Homeland party conference: the good, the bad, and the ugly

I’m not the sort of person to rely on others to tell me what a party is all about. When I wanted to know more about the SDP I went to a New Culture Forum meeting to grill their leader. The SDP bills itself as economically left leaning but socially conservative. That sounds superficially appealing, but I don’t think you can be meaningfully socially conservative unless you have robust policies to deal with those immigrants who cannot integrate and don’t want to.

I got my answer from the horse’s mouth. The SDP will never even contemplate remigration even at a limited scale. As such, I don’t believe the SDP is truly serious about fixing the social fabric. With Reform being non-committal on radical immigration policies, it’s clear that there is room for a party which explicitly commits to deportations.

That leaves only Ukip in the frame along with the fledgling Homeland Party. I’m well acquainted with Ukip, as ye well know, so we shan’t dwell on them for the time being. This weekend I went to investigate Homeland to see who they are, and what they’re about.

I didn’t quite know what to expect from this. Though the party has historical associations with Patriotic Alternative and the British National Party, it is an entirely new entity striving to be something different. They fancy themselves as the new face of “sensible nationalism”, ditching the bulldog nationalism imagery that made the BNP synonymous with neo-Nazi thugs. As party chairman, Kenny Smith, put it to me, it’s more about affinity for one’s own than hatred of others.

Essentially, the party does what it says on the tin. It’s about remaking Britain as a homeland as opposed to a neoliberal grazing strip where anyone who rocks up gains equal rights and entitlements. The party prefers not to make any distinction between civic nationalism and ethnonationalism and is content to describe itself simply as nationalist.

I’d assumed the party would essentially be a restart of the BNP, but with new branding. But this is an entirely different animal. The BNP I knew of in 1990’s Bradford was a lower working class affair, and events wouldn’t be all that dissimilar to a bingo night in a working men’s club, usually with a beefy skinhead on the door to keep out any leftist agitators (or curious Ukippers). This wasn’t that. Not even close.

What was immediately striking was the demographic. This was mostly younger men, and probably for the first time in my life I wasn’t among the youngest in attendance. Very different from the sea of white hair we see at Reform events. Homeland is a new generation of sharp-dressed (compared to me in my normal configuration), educated young men - with a few eccentrics dressed as gentleman farmers (goes with the territory).

Until recently I’d largely ignored Homeland because the last thing the right needs is yet another startup party. There’s at least a dozen of them, all amounting to nothing. But there’s a vibe about these guys. They know their own minds, they know what they believe in, and they’re serious.

These are not knuckle-dragging neanderthals and they’ll put you through your paces in any debate. There’s a reason the far left takes a “no debate” stance because if they entered any debate with these guys, they would comprehensively lose it. That’s why the left resorts to intimidation and smear tactics.

The left describes Homeland as political extremists, but they’re really just doctrinaire nationalists who have little time for the Spitfire nationalism of the Boomer generation, and the nebulous rhetoric of Farage et al. They are uncompromising on ideology. You either agree or you don’t and you’ll always know where you stand with them. I’m always a little sceptical of doctrinaire ideologues because the complexity and nuance of the real world doesn’t lend itself to such rigidity.

As to any suggestion of overt racism directed at any particular group, i.e. Muslims or Jews, I didn’t hear any of that. Nobody attempted to bore me about vaccines or 9/11 conspiracy theories, and nobody ranted about Israel. I think it was only really me who brought it up in passing. These lads are mission focussed and if there are cranks and crackpots, they’re keeping them well hidden.

Among the speakers was the infamous and often provocative Steve Laws, who spoke well, if a little rushed. Laws is a vocal proponent of maximalist remigration and that’s his measure of whether a party is worth the time of day. Since he is now a Homeland member, it sets the overall tone of the party. Though Laws is the left’s favourite bogeyman at the moment, he’s an articulate and good humoured man.

There were, sadly, some intolerant bigots in attendance. The local chapter of raving leftists got wind of the conference and soon a vocal group of protesters gathered outside the building, blasting out some (pretty banging) Drum and Bass music with a view to drowning us out. I suggested to the young lady responsible that she should bring a larger sound system next time. I’d have quite enjoyed that.

She firmly asserted, however, that there would be no next time. “This is our town and fascists aren't welcome here”, she exclaimed. She seemed to be suggesting, without irony, that the Derbyshire natives should have a veto over outsiders with different values coming in and availing themselves of their facilities. A potential convert there, I’m sure. As it happens, fascism wasn’t discussed at all. Nobody spoke of controlling the railways and the flow of commerce.

To the young lady’s clear annoyance, one of the attendees managed to hook their phone into her bluetooth speaker and cheekily played the infamous “Ausländer raus” techno song, causing the gaggle of smokers outside to break into quasi-racist chants in German.

This, I’m assured, is just millennial internet humour, and for those who are in on the joke it’s quite funny. Personally, I find the optics of party members (already accused of being fascists) chanting in German to be less than ideal. But what do I know? I’m a Gen X dinosaur and I’m not down with the TikTok generation. Such larks are instrumental in projecting AfD to office, apparently.

As to whether this party has prospects, I think it does. They will give Ukip a run for their money. It’s intellectually coherent even if you find their ideology disagreeable. They’re only a year old and they’ve established an online brand, and are in the process of developing policy.

With Kenny Smith’s considerable experience of nationalist activism, along with his determination to leave the baggage of “bulldog nationalism” behind, it is the frontrunner of all the minnow parties, many of which are redundant one-man-band Ukip breakaways. There’s a real energy to Homeland, and it’s the one that has the Left with their knickers in a twist.

As it happens, attending these events when there’s a baying mob of leftists outside can be quite unsettling. They are known to be violent at times, and their intent is to deny people the right to peaceful assembly. They no longer confine their activities to gatherings of the “far right” and are just as likely to protest regional meetings of New Culture Forum, Ukip, and even the Conservative Party. Even the SDP have to watch themselves. This is the tyranny of the intolerant Left, who have so little of substance to say - seeking only to deprive others of the ability to speak freely.

As to whether I’d join Homeland, the answer is no. I’m an independent political analyst and I value my independence. I'll be watching with interest how it develops, and I’ll give them as hard a time as I do Reform if they give me cause to. At their worst, though, they would struggle to be more amateurish than Farage’s schizophrenic outfit.

In a nutshell, I strongly suspect that Homeland will become the Red Bull to the SDP’s Coke Zero (if they can maintain party discipline). With voter turnouts so low, and faith in the existing parties collapsing, Homeland is clearly going to reach a new demographic, and build a movement that isn’t dependent on the legacy Brexit insurgency.

That Homeland is already establishing a reputation as the mover and shaker, and rhetoric from the leading Tory leadership contenders hardening by the day, it’s clear that that tectonic plates on the right are moving and attitudes to immigration are hardening further still (in all but Farage’s party). The liberal establishment is on its last legs and there’s now a space race to define the new era in politics. It’s all change, and there’s a new player in town.

On a final note, I’d like to thank both the organisers and the police for ensuring the conference went without a hitch and everybody was kept safe. I especially thank Kenny Smith for his generous invitation, and hospitality.