![[National Front]](../images/g/gb}nf1.gif)
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 13 February 2016
Last modified: 2023-12-09 by rob raeside
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The National Front was founded in 1967 by fusion of several far-right groups,
including the original British National Party (founded
in 1960). Having become probably the strongest far-fight organization by
mid-1970s, it has never had any success in the elections, its most noted
activities being marches and demonstrations, which frequently ended in violent
clashes with the anti-Fascist, mostly far-left groups. The lack of success led
to the decline and internal conflicts, including several splits, the one of 1982
resulting in formation of the current British National
Party, which replaced it as the strongest far-right group during the 1990s.
While there was a reactivation since late 2000s, the party seems not to have
regained its old position so far.
While being consistently racist, the
National Front has always denied the accusations of Nazism, describing its
openness towards the Nazi ideas as the support for free speech, despite the fact
that it has been cooperating with openly neo-Nazi groups in the UK and abroad at
the same time. Police and prison services in the UK forbid their employees to be
members of the party.
Source:
National Front at
Wikipedia
Tomislav Todorovic, 13 February 2016
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 13 February 2016
The party emblem is the monogram NF. One of the flags is clearly derived from
that of the Third Reich by replacing the swastika with black oblique monogram.
The photos can be found at:
http://www.britishnationalfront.net/newnfflag.jpg
http://www.britishnationalfront.net/swagm3.jpg
http://www.britishnf.com/Towton3.jpg
http://www.britishnationalfront.net/rochaug2.jpg
Tomislav Todorovic,
13 February 2016
![[National Front]](../images/g/gb}nf2.gif)
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 13 February 2016
The other
flag is similar to that of the Imperial Fascist League:
gb%7Dnaz.html#uj
Here, too, the swastika is replaced with the black monogram, but in regular
(i.e. not oblique) form. The photos can be found at:
http://www.britishnationalfront.net/15scarb2.jpg
http://www.britishnationalfront.net/leeds5.jpg
http://www.northeastnf.org/1sp.jpg
http://www.northeastnf.org/pegidabiggs1.jpg
Tomislav Todorovic, 13 February 2016
![[National Front]](../images/g/gb}nf3.gif)
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 13 February 2016
The third flag is black, charged with
a red monogram in
regular form, fimbriated white and surrounded with two golden olive branches,
the design of which looks like it was borrowed from the flag of
United Nations - somewhat
surprising, since the National Front is generally against the British
membership in such international organizations; whether this means that they
are not as much against the UN as against, for example, the European Union
(which is the main "enemy" of British far-right), or that they simply liked
the design enough to disregard the original user, is yet to be found out. The
photos of this flag can be found at:
http://www.britishnationalfront.net/augflag1.jpg
http://www.britishnationalfront.net/15scarb5.jpg
http://www.britishnationalfront.net/15scarb6.jpg
Tomislav Todorovic, 13 February 2016
![[National Front]](../images/g/gb}nf6.gif)
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 17 Januuary 2017
The newest addition to the set of NF flags is derived from the
1938-1945 war ensign of the Third Reich by replacing the
swastika with black monogram NF (in regular form), removing the inner black
border from the disc and replacing the Iron Cross in the canton with the
black odal rune fimbriated white. Its photos can be found here:
http://www.britishnationalfront.net/juneflagnf.jpg,
https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/far-right-jo-cox-thomas-mair
and
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/three-arrested-deadly-weapons-seized-7279305
(also in the photo gallery:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/incoming/gallery/anti-immigration-demonstration-at-dover-7275286).
Tomislav
Todorovic, 17 January 2017
![[National Front]](../images/g/gb}nf4.gif)
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 14 February 2016
In an episode of the TV series "Pop Music and Politics," which was
broadcast on Viasat History channel several times during the year 2006, a
very short interval (less than two minutes, as I estimated) was dedicated to
the music of far-right rock bands, without any comments or naming of the
performers (so as to show that they exist without advertising them), just
illustrated with black and white photos of performances, magazines and
posters. One of these photos showed a long, hanging flag on the wall, charged
with black monogram NF on a white disc, all on gray (presumably red) field.
The monogram was in a more condensed form than generally used nowadays,
identical or very similar with those displayed on the demonstration posters
during the early 1980s, as shown in the photo from Brighton, 1981, available at http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/yesterdays/features/11163330.Politics_of_the_far_right_never_welcome_in_city
(image: http://www.theargus.co.uk/resources/images/2986241)
or the one from London. 1983, available at
http://www.leninology.co.uk/2009/06/nazis-have-roots-too.html (image:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JNlxgs6qm2M/SjIYAXKAQsI/AAAAAAAACoU/yi-r6R45ZIY/s1600-h/Griffin+Fascist.jpg).
Banners for indoor use with similar design, in square or nearly square
shape and often charged with additional inscriptions, are still used, as can
be seen at:
http://www.britishnationalfront.net/kevbryan.jpg
http://www.northeastnf.org/stg2008-meet.jpg
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/images/2013/08/511982.png.
Sometimes,
the monogram looks as if only the left-side half of letter N is used, such as
at:
http://www.britishnationalfront.net/newcoct17.jpg
http://www.britishnationalfront.net/wyorks3.jpg
Regardless
of that, they all have red field, speaking in favor of presumption that the
field of the flag described above was red, too.
![[National Front]](../images/g/gb}nf5.gif)
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 14 February 2016
During the 1980s, National Front also used long, hanging
flags charged with black monogram NF on a white disc, all on black field. A
photo of such flags, which can be found at
http://www.subcultz.com/2015/08/racism-within-the-skinhead-subculture
(image:
http://www.subcultz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Skrewdriver.-National-Front-700x571.jpg), shows the monogram in oblique from, letter N rather condensed form and
letter F seemingly less so.
A less oblong vertical flag, charged with the monogram very similar to one
of currently used variants, is shown at
http://41.media.tumblr.com/37c6074fe43e297836099d322eb391e5/tumblr_nkauvkmoBy1twnu9no2_1280.jpg. Unfortunately, poor quality of the photo does not allow to determine the
colors.
Tomislav Todorovic, 14 February 2016
