The ideological dimensions of radical right wing politics in Britain : a critical appraisal

Hayes, Mark John (1991) The ideological dimensions of radical right wing politics in Britain : a critical appraisal. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

The objective of my thesis is to provide a critical appraisal of the radical right in contemporary British politics. This task involves an analysis of the so-called New Right, Thatcherism, and the Extreme Right.

The New Right is assessed in both its neo-liberal and neo-conservative manifestations. After a relatively detailed critical examination of the ideological components of the New Right, Thatcherism is analysed as a practical political synthesis which embodies many of the ideas and precepts of the New Right. An attempt is made to place Thatcherism in its appropriate material context, and competing interpretations of Thatcherism are subsequently evaluated. Together Thatcherism and the New Right constitute what might be termed the 'respectable' radical right, which has managed to achieve a position of political/theoretical supremacy in recent years. This appraisal of the 'respectable' radical right is accompanied by an assessment of the more esoteric fringes of the Extreme right - what might perhaps be termed the 'non-respectable' radical right. The Extreme Right in fact embodies the British fascist tradition, which in sharp contrast to the New Right/Thatcherism has endured almost perpetual political impotence in Britain. In order to successfully determine the nature of the British Extreme Right it is necessary to adopt a historical perspective: firstly with regard to the history of the 'non-respectable' right in this country, in order to confirm that those on the contemporary Extreme Right are actually the inheritors of the British fascist tradition; and secondly with regard to fascist practice on the continent (1922-45), since much of the Extreme Right owes its inspiration to Italian and German experience, and because in order to ascertain the precise nature of fascism as an ideology it is essential to assess facism in practice.

My thesis, therefore, is essentially descriptive in character. However, I do believe that the attempt to describe and elucidate the radical right is of acedemic utility per se, given the lack of unanimity amongst political analysts in this area. In this sense my thesis is primarily an essay in clarification. An attempt has also been made,however, to draw tentative conclusions about the nature of the relationship between the 'respectable and 'non-respectable' right.

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