The medical hazards of letting a child push crayons up his nose

NOTE: This article was published on 17 September 2024National Rebirth Party leader Alek Yerbury has offered up a taster of the Rise Britannia magazine that he is launching next month. Issue 1’s cover looks a real treat. A fat man with almost non-existent calves (hidden by brown football socks) and wearing a shonky shop plush…

NOTE: This article was published on 17 September 2024

National Rebirth Party leader Alek Yerbury has offered up a taster of the Rise Britannia magazine that he is launching next month. Issue 1’s cover looks a real treat. A fat man with almost non-existent calves (hidden by brown football socks) and wearing a shonky shop plush superhero cape and a tantalising see-thru baby doll nightie. Barf!

Does England still have an Obscene Publications Squad that this ’painting’ can be referred to?

It’s not entirely clear who the man or the sword are supposed to be. Arthur drew Excalibur Mark I from an anvil sitting on a stone. Even in half-arsed versions that leave out the anvil, Arthur is supposed to be a skinny teenager, not a retired Rugby player gone to flab.

And Excalibur Mark II came from a lake.

Galahad pulled the Adventurous Sword direct from a stone, but that stone was floating (!) on Camelot’s river, and Galahad was supposedly 15 years old. Yerbury’s Fatso and his rock don’t really seem to fit.

In the miracle of St Wulfstan and the stone, the object that no one else could pull out was a staff. And as Wulfstan was a bishop at the time, it would be more reasonable to depict him in clerical robes than as someone on their way to a gender-fluid orgy.

Casting further afield than blessed Britain, there’s the Norse sword Gram (Wagner preferred to call it ’Nothung’) but that was always recovered from being buried hilt-deep in a tree. It’s quite a puzzle.

As for the provenance of the ’artwork’, we think that the infant Fanning is far too young to have painted it, unless an astonishing prodigy. It must surely have been someone closer to the age of 10.

Whatever, we are avidly looking forward to the publication of Rise Britannia. It promises to be a treat. And we are desperately hoping there’s a mail order shopping page offering the plushie cape, the naughty nightie, the shonky socks and (please, please, please) a model Sword in the Stone in hand-painted resin.

Yummy!


Peter Hain

Peter Hain, founder of the ANL and friend of Searchlight

British Jews have been persecuted over the centuries; British blacks since the Windrush generation of the 1950s; British Muslims, especially after the Islamist 9/11 and then 7/7 terrorist attacks in New York 2001 and London 2005. But until the last few years there has not been a simultaneous threat against all three British communities of Jewish, Black and Muslim Britons – meaning the need for Searchlight has never been greater.

Peter Hain
Labour peer, former MP and Cabinet Minster

Professor Colin Holmes

Professor Colin Holmes
Everyone who wants to understand contemporary racism and its historical background needs to read Searchlight.
Professor Colin Holmes
University of Sheffield

Nick Davies

Nick Davies

To investigate fascists takes real courage and unusual commitment. The government, police, mainstream media occasionally take a look, but in the UK only Searchlight have kept at it, relentlessly and admirably, regardless of threat or obstacle. It’s journalism that matters. A rare thing.

Nick Davies
Multi-award-winning investigative journalist and writer

Paul Nowak

Paul Nowak

The essence of trade unionism is solidarity, fairness and equality – for all workers – from all backgrounds. That’s why our fight against the far-right has always been part of our movement’s DNA. Searchlight is an incredibly important resource for trade unions and members to understand the contemporary tactics of far-right activity. Their work and intelligence gathering over the years have been incredibly insightful for the work we do, and how we fight the scourge of fascism.

Paul Nowak
TUC General Secretary

Paul Holborow

Paul Holborow

In the campaign against the National Front, Searchlight provided a rich and utterly reliable basis for much ANL propaganda – particularly with reference to the two leading NF figures, John Tyndall and Martin Webster. The appearance of Tyndall in full nazi uniform, drawn from the archives of Searchlight, was a key part of ANL propaganda, coupled with deeply damaging nazi quotes from Webster.

Paul Holborow
Founding member of the ANL and National Organiser 1977-81

Alf Dubs

Lord Alf Dubs

Searchlight’s voice is more important than ever, and I am delighted that it will now be available to a wider audience than ever before in its new incarnation online. Searchlight has been extremely helpful over the years in exposing the far right, corruption, criminality and the murky links between organised crime and powerful interests in the UK and abroad. I wish Searchlight the very best.

Alf Dubs
Labour peer, former MP and Cabinet Minister, and Kindertransport child

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