BUF Nationalism

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The British Union of Fascists, or alternatively the BUF, was a far-right political party active in Britain from its formation in 1932 until it was proscribed by the British government in 1940. It was founded by Sir Oswald Mosley, who became convinced of fascism after he visited Mussolini’s Italy. In truth, the party, while enjoying some moderate success, ended up as a failure. Stanley Payne described it as a ‘political oxymoron’, being developed in a nation where ‘there was neither space nor need for revolutionary nationalism’ and as such it is of interest to those ‘concerned with negative findings’. As aforementioned by Payne, the party was strongly nationalistic in nature, as highlighted by Mosley describing the party’s motto as ‘Britain …show more content…
The country status of Wales and Scotland made it problematic for the BUF to find a foothold here. The BUF attitude to Scotland and Wales also demonstrates a sense that these countries should be autonomous, with Mosley writing ‘purely Welsh and Scottish questions should be settled on the spot by Welshmen and Scotsmen’. However, they failed to establish a significant foothold in either country due to a perception of the party as being a representative of English nationalism. The Edinburgh BUF ‘haemorrhaged’ members to the Scottish national movement, and the BUF was met with various anti-Fascist oppositional techniques to reduce their influence. Similarly in Wales, the BUF failed to attract strong leaders, and the appeal of the Welsh leadership provided by the Welsh nationalists as an alternative also potentially reduced the significance of the BUF in the country. To summarise, although the BUF did attempt to appeal to the workers in both countries, as shown by the example of Glamorgan before, these were efforts done in vain, and ostensibly knowingly so. They enjoyed success in neither country, while at the same time offering nor did they have a ‘Scottish’ or ‘Welsh’ profile; Mosley mentioned neither country in his treatise The Greater

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