Ian Anderson (politician)
Encyclopedia
Ian Hugh Myddleton Anderson (1953 – 2 February 2011) was a leading figure on the British far-right in the 1980s and 1990s.
. Although now firmly associated with the far right, Anderson's involvement in politics began in the mid-1970s when he was close to certain elements on the right
of the Conservative Party
, particularly the Monday Club .
Anderson viewed himself as a 'respectable' figure in right wing circles and spent some time at the University of Oxford
on two separate occasions studying zoology
.
in the late 1970s and was initially seen as a supporter of National Organiser Martin Webster
. However when the Political Soldier
faction, led by figures such as Nick Griffin
and Derek Holland, moved against Webster and his assistant Michael Salt, Anderson sided with the rebels and used his casting vote to ensure that Webster and Salt were expelled for mismanagement.
Anderson became a close associate of Andrew Brons
and, like Brons, largely indulged the Political Soldiers faction, writing for the Third Position
ist party magazine Nationalism Today. He also played a leading role in working with Ian Stuart Donaldson
to ensure that Rock Against Communism
became the province of the NF rather than the British Movement
. As Anderson grew in influence within the NF divisions between the faction led by Brons and himself and the Political Soldiers grew, as Anderson was a strong supporter of electoral participation. He became one of the leading figures grouped around the dissident Flag newspaper (edited by Martin Wingfield
) and was expelled by the Official National Front
along with the rest of his faction in 1986, reconstituting as the Flag Group
. The divisions reached a crisis at the Vauxhall by-election
in 1989, where an NF candidate for each faction stood (Patrick Harrington
and Ted Budden
), splitting support and haranguing one another on live TV as the declaration of votes was made. Anderson, nonetheless, became a powerful figure within the Flag Group and by 1990 was effective leader, Andrew Brons having left the political scene.
In 1987, Troy Southgate
and Patrick Harrington
, acting for the NF's Security and Intelligence Department (SID), photographed Anderson in Stratford
, east London, when it was discovered that his printing business was housed in the same building as the offices of Searchlight
, an anti-fascist organisation.
With the Official NF having split into the International Third Position
and Third Way
, Anderson gained control of the NF in 1990 and attempted to remodel the party back along the lines of John O'Brien
in the early 1970s when they had appeared at one stage to be a potential threat to the mainstream parties. The spur for this was undoubtedly the success of the Front National. He had also attempted to gain contacts in the United States
and in 1989 he had established a link with Richard Barrett and the Nationalist Movement with a pact known as the 'New Atlantic Charter'. Anderson's NF suffered however from the inactivity and in-fighting of the 1980s, whilst the emergence of the British National Party
was also a major check on his ambitions as leader.
, after a postal ballot of the members. The launch was not without its problems however: within a month, many activists had joined the continuing National Front run by John McAuley.
Anderson maintained contacts in Northern Ireland
(which the Flag Group's Joe Pearce had built up during the 1980s), particularly within the right of the Ulster Unionist Party
and in the 1997 General Election
he stood as a candidate for the Londonderry East
constituency. Securing a mere 0.2% share of the vote in the constituency, Anderson soon abandoned his Northern Ireland strategy.
In 2004, he become a figure in community politics, campaigning for adult learning, local clean-ups, and more shops and fewer restaurants amongst other local campaigns. He was also involved in setting up the People's Campaign to Keep the Pound, along with Anthony Bennett
, a leading member of Robert Kilroy-Silk
's Veritas
.,
Anderson was the leader of the short-lived Epping Community Action Group, which was registered with the Electoral Commission
as a political party in April 2006. The group stood two candidates, including Anderson, for election to Epping Forest District Council in the 2007 local elections
, but came third in both wards. He gained 215 votes in the Epping Hemnall ward beating a British National Party
candidate by 68 votes.
Anderson was also involved in a number of other groups such as the Conservative Democratic Alliance
and the Swinton Circle
.
He died in Epping
in 2011 after a long fight with a brain tumour.
Early background
Anderson was born in HillingdonHillingdon
Hillingdon is a suburban area within the London Borough of Hillingdon, situated 14.2 miles west of Charing Cross.Much of Hillingdon is represented as the Hillingdon East ward within the local authority, Hillingdon Council...
. Although now firmly associated with the far right, Anderson's involvement in politics began in the mid-1970s when he was close to certain elements on the right
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
of the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
, particularly the Monday Club .
Anderson viewed himself as a 'respectable' figure in right wing circles and spent some time at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
on two separate occasions studying zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
.
National Front
Anderson joined the National FrontBritish National Front
The National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....
in the late 1970s and was initially seen as a supporter of National Organiser Martin Webster
Martin Webster
Martin Guy Alan Webster is a former leading figure on the far-right in British politics.-Early political activism:An early member of the Young Conservatives, from which he claimed to have been expelled, Webster was associated loosely with the League of Empire Loyalists until he joined the National...
. However when the Political Soldier
Political Soldier
Political Soldier is a political concept associated with the Third Position. It played a leading role in Britain's National Front from the late 1970s onwards under young radicals Nick Griffin, Patrick Harrington and Derek Holland of the Official National Front...
faction, led by figures such as Nick Griffin
Nick Griffin
Nicholas John "Nick" Griffin is a British politician, chairman of the British National Party and Member of the European Parliament for North West England....
and Derek Holland, moved against Webster and his assistant Michael Salt, Anderson sided with the rebels and used his casting vote to ensure that Webster and Salt were expelled for mismanagement.
Anderson became a close associate of Andrew Brons
Andrew Brons
Andrew Henry William Brons is a British politician. Long active in far right politics in Britain, he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber for the British National Party at the 2009 European Parliament election...
and, like Brons, largely indulged the Political Soldiers faction, writing for the Third Position
Third Position
Third Position is a revolutionary nationalist political ideology that emphasizes its opposition to both communism and capitalism. Advocates of Third Position politics typically present themselves as "beyond left and right", instead claiming to syncretize radical ideas from both ends of the...
ist party magazine Nationalism Today. He also played a leading role in working with Ian Stuart Donaldson
Ian Stuart Donaldson
Ian Stuart Donaldson was a British Neo-Nazi singer, musician and songwriter, most known as the frontman of Skrewdriver, a British punk rock band that later became a white power rock band...
to ensure that Rock Against Communism
Rock Against Communism
Rock Against Communism started out as series of white power rock concerts in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s, and is also a name for the subsequent music genre. Despite its name, RAC song lyrics rarely focus on the specific topic of anti-communism...
became the province of the NF rather than the British Movement
British Movement
The British Movement , later called the British National Socialist Movement , is a British neo-Nazi organisation founded by Colin Jordan in 1968. It grew out of the National Socialist Movement , which was founded in 1962...
. As Anderson grew in influence within the NF divisions between the faction led by Brons and himself and the Political Soldiers grew, as Anderson was a strong supporter of electoral participation. He became one of the leading figures grouped around the dissident Flag newspaper (edited by Martin Wingfield
Martin Wingfield
Martin Wingfield is a long-standing figure on the far right in British politics. He and his wife, Tina WIngfield, have contested several elections.-National Front:...
) and was expelled by the Official National Front
Official National Front
The Official National Front was one of two far-right groups to emerge in the United Kingdom in 1986 following a split within the National Front...
along with the rest of his faction in 1986, reconstituting as the Flag Group
Flag Group
The Flag Group was a British political party, formed from one of the two wings of the National Front in the 1980s. Formed in opposition to the Political Soldier wing of the Official National Front it took its name from The Flag, a newspaper the followers of this faction formed after leaving and...
. The divisions reached a crisis at the Vauxhall by-election
Vauxhall (UK Parliament constituency)
-Elections in the 1980s:-Elections in the 1970s:-Elections in the 1960s:-Notes and references:...
in 1989, where an NF candidate for each faction stood (Patrick Harrington
Patrick Harrington
Patrick "Pat" Harrington is a British Politician, currently General Secretary of Solidarity – The Union for British Workers an organisation affiliated to the British National Party, and a Director of the Third Way think-tank...
and Ted Budden
Ted Budden
Edward Budden was a veteran of the far right in the United Kingdom who was well known in such circles for his satirical columns that appeared in a number of publications down the years....
), splitting support and haranguing one another on live TV as the declaration of votes was made. Anderson, nonetheless, became a powerful figure within the Flag Group and by 1990 was effective leader, Andrew Brons having left the political scene.
In 1987, Troy Southgate
Troy Southgate
Troy Southgate is an author, musician and leading National-Anarchist activist based in the United Kingdom.-Politics:Originally from Crystal Palace, in South London, Southgate is of English-Scots descent and moved to the small village of Jarvis Brook, East Sussex, in his teenage years...
and Patrick Harrington
Patrick Harrington
Patrick "Pat" Harrington is a British Politician, currently General Secretary of Solidarity – The Union for British Workers an organisation affiliated to the British National Party, and a Director of the Third Way think-tank...
, acting for the NF's Security and Intelligence Department (SID), photographed Anderson in Stratford
Stratford, London
Stratford is a place in the London Borough of Newham, England. It is located east northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an agrarian settlement in the ancient parish of West Ham, which transformed into an industrial suburb...
, east London, when it was discovered that his printing business was housed in the same building as the offices of Searchlight
Searchlight
A searchlight is an apparatus that combines a bright light source with some form of curved reflector or other optics to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direction, usually constructed so that it can be swiveled about.-Military use:The Royal Navy used...
, an anti-fascist organisation.
With the Official NF having split into the International Third Position
International Third Position
International Third Position ' was a neo-fascist organization formed by the breakaway faction of the neofascist British National Front and Italian neofascists led by Roberto Fiore....
and Third Way
Third Way (UK)
The National Liberal Party – The Third Way is a United Kingdom political party that was formed on 17 March 1990 as The Third Way. In 2006, the Third Way registered the name National Liberal Party – The Third Way with the Electoral Commission....
, Anderson gained control of the NF in 1990 and attempted to remodel the party back along the lines of John O'Brien
John O'Brien (UK politician)
John O'Brien was a leading figure on the far right of British politics during the early 1970s.A fruit farmer by trade, O'Brien had initially been a member of the Conservative Party in Shrewsbury. A supporter of Enoch Powell, he attempted to organise a 'Powell for Premier' movement following the...
in the early 1970s when they had appeared at one stage to be a potential threat to the mainstream parties. The spur for this was undoubtedly the success of the Front National. He had also attempted to gain contacts in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and in 1989 he had established a link with Richard Barrett and the Nationalist Movement with a pact known as the 'New Atlantic Charter'. Anderson's NF suffered however from the inactivity and in-fighting of the 1980s, whilst the emergence of the British National Party
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
was also a major check on his ambitions as leader.
National Democrats
Anderson soon came to believe that the negative connotations of the National Front name were proving a bar to success and so in 1995 he relaunched the party as the National DemocratsNational Democrats (UK)
By the beginning of 2002 the party had ceased political activity. It continued as a pressure group under the name Campaign for National Democracy until 2008; the party officially ceased to exist after the death of its leader at the beginning of 2011....
, after a postal ballot of the members. The launch was not without its problems however: within a month, many activists had joined the continuing National Front run by John McAuley.
Anderson maintained contacts in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
(which the Flag Group's Joe Pearce had built up during the 1980s), particularly within the right of the Ulster Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
and in the 1997 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
he stood as a candidate for the Londonderry East
East Londonderry (UK Parliament constituency)
East Londonderry is a Parliamentary Constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons.-Boundaries:The seat was created in boundary changes in 1983, as part of an expansion of Northern Ireland's constituencies from 12 to 17, and was predominantly made up from the old Londonderry constituency...
constituency. Securing a mere 0.2% share of the vote in the constituency, Anderson soon abandoned his Northern Ireland strategy.
Later activities
The National Democrats became the Campaign for National Democracy pressure group and ceased actively contesting elections.In 2004, he become a figure in community politics, campaigning for adult learning, local clean-ups, and more shops and fewer restaurants amongst other local campaigns. He was also involved in setting up the People's Campaign to Keep the Pound, along with Anthony Bennett
Anthony Bennett (English politician)
Anthony John Stuart Bennett is an English politician and campaigner. He was a member of the British political party Veritas and was listed on the database of the Electoral Commission as official leader for three days, before the real leader was revealed as Robert Kilroy-Silk.In 2006, he began a...
, a leading member of Robert Kilroy-Silk
Robert Kilroy-Silk
Robert Michael Kilroy-Silk is an English former politician, former independent Member of the European Parliament, and former television presenter, best known for his daytime talk show Kilroy. He has been a university lecturer and Labour Party Member of Parliament...
's Veritas
Veritas (political party)
Veritas is a political party in the United Kingdom, formed in February 2005 at Hinckley golf club by politician-celebrity Robert Kilroy-Silk following a split from the United Kingdom Independence Party . Kilroy-Silk served as party leader from formation, through the 2005 General Election, until...
.,
Anderson was the leader of the short-lived Epping Community Action Group, which was registered with the Electoral Commission
Electoral Commission (United Kingdom)
The Electoral Commission is an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. It regulates party and election finance and sets standards for well-run elections...
as a political party in April 2006. The group stood two candidates, including Anderson, for election to Epping Forest District Council in the 2007 local elections
United Kingdom local elections, 2007
The 2007 UK local government elections were held on 3 May 2007. These elections took place in most of England and all of Scotland. There were no local government elections in Wales though the Welsh Assembly had a general election on the same day. There were no local government elections in Northern...
, but came third in both wards. He gained 215 votes in the Epping Hemnall ward beating a British National Party
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
candidate by 68 votes.
Anderson was also involved in a number of other groups such as the Conservative Democratic Alliance
Conservative Democratic Alliance
The Conservative Democratic Alliance was a United Kingdom pressure group. The CDA referred to itself as the "authentic voice of conservatism"...
and the Swinton Circle
Swinton circle
The London Swinton Circle is a British pressure group with links to the Conservative Party. It states that it stands for "traditional Conservative and Unionist principles"-History and membership:...
.
He died in Epping
Epping
Epping is a small market town and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of the County of Essex, England. It is located north-east of Loughton, south of Harlow and north-west of Brentwood....
in 2011 after a long fight with a brain tumour.
Parliamentary elections contested
| Date of election | Constituency | Party | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 1974 United Kingdom general election, October 1974 The United Kingdom general election of October 1974 took place on 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. It was the second general election of that year and resulted in the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson, winning by a tiny majority of 3 seats.The election of... |
Oxford Oxford (UK Parliament constituency) Oxford was a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom. It comprised the city of Oxford in the county of Oxfordshire, and elected two Members of Parliament from its creation in 1295 until 1881... |
NF British National Front The National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes .... |
572 | 1.0 |
| 28 October 1982 | Birmingham Northfield | NF | 411 | 0.9 |
| 1983 United Kingdom general election, 1983 The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945... |
Newham South Newham South (UK Parliament constituency) Newham South was a parliamentary constituency in the London Borough of Newham, in east London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.-History:... |
NF | 993 | 3.7 |
| 1992 United Kingdom general election, 1992 The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil... |
Bristol East Bristol East (UK Parliament constituency) Bristol East is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:... |
NF | 270 | 0.5 |
| 1997 United Kingdom general election, 1997 The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general... |
East Londonderry East Londonderry (UK Parliament constituency) East Londonderry is a Parliamentary Constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons.-Boundaries:The seat was created in boundary changes in 1983, as part of an expansion of Northern Ireland's constituencies from 12 to 17, and was predominantly made up from the old Londonderry constituency... |
NDs National Democrats (UK) By the beginning of 2002 the party had ceased political activity. It continued as a pressure group under the name Campaign for National Democracy until 2008; the party officially ceased to exist after the death of its leader at the beginning of 2011.... |
81 | 0.2 |
| 31 July 1997 Uxbridge by-election, 1997 The Uxbridge by-election, 1997 was a parliamentary by-election held in July 1997 to elect a new Member of Parliament for the constituency of Uxbridge in London, England.... |
Uxbridge Uxbridge (UK Parliament constituency) Uxbridge was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament using the first-past-the-post voting system, from 1885 until it was abolished at the 2010 general election.... |
NDs | 157 | 0.5 |