On Sunday afternoon Preston in the north of England, witnessed the latest get together organised by the self-styled ‘intellectual’ journal of the UK’s nazi movement, Heritage and Destiny. And once again they had to lie to get somewhere to meet.
In 2022, Preston-based H&D editor Mark Cotterill, who was excluded from the USA in 2002 after an investigation by US authorities into his illegal immigration status and breaches of foreign agent registration laws, lied to the St Anthony’s Social Centre in the city’s Cadley district.
Baseball bats
A year later he similarly tricked the Samlesbury Hotel, whose manager was horrified to find a nazi conference taking place on the premises with skinhead goons from the Hitler-worshipping British Movement guarding the doors, armed with baseball bats.
After controversy surrounding this meeting and a campaign by Searchlight to have H&D’s nazi guests excluded from the UK, Cotterill held no event in 2024.
But this year he was back at another Catholic venue, St Teresa’s Parish Centre, Penwortham, again with heavyweight security.
Cotterill and seventy sieg-heiling pals were marking twenty years since the death of their jackbooted leader John Tyndall. Several speakers made no secret of their antisemitic and Hitlerite beliefs.
Groups represented included three leaders of Britain’s far right: Steve Frost from British Movement, open and shameless nazis who are the political heirs of Colin Jordan and his synagogue arsonist followers; Jim Lewthwaite, a former BNP councillor from Bradford who is chairman of the British Democrats; and Laura Melia, deputy leader of Patriotic Alternative, whose husband Sam Melia has recently completed a prison sentence for inciting racial hatred.
Jailbird bookseller
Another jailbird was manning one of numerous stalls selling extremist literature and paraphernalia. Colin Todd is editor of Candour and was for many years a prominent National Front activist. Members of the Homeland Party were also in the audience and managed to avoid coming to blows with their PA rivals.
Professor John Kersey from the Traditional Britain Group added a veneer of fake gentility to Cotterill’s festival of hate, but (as we reported yesterday) two speakers were excluded from the country due to Home Office bans.
Kenneth Schmidt is a “third position” fascist who has floated around the American racist scene and had links to Todd’s “cadre” faction of the National Front.
He has been a friend of Cotterill’s since the H&D editor’s days in the USA running American Friends of the BNP, and is now associated with the Arktos publishing firm.
On attempting to board his flight in New York, Schmidt was told he wasn’t welcome in the UK. Searchlight applauds this firm action by the Home Office, which was approved on the orders of Yvette Cooper before the recent Cabinet reshuffle.
One of Europe’s most notorious nazis Isabel Peralta sent a message to the conference via her H&D associate Peter Rushton. According to our information, Peralta didn’t attempt to travel to the UK this year, still being under a banning order dating from the dying days of the last Conservative government.
Rabble-rousing speech
She is awaiting confirmation of a prison sentence in Spain for inciting racial hatred during a rabble-rousing speech outside the Moroccan Embassy in Madrid.
As we reported last week, Peralta is now part of a mysterious coalition of well-funded fascists leading a new party with offices in an exclusive district of Madrid costing €4,000 per month.
As happened two years ago, the conference began with a tribute to Ian Stuart from his fellow “white power” musician Benny Bullman, a veteran of the Blood & Honour scene who is now a leading figure in BM.
Like Peralta, Bullman is banned from several European countries.
List of obituaries
One H&D regular unable to make it to Preston this year was Tyndall’s old comrade Keith Axon, who passed to Valhalla a fortnight before the meeting, leaving Cotterill’s deputy Rushton to step into his jackboots as chairman.
The magazine carries ever-lengthening lists of obituaries for defunct extremists and relies on its connections with the likes of Peralta to attract new recruits from the online generation.
