Christian Democrats refusal to allow Wilders into the cabinet gave him a convenient excuse not to join the cabinet as a full partner.

Even that distance was not enough. Governing in a coalition system such as here in the Netherlands requires compromise. Mr Wilders, on the other hand, rose to prominence by ridiculing the very culture of compromise. He risked being seen as just another wishy-washy politician, willing to trade away his principles.

Lashing out

Wilders’ need to be seen as anti-establishment led to some rather uncomfortable moments for his allies in the cabinet. Prime Minister Mark Rutte was repeatedly asked to condemn various statements by his political partner. Wilders insulted the President of Turkey while he was on a state visit, the Freedom Party started a website inviting people to complain about Polish immigrants, Wilders condemned the Queen for wearing a headscarf when visiting a mosque in Oman and spoke out against Islam at ground zero in New York. Mr Rutte rose to the Queen’s defence, but otherwise refused to comment.

These radical statements have all been part of Wilders’ strategy of disguising compromises with political drama. He pleases his constituents by railing against the system, even while he is an important player in that system.

Put to the test

The recent negotiations for a new round of austerity measures proved the toughest test of Mr Wilders’ political savvy. The day after the last election, Mr Wilders said he would break his promise not to raise the age of retirement. A clear example of compromise in the interest of governing. He could not afford to openly offend pensioners again. Mr Wilders has also fervently advocated more spending on healthcare. He was being asked to compromise on both in the recent austerity package.

Attempting to explain why he walked out, Wilders lashed out at the European Union, saying the Netherlands should not blindly obey commands from Brussels. This is a popular standpoint in the Netherlands which, ever since rejecting the European Constitution in a referendum back in 2005, has shown a growing anti-Europe sentiment.

Bash away

Bashing Europe, just like bashing immigration, is a tried and tested manner for Wilders to score among his electorate. Now, freed from the burden of governing, Mr Wilders can bash away to his heart’s content. But this time, the formula may not prove as successful as it has in the past.

Wilders has taken a calculated risk by walking away. He is saying farewell to his position of power and is unlikely to get the chance again soon. But that suits him and his supporters. They are more comfortable storming the establishment castle from the outside.

Party poopers

Wilders has suffered a blow to his credibility. His Freedom Party is proving to be an unreliable partner. Having learned from the chaos that sank his party's populist predecessor the Pim Fortuyn List, Wilders has worked hard to avoid divisions within his Freedom Party, but now they seem to have caught up with him nonetheless. Nearly a dozen local Freedom Party representatives have left the party in the past few years. Last month, one of the party's most prominent MPs announced he was leaving. And last week, the Freedom Party suffered a particularly embarrassing blow in Limburg, Geert Wilders’ home province and the only one where the party was in government. The Christian Democrats pulled the plug on the coalition there, saying the Freedom Party was no longer a reliable partner.

These troubles expose the weaknesses of the party’s lack of structure and its complete reliance on one-man rule. Wilders has been unwilling to delegate authority and his party has grown too fast for him to control everything. [Emphasis mine].

Now, as the party regroups, Wilders will undoubtedly fall back on ever more dramatic gestures. Presenting his new book Marked for death: Islam’s war against the west and me in New York next week is only the start. But after his stint in the halls of power in the Hague, his old tactics may have run their course.

Radio Netherlands Worldwide

An ever stronger union

OVER TO YOU: HELP US REACH HALF-A-MILLION NAMES

Dear Marriage Supporter

Next Monday (30 April) will mark ten weeks of the Coalition for Marriage campaign and the national petition for marriage. In that time, you and over 450,000 fellow marriage supporters have already signed the petition. That’s great, thank you for your support.

Let’s celebrate the ten-week milestone by pushing the petition past the half-a-million mark. Help us reach 500,000 by next week. We’re nearly there. Just an extra push from you would put us over.

That would send a clear message to the Government that the campaign is going from strength to strength. We are already one of the fastest growing national petitions in living memory. Let’s show the politicians that there’s more where that came from. Let’s show them that the nation’s affection for marriage is strong, deep and widespread.

Practical tips

Some of you may be sitting on paper petition sheets that you have yet to send in to our office. Perhaps you are waiting for the sheet to be entirely filled before posting it to us. We like your dedication! But send it in now – no matter how many signatures you’ve got. You can always collect more signatures on extra sheets later. You can get extra petition sheets by phoning 0207 403 7879 or by downloading a copy from our website.

Some of you may not have yet downloaded our paper petition sheets. These are for your friends who can’t sign the petition online. Some of our supporters have taken the petition door-to-door to their neighbours, some have asked friends at work to sign it, some have asked their families. Download the sheet, or get copies by telephoning 0207 403 7879. Get people signed up and post the sheet back to us to the address on the sheet by Monday 30 April – or very soon afterwards.

Post the petition to Facebook. Just copy this link http://www.c4m.org.uk into your status update – and add some words to encourage people to push the petition over the 500,000 mark. Share the petition on Twitter also. If you’ve already done this, think about doing it again. We all need gentle reminders from time to time.

Perhaps you want some talking points before you speak to others about the subject. Download our briefing, that will help you to think about the issues and talk to people about why marriage is part of the common good and should not be redefined.

Together, we can get the petition over 500,000 by Monday 30 April. After that, the petition will still be there, growing bigger every day. But let’s make our ten-week milestone extra special by hitting half-a-million supporters!

Yours Sincerely

Colin Hart
Campaign Director
Coalition for Marriage

The tyranny of 'anti-fascism'

True Fascists of the New Europe

Patrick J Buchanan

30 April, 2002

When fascism comes to America, said Huey Long, it will come in the guise of anti-fascism. And since Vietnam, it has been so.

Brownshirt tactics, shouting down speakers, disrupting opposition rallies, demonstrations that degenerate into riots, have all been used repeatedly by self-described fighters against racism and fascism. And invariably, these crimes against decency and democracy have been ignored or condoned by those who share the left's revulsion of the right.

In the wake of Jean-Marie Le Pen's capture of 17 percent of the vote in the first round of France's presidential election, the French Establishment, too, has shown great tolerance for fascist tactics in resisting any rebirth of the European Right.

No sooner had the returns come in, eliminating socialist Premier Lionel Jospin from the run-off, than mobs were in the streets. French President Jacques Chirac, who had won fewer than one in five votes, swiftly embraced Trotskyite and Communist support in the second round, but refused to debate Le Pen. In the European Parliament, Le Pen was shouted down. Protesters threatened to disrupt his press conference, forcing its cancellation.

Though Le Pen has made radical and foolish statements, there is no evidence he is a Nazi. His hero is not Hitler but Joan of Arc, and he and his National Front have accepted defeat in every election they have lost. No, Le Pen is hated and feared not just for who he is, but for the issues he has raised. And what are those issues?

He wants France to opt out of the euro bloc, as the British have done, and to restore the franc as France's national currency. He is calling for a national referendum on whether France should reclaim sovereign powers it has surrendered to the European Union. Cannot Americans, who would never give up our dollar and who reject the new International Criminal Court, understand?

Le Pen opposed America's war in Kosovo. But so, too, did a majority of House Republicans. He denounces what the Israelis are doing on the West Bank, but even President Bush wants Sharon out. He does not want a war on Iraq, but neither do any of our other allies. He wants a France forever independent of the United States. Cannot Americans, to whom independence is sacred, understand how other nations might not wish to be part of an American Imperium?

Le Pen supports capital punishment and believes the French should be allowed to vote on its restoration, and not have the death penalty outlawed by the EU. We Americans, too, would be rebellious toward any supranational political body that dared to dictate an end to capital punishment in the United States.

Crime is the issue driving voters into Le Pen's corner. He associates rising crime with rising Arab and Islamic immigration, and wants illegal aliens expelled. But Americans, too, want illegal immigration halted and gate-crashers sent back. And a rising share of our own prison population consists of illegal aliens, and our own president's proposed amnesty for illegal immigrants ignited a storm of protest across America, forcing the Republican Party to back off.

As European elites deny Le Pen courtesies they routinely extend to Communists and Trotskyites, the message is clear: In the New Europe, some issues are closed forever. They have been decided, and no second thoughts will be entertained. While Trotskyites and Communists are welcome, the Populist Right and its ideas are pariahs. There is no room for them, or the people who advance them, in the New Europe.

On the Index of Forbidden Issues are any restrictions on Third World immigration, the deportation of illegal aliens, statements critical of minorities and any return of sovereign power once ceded to the EU. Though the death penalty may be favored by majorities in European nations, capital punishment is to be outlawed forever. It is outside the restricted range of issues that the people may henceforth decide.

As it is often the criminal himself who is first to cry, "Thief!" so it is usually those who scream, "Fascist!" loudest who are the quickest to resort to anti-democratic tactics.

Today, the greatest threat to the freedom and independence of the nations of Europe comes not from Le Pen and that 17 percent of French men and women who voted for him. It comes from an intolerant European Establishment that will accept no rollback of its powers or privileges, nor any reversal of policies it deems "progressive."

As the New Europe taking shape is the prototype of the World Government to come, Americans should take note. Let us hope that Sunday, French voters will deliver that New Europe a good right cross to the head.

The American Cause

Happy St George's Day

Saint George

From Wikipedia

Introduction

Saint George (c. 275/281 – 23 April 303) was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier from Syria Palaestina and an officer of the guard of Emperor Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Roman Catholic (Western and Eastern Rites), Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox churches. He is immortalized in the tale of Saint George and the dragon and is one of the fourteen holy helpers. His feast is celebrated on 23 April and he is one of the most prominent military saints.

Many patronages of Saint George exist around the world, including those of: England, Georgia, Egypt, Bulgaria, Aragon, Catalonia, Romania, Ethiopia, Greece, India, Iraq, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, Serbia, Ukraine and Russia, as well as the cities of Genoa, Amersfoort, Beirut, Fakiha, Bteghrine, Cáceres, Ferrara, Freiburg, Kumanovo, Ljubljana, Pomorie, Preston, Qormi, Rio de Janeiro, Lod, Lviv, Barcelona, Moscow, Tamworth and the Maltese island of Gozo, as well as the Scout Movement[3] and a wide range of professions, organizations and patients.

Life of Saint George

Historians have debated the exact details of the birth of Saint George for over a century, although the approximate date of his death is subject to little debate.[4][5] The Catholic Encyclopedia takes the position that there seems to be no ground for doubting the historical existence of Saint George, but that little faith can be placed in some of the fanciful stories about him.[6]

The work of the Bollandists, Danile Paperbroch, Jean Bolland and Godfrey Henschen, in the seventeenth century was one of the first pieces of scholarly research to establish the historicity of the saint's existence, via their publications in Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca and paved the way for other scholars to dismiss the medieval legends.[7][8] Pope Gelasius stated that George was among those saints "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose actions are known only to God."[9]

The traditional legends have offered a historicized narration of George's encounter with a dragon: see "St. George and the dragon" below. The modern legend that follows below is synthesized from early and late hagiographical sources, omitting the more fantastical episodes, to narrate a purely human military career in closer harmony with modern expectations of reality. Chief among the legendary sources about the saint is the Golden Legend, which remains the most familiar version in English owing to William Caxton's 15th-century translation.[10]

It is likely that Saint George was born to a Christian noble family in Lod, Syria Palaestina, during the late third century between about 275 AD and 285 AD, and he died in Nicomedia.[1][2] His father, Gerontius, was a Roman army official from Cappadocia and his mother, Polychronia, was from Palestine. They were both Christians and from noble families of Anici, so the child was raised with Christian beliefs. They decided to call him Georgius, meaning 'worker of the land'. At the age of fourteen George lost his father; a few years later George's mother, Polychronia, died.[11][12][13][14] Eastern accounts give the names of his parents as Anastasius and Theobaste.

Then George decided to go to Nicomedia, the administrative capital of the eastern empire, and present himself to Emperor Diocletian in hope of a military appointment. Diocletian welcomed him with open arms, as he had known his father, Gerontius — one of his finest soldiers. By his late twenties, George had been promoted to the rank of tribunus militum and stationed as an imperial guard of the emperor at Nicomedia.[15]

In the year AD 302, Diocletian (influenced by Galerius) issued an edict that every Christian soldier in the army should be arrested and every other soldier should offer a sacrifice to the Roman gods of the time. However George dissented and with the courage of his faith approached the emperor. Diocletian was upset, not wanting to lose his best tribune and the son of his best official, Gerontius. George loudly denounced the emperor's edict, and in front of his fellow soldiers and military tribunes professed himself a Christian and confessed his worship of Jesus Christ. Diocletian attempted to convert George, even offering gifts of land, money and slaves if he made a sacrifice to the Roman gods. The Emperor made many offers, but George never accepted.[16]

Finally, recognizing the futility of his efforts, Diocletian commanded that George be executed for his refusal. Before the execution George gave his wealth to the poor and prepared himself. After various torture sessions, including laceration on a wheel of swords in which he was resuscitated three times, George was executed by decapitation before Nicomedia's city wall, on April 23, 303. A witness of his suffering convinced Empress Alexandra and Athanasius, a pagan priest, to become Christians as well, and so they joined George in martyrdom. His body was returned to Lydda in Palestine for burial, where Christians soon came to honour him as a martyr.[17][18]:166

Although the above distillation of the legend of George connects him to the conversion of Athanasius, who according to Rufinus was brought up by Christian ecclesiastical authorities from a very early age,[19] Edward Gibbon[20][21] argued that George, or at least the legend from which the above is distilled, is based on George of Cappadocia,[22][23] a notorious Arian bishop who was Athanasius' most bitter rival, who in time became Saint George of England. According to Professor Bury, Gibbon's latest editor, "this theory of Gibbon's has nothing to be said for it". He adds that: "the connection of St. George with a dragon-slaying legend does not relegate him to the region of the myth".[24]

In 1856 Ralph Waldo Emerson published a book of essays entitled "English Traits". In it, he wrote a paragraph on the history of Saint George. Emerson compared the legend of Saint George to the legend of Amerigo Vespucci, calling the former "an impostor" and the latter "a thief".[25][26] The editorial notes appended to the 1904 edition of Emerson's complete works state that Emerson based his account on the work of Gibbon, and that current evidence seems to show that real St. George was not George the Arian of Cappadocia.[25] Merton M. Sealts also quotes Edward Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson's youngest son as stating that he believed his father's account was derived from Gibbon and that the real St. George "was apparently another who died two generations earlier".[27]

Saint George and the dragon

Eastern Orthodox depictions of Saint George slaying a dragon often include the image of the young maiden who looks on from a distance. The standard iconographic interpretation of the image icon is that the dragon represents both Satan (Rev. 12:3) and the Roman Empire. The young maiden is none other than the wife of Diocletian, Alexandra. Thus, the image as interpreted through the language of Byzantine Iconography, is an image of the martyrdom of the saint.

The episode of St George and the Dragon was a legend[28] brought back with the Crusaders and retold with the courtly appurtenances belonging to the genre of Romance. The earliest known depiction of the legend is from early eleventh-century Cappadocia, (in the iconography of the Eastern Orthodox Church, George had been depicted as a soldier since at least the seventh century); the earliest known surviving narrative text is an eleventh-century Georgian text.

In the fully developed Western version, which developed as part of the Golden Legend, a dragon or crocodile makes its nest at the spring that provides water for the city of "Silene" (perhaps modern Cyrene in Libya or the city of Lydda in the Holy Land, depending on the source). Consequently, the citizens have to dislodge the dragon from its nest for a time, to collect water. To do so, each day they offer the dragon at first a sheep, and if no sheep can be found, then a maiden must go instead of the sheep. The victim is chosen by drawing lots. One day, this happens to be the princess. The monarch begs for her life to be spared, but to no avail. She is offered to the dragon, but there appears Saint George on his travels. He faces the dragon, protects himself with the sign of the Cross,[29] slays the dragon, and rescues the princess. The grateful citizens abandon their ancestral paganism and convert to Christianity.

The dragon motif was first combined with the standardised Passio Georgii in Vincent of Beauvais' encyclopaedic Speculum historale and then in Jacobus de Voragine, Golden Legend, which guaranteed its popularity in the later Middle Ages as a literary and pictorial subject.

The parallels with Perseus and Andromeda are inescapable. In the allegorical reading, the dragon embodies a suppressed pagan cult.[30] The story has other roots that predate Christianity. Examples such as Sabazios, the sky father, who was usually depicted riding on horseback, and Zeus's defeat of Typhon the Titan in Greek mythology, along with examples from Germanic and Vedic traditions, have led a number of historians, such as Loomis, to suggest that George is a Christianized version of older deities in Indo-European culture.

In the medieval romances, the lance with which St George slew the dragon was called Ascalon, named after the city of Ashkelon in the Levant.[31]

Veneration as a martyr

A church built in Lydda during the reign of Constantine I (reigned 306–37), was consecrated to "a man of the highest distinction", according to the church history of Eusebius of Caesarea; the name of the patron[32] was not disclosed, but later he was asserted to have been George.

By the time of the Muslim conquest in the seventh century, a basilica dedicated to the saint in Lydda existed.[33] The church was destroyed in 1010 but was later rebuilt and dedicated to Saint George by the Crusaders. In 1191 and during the conflict known as the Third Crusade (1189–92), the church was again destroyed by the forces of Saladin, Sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty (reigned 1171–93). A new church was erected in 1872 and is still standing.

During the fourth century the veneration of George spread from Palestine through Lebanon to the rest of the Eastern Roman Empire – though the martyr is not mentioned in the Syriac Breviarium[18] – and Georgia. In Georgia the feast day on November 23 is credited to St Nino of Cappadocia, who in Georgian hagiography is a relative of St George, credited with bringing Christianity to the Georgians in the fourth century. By the fifth century, the cult of Saint George had reached the Western Roman Empire as well: in 494, George was canonized as a saint by Pope Gelasius I, among those "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to [God]."

In England the earliest dedication to George, who was mentioned among the martyrs by Bede, is a church at Fordington, Dorset, that is mentioned in the wars of Alfred the Great. "Saint George and his feast day began to gain more widespread fame among all Europeans, however, from the time of the Crusades."[34] The St. George's flag, a red cross on a white field, was adopted by England and the City of London in 1190 for their ships entering the Mediterranean to benefit from the protection of the Genoese fleet during the Crusades and the English Monarch paid an annual tribute to the Doge of Genoa for this privilege.[citation needed] An apparition of George heartened the Franks at the siege of Antioch, 1098, and made a similar appearance the following year at Jerusalem. Chivalric military Order of St. George were established in Aragon (1201), Genoa, Hungary, and by Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor,[35] and in England the Synod of Oxford, 1222 declared St George's Day a feast day in the kingdom of England. Edward III put his Order of the Garter under the banner of St. George, probably in 1348. The chronicler Froissart observed the English invoking St. George as a battle cry on several occasions during the Hundred Years' War. In his rise as a national saint George was aided by the very fact that the saint had no legendary connection with England, and no specifically localized shrine, as of Thomas Becket at Canterbury: "Consequently, numerous shrines were established during the late fifteenth century," Muriel C. McClendon has written,[36] "and his did not become closely identified with a particular occupation or with the cure of a specific malady."

The establishment of George as a popular saint and protective giant[37] in the West that had captured the medieval imagination was codified by the official elevation of his feast to a festum duplex[38] at a church council in 1415, on the date that had become associated with his martyrdom, 23 April. There was wide latitude from community to community in celebration of the day across late medieval and early modern England,[39] and no uniform "national" celebration elsewhere, a token of the popular and vernacular nature of George's cultus and its local horizons, supported by a local guild or confraternity under George's protection, or the dedication of a local church. When the Reformation in England severely curtailed the saints' days in the calendar, St. George's Day was among the holidays that continued to be observed.

Sources

The Coat of Arms of Moscow depicts a horseman often informally identified with Saint George.According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the earliest text preserving fragments of George's narrative is in an Acta Sanctorum identified by Hippolyte Delehaye of the scholarly Bollandists to be a palimpsest of the fifth century. However, this Acta Sancti Georgii was soon banned as heresy by Pope Gelasius I (in 496).

The compiler of this Acta, according to Hippolyte Delehaye "confused the martyr with his namesake, the celebrated George of Cappadocia, the Arian intruder into the see of Alexandria and enemy of St. Athanasius". A critical edition of a Syriac Acta of Saint George, accompanied by an annotated English translation was published by E.W. Brooks (1863–1955) in 1925. The hagiography was originally written in Greek.

In Sweden, the princess rescued by Saint George is held to represent the kingdom of Sweden, while the dragon represents an invading army. Several sculptures of Saint George battling the dragon can be found in Stockholm, the earliest inside Storkyrkan ("The Great Church") in the Old Town.

The façade of architect Antoni Gaudi's famous Casa Batlló in Barcelona, Spain depicts this allegory.

In Islamic cultures Saint George is somewhat of an exception among saints and legends, in that he is known and venerated by Muslims, as well as Christians throughout the Middle East, from Egypt to Asia Minor.[40] His stature in these regions derives from the fact that his figure has become somewhat of a composite character mixing elements from Biblical, Koranic and folkloric sources, at times being partially identified with Al-Khidr.[40] He is said to have killed a dragon near the sea in Beirut and at the beginning of the 20th century Muslim women used to visit his shrine in the area to pray to him.[40]

Feast days

In the General Calendar of the Roman Rite the feast of Saint George is on April 23. In the Tridentine Calendar it was given the rank of "Semi-double". In Pope Pius XII's 1955 calendar this rank is reduced to "Simple". In Pope John XXIII's 1960 calendar the celebration to just a "Commemoration". In Pope Paul VI's 1969 calendar it is raised to the level of an optional "Memorial". In some countries, such as England, the rank is higher.

St George is very much honoured by the Eastern Orthodox Church, wherein he is referred to as a "Great Martyr", and in Oriental Orthodoxy overall. His major feast day is on April 23 (Julian Calendar April 23 currently corresponds to Gregorian Calendar May 6). If, however, the feast occurs before Easter, it is celebrated on Easter Monday instead. The Russian Orthodox Church also celebrates two additional feasts in honour of St. George: one on November 3 commemorating the consecration of a cathedral dedicated to him in Lydda during the reign Constantine the Great (305–37). When the church was consecrated, the relics of the St. George were transferred there. The other feast on November 26 for a church dedicated to him in Kiev, ca. 1054.

In Egypt the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria refers to St George as the "Prince of Martyrs" and celebrates his martyrdom on the 23rd of Paremhat of the Coptic Calendar equivalent to May 1. The Copts also celebrate the consecration of the first church dedicated to him on June 10.

Patronages

A highly celebrated saint in both the Western and Eastern Christian churches, a large number of Patronages of Saint George exist throughout the world.[41]

St. George is the patron saint of England; his cross forms the national flag of England, and features within the Union Flag of the United Kingdom. Traces of the cult of Saint George in England pre-date the Norman Conquest in the eleventh century; by the fourteenth century the saint had been declared both the patron saint and the protector of the royal family.[42]

The country of Georgia, where devotions to the saint date back to the fourth century, is not technically named after the saint, but is a well-attested backward derivation of the English name. However, a large number of towns and cities around the world are. Saint George is one of the patron Saints of Georgia; the name Georgia (Sakartvelo in Georgian) is an anglicisation of Gurj, derived from the Persian word for the frightening and heroic people in that territory.[43] However, chronicles describing the land as Georgie or Georgia in French and English, date from the early Middle Ages "because of their special reverence for Saint George",[44] but these accounts have been seen as folk etymology; compare Land of Prester John.

There are exactly 365 Orthodox churches in Georgia named after Saint George according to the number of days in a year. According to myth, St. George was cut into 365 pieces after he fell in battle and every single piece was spread throughout the entire country.[45][46][47] According to another myth, Saint George appeared in person during the Battle of Didgori to support the Georgian victory over the Seldjuk army and the Georgian uprising against Persian rule. Saint George is considered by many Georgians to have special meaning as a symbol of national liberation.[48]

Devotions to Saint George in Portugal date back to the twelfth century, and Saint Constable attributed the victory of the Portuguese in the battle of Aljubarrota in the fourteenth century to Saint George. During the reign of King John I (1357–1433) Saint George became the patron saint of Portugal and the King ordered that the saint's image on the horse be carried in the Corpus Christi procession. In fact, the Portuguese Army motto means Portugal and Saint George, in perils and in efforts of war.[49]

Saint George is also one of the patron saints of the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo. In a battle between the Maltese and the Moors, Saint George was alleged to have been seen with Saint Paul and Saint Agata, protecting the Maltese. Besides being the patron of Victoria where St. George's Basilica, Malta is dedicated to him, St George is the protector of the island of Gozo.[50]

Colours and flag

The "Colours of Saint George", or St George's Cross are a white flag with a red cross, frequently borne by entities over which he is patron (e.g. the Republic of Genoa and then Liguria, England, Georgia, Catalonia, Aragon, etc).

The cross was originally the personal flag of another saint and key Christian figure, St. Ambrose. Adopted by the city of Milan (of which he was Archbishop) at least as early as the Ninth century, its use spread over Northern Italy including Genoa. Genoa's patron saint was St. George and through the flag's use by the vast Genoese trading fleet, the association was carried throughout Europe.

The same colour scheme was used by Viktor Vasnetsov for the façade of the Tretyakov Gallery, in which some of the most famous St. George icons are exhibited and which displays St. George as the coat of arms of Moscow over its entrance.

In 1606, the flag of England (St George's Cross), and the flag of Scotland (St Andrew's Cross), were joined together to create the Union flag.[57]

Iconography and models

St George is most commonly depicted in early icons, mosaics and frescos wearing armour contemporary with the depiction, executed in gilding and silver colour, intended to identify him as a Roman soldier. After the Fall of Constantinople and the association of St George with the crusades, he is more often portrayed mounted upon a white horse.

At the same time St George began to be associated with St. Demetrius, another early soldier saint. When the two saints are portrayed together mounted upon horses, they may be likened to earthly manifestations of the archangels Michael and Gabriel. St George is always depicted in Eastern traditions upon a white horse and St. Demetrius on a red horse[58] St George can also be identified in the act of spearing a dragon, unlike St Demetrius, who is sometimes shown spearing a human figure, understood to represent Maximian.

A 2003 Vatican stamp issued on the anniversary of the Saint's death depicts an armoured Saint George atop a white horse, killing the dragon.[59]

During the early second millennium, George came to be seen as the model of chivalry, and during this time was depicted in works of literature, such as the medieval romances.

Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, compiled the Legenda Sanctorum, (Readings of the Saints) also known as Legenda Aurea (the Golden Legend) for its worth among readers. Its 177 chapters (182 in other editions) contain the story of Saint George.

Some Russians interpret the icon not as a killing but as a struggle, against ourselves and the evil among us. The dragon never actually dies but the saint perseveres, with his horse (the will and support of the people) and his spear (technical means) in his fight. Within the Eastern Orthodox church tradition one finds icons of St.George on a black horse, such as at least one in the British Museum.

Notes

1.^ a b c Foakes-Jackson, FJ (2005), A History of the Christian Church, Cosimo Press, p. 461, ISBN 1-59605-452-2 .

2.^ a b c Ball, Ann (2003), Encyclopedia of Catholic Devotions and Practices, p. 568, ISBN 0-87973-910-X .

3.^ Baden-Powell, Robert (1908). Scouting for Boys. Horace Cox. ASIN B001IWO5VO. , Yarn No. 20 - Chivalry to others

4.^ Mills, Charles (1825), The History of Chivalry, Longman, Rees, p. 9 .

5.^ Spenser, Edmund (1998), Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves, Cannon Press, p. 196, ISBN 978-1-885767-39-4 .

6.^ "St. George". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.

7.^ Walter, Christopher (2003), The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition, Ashgate Publishing, p. 110, ISBN 1-84014-694-X

8.^ Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca 271, 272.

9.^ "Saint George", Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911, "In the canon of Pope Gelasius (494) George is mentioned in a list of those "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God""

10.^ De Voragine, Jacobus (1995), The Golden Legend, Princeton University Press, p. 238, ISBN 978-0-691-00153-1 .

11.^ Murray, J (1863), Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom, Royal Society of Literature, p. 133

12.^ Heylin, A (1862), The Journal of Sacred Literature and Biblical Record, 1, p. 244 .

13.^ Darch, John H (2006), Saints on Earth, Church House Press, p. 56, ISBN 978-0-7151-4036-9 .

14.^ Walter, Christopher (2003), The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition, Ashgate Publishing, p. 112, ISBN 1-84014-694-X .

15.^ Smith, William (1867), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Little Brown & Co, p. 249 .

16.^ Gibbs, Margaret (1971), Saints beyond the White Cliffs, Ayer Press, p. 2, ISBN 0-8369-8058-1 .

17.^ Hackwood, Fred (2003), Christ Lore the Legends, Traditions, Myths, Kessinger Publishing, p. 255, ISBN 0-7661-3656-6 .

18.^ a b Butler, Alban (2008), Lives of the Saints, ISBN 1-4375-1281-X .

19.^ Tyrannius Rufinus, History of the Church, 1:14

20.^ Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 2:23:5

21.^ Richardson, Robert D; Moser, Barry, eds. (1996), Emerson, p. 520, "George of Cappadocia… [held] the contract to supply the army with bacon… embraced Arianism… [and was] promoted… to the episcopal throne of Alexandria… When Julian came, George was dragged to prison, the prison was burst open by a mob, and George was lynched… [he] became in good time Saint George of England" .

22.^ Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 2:23:5

23.^ "Saint George", Catholic Encyclopedia, "it is not improbable that the apocryphal Acts have borrowed some incidents from the story of the Arian bishop" .

24.^ "Catholic encyclopedia on Gibbons and Saint George". Newadvent.org. 1909-09-01. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06453a.htm. Retrieved 2011-04-23.

25.^ a b The complete works of Ralph Waldo Emerson by Edward Waldo Emerson, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1904, page 355

26.^ Text of the essay at bartleby.com

27.^ Journals & Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Merton M. Sealts Jr. 1973 ISBN 0674484738 page 168

28.^ Robertson developed by Crusaders returned from the Holy Lands. The Medieval Saints' Lives (pp 51–52) suggested that the dragon motif was transferred to the George legend from that of his fellow soldier saint, Saint Theodore Tiro. The Roman Catholic writer Alban Butler (Lives of the Saints) credited the motif as a late addition: "It should be noted, however, that the story of the dragon, though given so much prominence, was a later accretion, of which we have no sure traces before the twelfth century. This puts out of court the attempts made by many folklorists to present St. George as no more than a christianized survival of pagan mythology."

29.^ "He drew out his sword and garnished him with the sign of the cross, and rose hardily against the dragon which came toward him, and smote him with his spear and hurt him sore, and threw him to the ground", according to Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend: or Lives of the Saints as Englished by William Caxton, F.S. Ellis, ed. (London, 1900), vol. III:123–45), quotation p. 128.

30.^ Loomis 1948:65 and notes 111–17, giving references to other saints' encounters with dragons. "To Loomis's list might be added the stories of Martha . . . and Silvester, which is vigorously summarized (from a fifth-century version of the Actus Silvestri) by the early English writer, Aldhelm, abbot of Malmesbury (639–709), in his De Virginitate (see Aldhelm: The Prose Works, pp. 82–83). On dragons and saints, see now Rauer, Beowulf and the Dragon." Saint Mercurialis, the first bishop of the city of Forlì, in Romagna, is often portrayed in the act of killing a dragon.

31.^ Incidentally, the name Ascalon was used by Winston Churchill for his personal aircraft during World War II, according to records at Bletchley Park.

32.^ For patrons of fourth-century churches, see titulus.

33.^ Pringle, Denys (1998), The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, Cambridge University Press, p. 25, ISBN 0-521-39037-0 .

34.^ McClendon 1999:6.

35.^ Catholic Encyclopedia 1913, s.v. "Orders of St. George" omits Genoa and Hungary: see David Scott Fox, Saint George: The Saint with Three Faces (1983:59–63, 98–123), noted by McClellan 999:6 note 13. Additional Orders of St. George were founded in the eighteenth century (Catholic Encyclopedia).

36.^ McClendon 1999:10.

37.^ Erasmus, in The Praise of Folly (1509, printed 1511) remarked "The Christians have now their gigantic St. George, as well as the pagans had their Hercules."

38.^ Only the most essential work might be done on a festum duplex

39.^ Muriel C. McClendon, "A Moveable Feast: Saint George's Day Celebrations and Religious Change in Early Modern England" The Journal of British Studies 38.1 (January 1999:1–27).

40.^ a b c Religion and Culture in Medieval Islam by Richard G. Hovannisian, Georges Sabagh 2000 ISBN 0521623502, Cambridge University Press pages 109-110

41.^ Seal, Graham (2001), Encyclopedia of folk heroes, p. 85, ISBN 1-57607-216-9 .

42.^ Hinds, Kathryn (2001), Medieval England, Marshall Cavendish, p. 44, ISBN 0-7614-0308-6 .

43.^ Spilling, Michael (2008), Georgia, Winnie Wong, p. 63, ISBN 0761430334 .

44.^ David Marshall Lang, The Georgians, (New York: Frederick A Praeger, 1966), 17–18. The terms Georgia and Georgians appeared in Western Europe in numerous early medieval annals. The French chronicler Jacques de Vitry and the English traveller Sir John Mandeville wrote that Georgians are called Georgian because they especially revere Saint George.

45.^ Gabidzashvili, Enriko (1991), Saint George: In Ancient Georgian Literature, Tbilisi, Georgia: Armazi – 89 .

46.^ Foakes-Jackson, FJ (2005), A History of the Christian Church, p. 556, ISBN 1-59605-452-2 .

47.^ Eastmond, Antony (1998), Royal Imagery in Medieval Georgia, Penn State Press, p. 119, ISBN 0-271-01628-0 .

48.^ The Saint George's Victory order, among other civilian and military decorations, is one of the highest decorations in Georgia.

49.^ de Oliveira Marques, AH; André, Vítor; Wyatt, SS (1971), Daily Life in Portugal in the Late Middle Ages, University of Wisconsin Press, p. 216, ISBN 0-299-05584-1 .

50.^ de Bles, Arthur (2004), How to Distinguish the Saints in Art, p. 86, ISBN 1-4179-0870-X .

57.^ British flags, from the Flag Institute site. Accessed 2 May 2007

58.^ The red pigment may appear black if it has bitumenized.

59.^ "Vatican stamps". Vaticanstate.va. http://www.vaticanstate.va/EN/Services/Philatelic_and_Numismatic_Office/_listing_emissioni--id--Shop%20Francobolli--cat--2003.htm. Retrieved 2011-04-23.

BNP candidates down by 93% in Wales

Vote 2012: BNP blames finances for fewer Welsh council candidates

19 April 2012

A big drop in the number of British National Party (BNP) candidates standing at next month's local elections in Wales has been blamed on recent financial problems.

The party is fielding two candidates, down from 29 last time in 2008.

The BNP said the decline followed cuts it had had to make, but that the party was recovering.

A spokesman said it was focusing resources on the London mayoral election, where it hopes to do well.

The last time Wales' 1,200 council seats were contested four years ago the BNP had candidates standing for 10 councils.

On 3 May there will be one candidate in Blaenau Gwent and another in Wrexham.

The BNP has faced debts following court cases brought against it, including one by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Out-of-court settlement

It also had to pay an out-of-court settlement to Marmite for using a jar of the spread in a party broadcast.

We have had to cut back, modify and pay back various bits and bobs... that's manifested itself in the number of candidates we are able to put up said Simon Darby, BNP deputy leader.

Leader Nick Griffin, who became an MEP in 2009, has also had to see off a challenge to his position.

At last year's Welsh assembly election the BNP received more than 29,000 votes, a 1.6% share.

Jeff Hurford, secretary of Unite Against Fascism (UAF) Wales, said the BNP had failed to make an electoral breakthrough in Wales.

Mr Hurford, a member of the Socialist Workers Party, said: "It's a severe decline [in candidates]. It's difficult to see that the BNP is going to recover".

BNP media spokesman Simon Darby said: "For the last two years we have had to cut back, modify and pay back various bits and bobs. That's manifested itself in the number of candidates we are able to put up.

"The fact is that we have struggled with one or two things over the last year, including the leadership challenge."

Although the leadership contest had been "quite a bitter feud... that's over and done with", he said.

He claimed that the party's finances were recovering, thanks to a legacy from a supporter.

BBC

Uncommon stiff an' slow

The 'eathen


By Rudyard Kipling


The 'eathen in 'is blindness bows down to wood an' stone;

'E don't obey no orders unless they is 'is own;

'E keeps 'is side-arms awful: 'e leaves 'em all about,

An' then comes up the Regiment an' pokes the 'eathen out.



All along o' dirtiness, all along o' mess,

All along o' doin' things rather-more-or-less,

All along of abby-nay, kul, an' hazar-ho,

Mind you keep your rifle an' yourself  jus' so!



The young recruit is 'aughty -- 'e draf's from Gawd knows where;

They bid 'im show 'is stockin's an' lay 'is mattress square;

'E calls it bloomin' nonsense -- 'e doesn't know, no more --

An' then up comes 'is Company an 'kicks 'im round the floor!



The young recruit is 'ammered -- 'e takes it very hard;

'E 'angs 'is 'ead an' mutters -- 'e sulks about the yard;

'E talks o' "cruel tyrants" which 'e'll swing for by-an'-by,

An' the others 'ears an' mocks 'im, an' the boy goes orf to cry.



The young recruit is silly -- 'e thinks o' suicide.

'E's lost 'is gutter-devil; 'e 'asn't got 'is pride;

But day by day they kicks 'im, which 'elps 'im on a bit,

Till 'e finds 'isself one mornin' with a full an' proper kit.



Gettin' clear o' dirtiness, gettin' done with mess,

Gettin' shut o' doin' things rather-more-or-less;

Not so fond of abby-nay, kul, nor hazar-ho,

Learns to keep 'is rifle an 'isself  jus' so!



The young recruit is 'appy -- 'e throws a chest to suit;

You see 'im grow mustaches; you 'ear 'im slap' is boot.

'E learns to drop the "bloodies" from every word 'e slings,

An 'e shows an 'ealthy brisket when 'e strips for bars an' rings.



The cruel-tyrant-sergeants they watch 'im 'arf a year;

They watch 'im with 'is comrades, they watch 'im with 'is beer;

They watch 'im with the women at the regimental dance,

And the cruel-tyrant-sergeants send 'is name along for "Lance."



An' now 'e's 'arf o' nothin', an' all a private yet,

'Is room they up an' rags 'im to see what they will get.

They rags 'im low an' cunnin', each dirty trick they can,

But 'e learns to sweat 'is temper an 'e learns to sweat 'is man.



An', last, a Colour-Sergeant, as such to be obeyed,

'E schools 'is men at cricket, 'e tells 'em on parade,

They sees 'im quick an 'andy, uncommon set an' smart,

An' so 'e talks to orficers which 'ave the Core at 'eart.



'E learns to do 'is watchin' without it showin' plain;

'E learns to save a dummy, an' shove 'im straight again;

'E learns to check a ranker that's buyin' leave to shirk;

An 'e learns to make men like 'im so they'll learn to like their work.



An' when it comes to marchin' he'll see their socks are right,

An' when it comes: to action 'e shows 'em how to sight.

'E knows their ways of thinkin' and just what's in their mind;

'E knows when they are takin' on an' when they've fell be'ind.



'E knows each talkin' corp'ral that leads a squad astray;

'E feels 'is innards 'eavin', 'is bowels givin' way;

'E sees the blue-white faces all tryin 'ard to grin,

An 'e stands an' waits an' suffers till it's time to cap 'em in.



An' now the hugly bullets come peckin' through the dust,

An' no one wants to face 'em, but every beggar must;

So, like a man in irons, which isn't glad to go,

They moves 'em off  by companies uncommon stiff an' slow.



Of all 'is five years' schoolin' they don't remember much

Excep' the not retreatin', the step an' keepin' touch.

It looks like teachin' wasted when they duck an' spread an 'op --

But if  'e 'adn't learned 'em they'd be all about the shop.



An' now it's "'Oo goes backward?" an' now it's "'Oo comes on?"

And now it's "Get the doolies," an' now the Captain's gone;

An' now it's bloody murder, but all the while they 'ear

'Is voice, the same as barrick-drill, a-shepherdin' the rear.



'E's just as sick as they are, 'is 'eart is like to split,

But 'e works 'em, works 'em, works 'em till he feels them take the bit;

The rest is 'oldin' steady till the watchful bugles play,

An 'e lifts 'em, lifts 'em, lifts 'em through the charge that wins the day!



The 'eathen in 'is blindness bows down to wood an' stone --

'E don't obey no orders unless they is 'is own.

The 'eathen in 'is blindness must end where 'e began

But the backbone of the Army is the Non-commissioned Man!



Keep away from dirtiness -- keep away from mess,

Don't get into doin' things rather-more-or-less!

Let's ha' done with abby-nay, kul, and hazar-ho;

Mind you keep your rifle an' yourself  jus' so!

Look to your front

The Young British Soldier


By Rudyard Kipling



When the 'arf-made recruity goes out to the East

'E acts like a babe an' 'e drinks like a beast,

An' 'e wonders because 'e is frequent deceased

Ere 'e's fit for to serve as a soldier.

Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,

Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,

Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,

So-oldier OF the Queen!



Now all you recruities what's drafted to-day,

You shut up your rag-box an' 'ark to my lay,

An' I'll sing you a soldier as far as I may:

A soldier what's fit for a soldier.

Fit, fit, fit for a soldier . . .



First mind you steer clear o' the grog-sellers' huts,

For they sell you Fixed Bay'nets that rots out your guts --

Ay, drink that 'ud eat the live steel from your butts --

An' it's bad for the young British soldier.

Bad, bad, bad for the soldier . . .



When the cholera comes -- as it will past a doubt --

Keep out of the wet and don't go on the shout,

For the sickness gets in as the liquor dies out,

An' it crumples the young British soldier.

Crum-, crum-, crumples the soldier . . .



But the worst o' your foes is the sun over'ead:

You must wear your 'elmet for all that is said:

If 'e finds you uncovered 'e'll knock you down dead,

An' you'll die like a fool of a soldier.

Fool, fool, fool of a soldier . . .



If you're cast for fatigue by a sergeant unkind,

Don't grouse like a woman nor crack on nor blind;

Be handy and civil, and then you will find

That it's beer for the young British soldier.

Beer, beer, beer for the soldier . . .



Now, if you must marry, take care she is old --

A troop-sergeant's widow's the nicest I'm told,

For beauty won't help if your rations is cold,

Nor love ain't enough for a soldier.

'Nough, 'nough, 'nough for a soldier . . .



If the wife should go wrong with a comrade, be loath

To shoot when you catch 'em -- you'll swing, on my oath! --

Make 'im take 'er and keep 'er: that's Hell for them both,

An' you're shut o' the curse of a soldier.

Curse, curse, curse of a soldier . . .



When first under fire an' you're wishful to duck,

Don't look nor take 'eed at the man that is struck,

Be thankful you're livin', and trust to your luck

And march to your front like a soldier.

Front, front, front like a soldier . . .



When 'arf of your bullets fly wide in the ditch,

Don't call your Martini a cross-eyed old bitch;

She's human as you are -- you treat her as sich,

An' she'll fight for the young British soldier.

Fight, fight, fight for the soldier . . .



When shakin' their bustles like ladies so fine,

The guns o' the enemy wheel into line,

Shoot low at the limbers an' don't mind the shine,

For noise never startles the soldier.

Start-, start-, startles the soldier . . .



If your officer's dead and the sergeants look white,

Remember it's ruin to run from a fight:

So take open order, lie down, and sit tight,

And wait for supports like a soldier.

Wait, wait, wait like a soldier . . .



When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,

And the women come out to cut up what remains,

Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains

An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.

Go, go, go like a soldier,

Go, go, go like a soldier,

Go, go, go like a soldier,

So-oldier of the Queen!

It's politics, not rocket science

In order for nationalism to progress, electorally, it needs to be both united and democratic. It will never be 100% united or 100% democratic, but it doesn't need to be. It just needs to be more united than divided and more democratic than autocratic.

One of the barriers to progress is represented by Griffin's stranglehold on nationalism's largest party. That is the major obstacle to nationalism's achieving internal democracy. Fortunately, there are indications that this particular obstacle may soon be overcome.

The other major obstacle to nationalist electoral success is nationalism's disunity. The key to overcoming this obstacle is to establish burgfrieden, (literally, fortress peace) amongst nationalists, such that relatively minor ideological differences are put on the back burner for the sake of progress on nationalism's common ground. If a new party were to be a 'broad church', welcoming recruits irrespective of their particular variety of nationalism, this institutional coming together might well lead on to the ideological synthesis which is also requisite for electoral success, on the scale that we must achieve, if we are to actualize policy.

A new party cannot afford to be too selective regarding whom it accepts into membership. Everyone of good character should be welcome. A political party is not a finishing school. Former 'internet attack dogs', for example, should benefit from a judicious amnesty. Even those formerly closest to the man responsible for ruining the BNP should be given the benefit of the doubt and a chance to redeem themselves.

I believe ideological synthesis to be eminently achievable. The two main viewpoints seem to me to be the two sides of a single coin. Neither point of view is completely right and neither is completely wrong. A synthesis would be closer to the truth, as well as pragmatically desirable.

BNP activists persecuted, BNP leadership "not interested"

A large and growing number of us are aware of the institutional racism of the 'mainstream' media, as an arm of the Establishment, against the English. That hostility extends to any political party that dares to speak out in defence of the English and the other indigenous peoples of the United Kingdom, such as the British National Party.

The Establishment-orchestrated attacks on the BNP naturally intensify as polling day approaches. Every intelligent British nationalist understands this.

What we find difficult to understand, though, is why there is no fightback by the party leadership. Simon Darby has briefly alluded, on his blog today, to the prosecutions of Michael Coleman and Dean Lowther, our sole candidate in Lincoln. But look at the main party web site and you will look in vain for any mention of this political persecution of our members by the Establishment.

Why?

Could it be because this persecution of the party's grass roots does not affect Griffin personally? And could it also be because Griffin erroneously believes that mounting a robust campaign, in defence of the activists concerned, might harm the 'immigrant friendly' image of the party that he is trying to project? As so often in the past, Griffin's contemptible moral cowardice has put the BNP on the back foot, when it ought to be on the offensive. Clearly, Griffin does not have a clue about how to lead a political party, as opposed to Britain's fastest shrinking self-appreciation society.

As Griffin sees it, Coleman and Lowther are expendable, along with everyone else, bar himself and the members of his extended family. Griffin is now quite useless and indeed worse than useless to nationalism.

Lest there be any doubt: incitement to racial hatred is not a criminal offence, notwithstanding what any number of journalists, jurists and other Establishment hirelings, may claim to the contrary. The reason it is not a crime is that it is a self-evident absurdity that incitement to a state of mind, namely hatred, should be an offence, when being in that state of mind in itself is not an offence.

Stoke-on-Trent BNP leader Michael Coleman on race charge

Saturday, 14 April, 2012

The Sentinel

BNP leader Michael Coleman has appeared in court on 'racism' charges.

The former councillor will go on trial accused of causing racial harassment over a seven-month period.

It is understood the allegations relate to comments made on the defendant's website.

The 45-year-old lost his Meir North seat on Stoke-on-Trent City Council in last May's elections.

But Coleman remains the controversial party's chief organiser in the city and presented an award to Stoke-on-Trent's BNP activist of the year during a Christmas party last December.

The BNP today refused to confirm whether Coleman's party membership had been suspended.

Asked about Coleman's court appearance, BNP national spokesman Simon Darby said: "I'm not interested." [Emphasis mine].

Coleman, of Caverswall Road, Weston Coyney, denied two charges of [causing] racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress, by words or writing, between August 2011 and March 2012, when he appeared at North Staffordshire Magistrates' Court. He requested a crown court trial.

BNP activist and former city councillor Steve Batkin, of Bentilee, said the party ordinarily suspends members pending the outcome of legal proceedings. [Why hasn't the national organizer, Adam Walker, been suspended, then?]

He said: "I haven't discussed the situation with Michael Coleman.

"He has carried on with things like leafleting, but to be honest there has been a lot of demoralization in the local party ever since the council group leader, Alby Walker left."

The BNP had nine seats in 2008/09 and was briefly the second biggest group on the council, earning Stoke-on-Trent the dubious title of the far right [sic] party's 'jewel in the crown' from national party chairman Nick Griffin MEP.

Its prominence in the city sparked national attention and the party twice used the city as a base for launching nationwide manifestos.

But numbers in the council chamber dwindled to five before last year's all-out elections, where it fielded just 10 candidates and won no seats.

Coleman picked up just 299 votes last May as he lost out to Labour's Ruth Rosenau.

Coleman's case will be committed to Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on May 24.

He was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Gigolo for hire

Affordable cars: time for a new vehicle?

Would you buy a used car from this man?

State persecution of the English steps up a gear as elections approach

No mention of the following on the main web site of the British National Party. When Griffin was charged with incitement to racial hatred he demanded full support from the party's members and he got it. But when it's one of the 'poor bloody infantry' in the frame he just turns a blind eye. Typical Griffin: one rule for him, another for everyone else. If you look up the term pious fraud in the dictionary it says: see Griffin.

Lincoln BNP candidate arrested over 'racist images' on Facebook page

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Echo Newsdesk

A British National Party candidate in Lincoln has been arrested over allegations of racist content on his Facebook page.

It was reported that anti-Islamic and other racist images and slogans appeared on the site of Dean Lowther, who is standing in Bracebridge ward in the city council elections.

Lincolnshire Police spokesman James Newall said: "Police have reviewed the material in question and a 45-year-old local man was arrested on suspicion of producing material inciting racial hatred in the south of the city this morning."

He has now been released on bail pending further enquiries until June 11.

This thing was not done in a corner

When I use a word it means what I want it to mean

The Origins of "Racism"

by Sam Francis

American Renaissance

May 1999

The curious beginnings of a useless word

The Oxford English Dictionary is a multivolume reference work that is one of Western scholarship's most remarkable achievements - the standard dictionary of the English language on what are known as "historical principles". Unlike most dictionaries, the OED also provides information on the first historical appearance and use of words. The range of the erudition in the OED is often astounding, but for AR readers, one of its most interesting entries is for the word "racism".

According to the second edition (1989) of the OED, the earliest known use of the word racism in English occurred in a 1936 book by the American "fascist", Lawrence Dennis, The Coming American Fascism. The second use of the term in English that the OED records is in the title of a book originally written in German in 1933 and 1934 but translated into English and first published in 1938 - Racism - by Magnus Hirschfeld, translated by Eden and Cedar Paul. Since Hirschfeld died in 1935, before the publication of Dennis' book the following year, and had already used the word extensively in the text and title of his own book, it seems only fair to recognize him rather than Dennis as the originator of the word racism [?]. In the case of the word racist as an adjective, the OED ascribes the first known use to Hirschfeld himself. Who was Magnus Hirschfeld and what did he have to tell us about "racism"?

Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935) was a German-Jewish medical scientist whose major work was in the field of what came to be known as "sexology" -- the scientific study of sex. Like Havelock Ellis in England and Alfred Kinsey in the United States, Hirschfeld was not only among the first to collect systematic information about sexuality but also was an apostle of sexual "liberation". His major work was a study of homosexuality, but he also published many other books, monographs, and articles dealing with sex. He wrote a five-volume treatise on "sexology" as well as some 150 other works and helped write and produce five films on the subject.

It is fair to say that his works were intended to send a message – that traditional Christian and bourgeois sexual morality was repressive, irrational, and hypocritical, and that emancipation would be a major step forward. His admiring translators, Eden and Cedar Paul, in their introduction to Racism, write of his "unwearying championship of the cause of persons who, because their sexual hormonic functioning is of an unusual type, are persecuted by their more fortunate fellow-mortals." Long before the "sexual revolution" of the 1960s, Magnus Hirschfeld was crusading for the "normalization" of homosexuality and other abnormal sexual behavior.

Hirschfeld was the founder of an Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin and helped organize "sexology" on an international scale. In 1922, he was physically attacked and almost killed by anti-Semites in Munich. In May, 1933, the Nazis closed down his "Institute of Sexual Science" and Hirschfeld fled to France, where he lived until his death in 1935.

Racism is largely devoted to a highly polemical "refutation" of some of the main racial ideologies and theories of the 19th and 20th centuries. The writers whom Hirschfeld criticized, aside from his favorite target of the National Socialists themselves, were figures like Arthur de Gobineau, Vacher de La-Pouge, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, and others generally denounced today as "pseudo-scientists". In fact, that is an inappropriate term. Some of them were not trying to write as scientists at all but rather as political theorists, while others are better described as pre-scientific writers on race who worked with inadequate information, concepts, methodology, and terminology. While Hirschfeld may have been correct in rejecting their more egregious errors, his sneering at them for these mistakes is rather like ridiculing Copernicus and Kepler because they continued to accept some erroneous ideas from medieval astronomy.

Even when Hirschfeld is right in his critique of the early race theorists, it is often because he has chosen easy targets. His "refutation" of "racism" is largely centered on irrelevant common-places that even extreme exponents of racial differences might readily acknowledge – that all human beings are part of the same species and can interbreed, that blood transfusions can take place between races, that "there is no such thing as a pure race," that the races are identical in the vast majority of physical characteristics, that cephalic index is not a meaningful measurement of intelligence or character, etc. Yet his "scientific" evidence is often merely anecdotal or simply his own opinion asserted as unquestioned truth.

In another section, he recounts the names of those he considers the 70 most outstanding figures in world history and announces that "all such lists, when made without bias, will show that persons of genius and persons of outstanding talent are not set apart from the ruck by any colour of their eyes, by a peculiar shape of the skull or the nose, by any 'ethnological' characteristics whatever. What is decisive in human beings is not race but individuality." It does not seem to occur to Hirschfeld that all but about 8 or 9 of the 70 world-historical figures on his list are white Europeans. There are no Negroes and only two Asians (Confucius and Sun Yat Sen). [Perhaps, then, Hirschfeld was a 'racist'].

It is interesting that for all his contempt for "racism", Hirschfeld never once mentions IQ studies or the considerable psychometric evidence about race and intelligence that was already available even in the 1930s. Most of Hirschfeld's polemic is aimed at the proponents of intra-European racial differences (Nordics, Alpines, Mediterraneans, Dinarics, etc.) and not at differences between whites and other major races (though he steadfastly denies such differences as well). Curiously, he never cites the work of Franz Boas and his disciples against "racism", though that work was available in Europe at the time, nor does he invoke the ideas of the Frankfurt School, though Hirschfeld's own claim that "racism" is rooted in fear, loss of self-esteem, and other social and psychological pathologies resembles the ideas the Frankfurt School was formulating.

Nor, despite Hirschfeld's own Jewish background and the Nazi threat to Jews, does he seem preoccupied with anti-Semitism; in one or two passages he criticizes Jews themselves for their own ethnocentrism and faults Zionism for having created a new "race hatred" between Jews and Arabs. Moreover, Hirschfeld is a stout defender of eugenics, though not on racial lines, and he even has a brief chapter exploring a distinction he calls "Gobinism or Galtonism" – that is, attacking the ideas of French "racist" Arthur de Gobineau and defending those of Francis Galton, who coined the word eugenics and pioneered its development. Today most critics of "racism" would lump Galton and Gobineau together rather than distinguish between them.

As a serious critique of the view that socially significant natural differences between the races exist, Hirschfeld's book is a failure, and even as a polemic against some of the more politicized and unverified claims about race made a century or more ago, it is weak. The importance of the book is not so much its content, however, as what it tells us about the word racism and how the enemies of white racial consciousness have developed and deployed it for their own purposes.

Hirschfeld describes his own political ideals as "Pan-Humanism," a version of political, cultural, and racial universalism. The Pauls themselves write, "we think that the readers of Racism will detect a very definite orientation to the Left. . . . [Hirschfeld] was one who fully realized that sexual reform is impossible without a preliminary economic and political revolution."

In Racism, Hirschfeld offers what is essentially a definition of "Pan-Humanism": "The individual, however close the ties of neighborhood, companionship, family, a common lot, language, education, and the environment of nation and country, can find only one dependable unity within which to seek a permanent spiritual kinship–that of humanity-at-large, that of the whole human race." With one exception, he is unsparing in his denunciations of the ethnocentric loyalties of nations, races, and cultures: "Always and everywhere, except in Soviet Russia, xenophobia, xenophobia, xenophobia." Later, he informs us, "It may be too early to speak, but perhaps the problem of nationalities and races has already been solved on one-sixth of the land-surface of the globe" [ie, Stalin's Russia].

Racism, therefore, is a term originating on the left [?], and has been so defined and loaded with meanings the left wants it to have that it cannot now be used by the supporters of white racial consciousness for any constructive purpose. Anyone who uses the term to describe himself or his own views has already allowed himself to be maneuvered onto his opponents' ground and has already lost the debate. He may try to define the word differently, but he will need to spend most of his time explaining that he does not mean by it what everyone else means. As a term useful for communicating ideas that the serious supporters of white racial consciousness wish to communicate, the term is useless, and it was intended by those who developed it that it be useless for that purpose.

But understanding the origins of the word racism in Hirschfeld's polemic also makes clear the uselessness of the word for any other purpose. No one seems ever to have used the word to describe his own ideas or ideas with which he agrees; its only application has been by the enemies of the ideas it purports to describe, and hence it has no objective meaning apart from its polemical usage. If no one calls his own ideas "racism" and its only application is to a body of ideas considered to be untrue and evil, then it has no use other than as a kind of fancy curse word, the purpose of which is simply to demonize anyone who expresses the ideas it is supposed to describe.

It is clear that Magnus Hirschfeld himself harbored deep ideological, professional, and personal animosities against those to whom he applied the word, and those animosities may have extended to the entire society that throughout his career he associated with sexual repression and which he wanted replaced by a kind of global communism under the label of "Pan-Humanism". Whatever the flaws or virtues of his polemic against "racism", his own opposition to racial consciousness was neither entirely rational nor disinterested. It is time that the enemies of racial, national, and cultural consciousness like Hirschfeld and the Frankfurt School cease to be able to claim a monopoly on rationality and sanity and that the obsessions and motivations that seem to shape their own ideologies and political behavior be subjected to the same scrutiny they apply to the societies and peoples whom their thinking could destroy.

Publicly funded political indoctrination

Dear All, feel free to publish the correspondence below.

You may be interested in this correspondence that has arisen as a result of my standing in the current London GLA election.

David Landau, of the Redbridge Equalities and Community Council - no less - is inviting all those candidates standing in the Borough of Redbridge in the current GLA election, publicly to condemn "Hatred" and "discrimination based on gender identity; race, skin colour, etc., etc., etc." All those candidates who refuse to endorse his condemnation of "Hatred" and "Discrimination", etc, etc, Mr David Landau threatens publicly to name and - presumably, 'shame'. In anticipation of this publicity, I have sent a copy of my letter to all the local media in the London Borough of Redbridge, together with my election leaflet, Tess's election leaflet, and her superb "Racism" - a word invented by the communist Leon Trotsky - leaflet. We will see what happens.

Richard

Letter from Richard Edmonds

date: 4th April, 2012

to: Mr David Landau, Senior Caseworker/ Project Co-ordinator

Redbridge Equalities and Community Council

Dear Sir

In your letter to me of the 2nd April, 2012, you invite me to condemn “hatred” and “discrimination”.

Now “hatred” can under some circumstances be absolutely, indeed vitally, justified. Hatred and Love can be opposite sides of the same coin: as somebody loves, so they would hate - and in equal measure - to see the object of their love in danger. This is the emotion that galvanizes a mother, when she sees her child in danger, of running into the road, for example: clearly she would hate to see her child injured.

As for “discrimination”: discrimination is the very essence of life, for example, when we choose our friends.

As for “Equality”: Yes, all men are equal in the eyes of God; and all men are equal, or should be, before the Law. However the political process that introduced the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, which I note funds your organization, introduced a monstrous thing into our civic life. I refer to their definition of a “Hate Crime”:

“A hate crime or incident is ANY behaviour that SOMEONE believes was caused by hostility, prejudice or hatred of disability; gender identity; race, skin colour, nationality, ethnicity or heritage; religion, faith or belief; or sexual orientation.” (My emphasis).

So by this definition, a “hate crime" “is ANY behaviour that SOMEONE believes...". On one level, this definition is meaningless: it could cover literally anything. On another level, it is a wicked, open invitation to ANYBODY to denounce ANYBODY ELSE.

Given that your Compact and your Declaration are redolent of, and indeed clearly based on, the definition of a “Hate Crime” that is promoted by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, I hereby decline my support.

Sincerely

Richard Edmonds, National Front candidate, Havering & Redbridge

We demand equal treatment for the ethnic majority



The forgotten Britons, clockwise from top left: Gavin Hopley, 19, murdered by racist Muslims in Oldham in 2002; Charlene Downes, 14, 'groomed' by Muslim paedophiles and almost certainly murdered, in Blackpool in 2003; Richard Everitt, 15, murdered by racist Muslims in north London in 1994; Ross Parker, 17, murdered by racist Muslims in Peterborough in 2001; Kriss Donald, 15, murdered by racist Muslims in Glasgow in 2004.

                                                  WE REMEMBER    

Credit: the Birmingham Patriot

BNP fields fewer than 150 candidates

Round-up of nationalist (and quasi-nationalist) party candidates in the English, Welsh and Scottish local elections* on 3 May 2012

4 BP = Britannica Party

6 BFP = British Freedom Party

128 BNP = British National Party

1 BPP = British People's Party

4 DN = Democratic Nationalists

1 EFP = England First Party

86 EDP = English Democrats

33 NF = National Front

East Midlands

Amber Valley BNP 5, NF 1

Daventry EDP 2

Derby BNP 3

Lincoln BNP 1

East of England

Basildon BFP 1, EDP 1, NF 1

Brentwood EDP 1

Epping Forest BNP 2, EDP 2

Maldon BNP 3

North Herts EDP 2

Rochford EDP 4

Peterborough EDP 1

Southend 10 EDP, NF 1

St Albans EDP 1

Three Rivers EDP 2

Thurrock NF 4, BNP 1

North East

Gateshead NF 1

Hartlepool BNP 1

Newcastle BNP 2

North Tyneside NF 1

South Tyneside BNP 8

Sunderland NF 1

North West

Bolton  EDP 3, BNP 1

Blackburn BNP 2

Burnley BNP 6

Bury EDP 2

Carlisle BNP 1

Knowsley NF 1

Liverpool BFP 5, EDP 5, BNP 2

Pendle BNP 4, EDP 1, DN 1

Preston EFP 1

Rochdale NF 1, EDP 1

Rossendale NF 1

Salford BNP 8

Stockport BNP 7

Tameside EDP 3, BNP 2

Wigan BNP 5

Wirral BNP 1

South East

Crawley BNP 1

Eastleigh EDP 2

Gosport BNP 1

Hastings BNP 2

Maidstone NF 1

South West

None

West Midlands

Birmingham BNP 18, NF 4, EDP 1

Cannock Chase BNP 1

Coventry BNP 11

Nuneaton BNP 8, EDP 1

Sandwell BNP 2 NF 1

Solihull EDP 5, BNP 1

Walsall EDP 3, BNP 2

Wolverhampton BNP 3

Yorkshire

Barnsley EDP 12, BNP 4

Bradford DN 2, BNP 1

Calderdale BPP 1

Doncaster EDP 7, DN 1

Hull NF 4

Kirklees EDP 1

Leeds EDP 11, BNP 1

Rotherham BNP 5

Sheffield EDP 1

Wakefield EDP 1

Scotland

Aberdeen NF 6

Glasgow BP 4

West Lothian NF 2

Wales

Blaenau Gwent BNP 1

Bridgend NF 1

Swansea NF 1

Wrexham BNP 1

* Greater London excluded: see Wikipedia article on mayoral and London Assembly elections for details of parties and candidates.

Source: Hope not hate [sic]

The Dawn Patrol (1938)

London's burning

Solidarity uses 'agitprop'

Agitprop

Agitprop ( /ˈædʒɨtprɒp/; from Russian: агитпроп [ɐɡʲɪtˈprop]) is derived from agitation and propaganda,[1] and describes stage plays, pamphlets, motion pictures and other art forms with an explicitly political message.

The term originated in Soviet Russia (the future USSR), as a shortened form of отдел агитации и пропаганды (otdel agitatsii i propagandy), i.e., Department for Agitation and Propaganda, which was part of the Central and regional committees of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The department was later renamed the Ideological Department.

The term propaganda in the Russian language did not bear any negative connotation at the time. It simply meant "dissemination of ideas". In the case of agitprop, the ideas to be disseminated were those of communism, including explanations of the policy of the Communist Party and the Soviet state. In other contexts, propaganda could mean dissemination of any kind of beneficial knowledge, e.g., of new methods in agriculture. Agitation meant urging people to do what Soviet leaders expected them to do; again, at various levels. In other words, propaganda was supposed to act on the mind, while agitation acted on emotions, although both usually went together, thus giving rise to the cliché "propaganda and agitation".

The term agitprop gave rise to agitprop theatre, a highly-politicized leftist theatre originating in 1920s Europe and spreading to America, the plays of Bertolt Brecht being a notable example.[2] Russian agitprop theatre was noted for its cardboard characters of perfect virtue and complete evil, and its coarse ridicule.[3] Gradually the term agitprop came to describe any kind of highly politicized art.

In the Western world, agitprop has a negative connotation. In the United Kingdom during the 1980s, for example, socialist elements of the political scene were often accused of using agitprop to convey an extreme left-wing message via television programmes or theatre.

After the October Revolution of 1917, an agitprop train toured the country, with artists and actors performing simple plays and broadcasting propaganda.[4] It had a printing press on board the train to allow posters to be reproduced and thrown out of the windows as it passed through villages.

Wikipedia