Ian Anderson (politician)

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Ian Hugh Myddleton Anderson^[1] (born 1953 in Hillingdon) was a leading figure on the British far-right in the 1980s and 1990s.

1 Early background
2 National Front
3 National Democrats
4 Current activities
5 Elections contested
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Early background

Although now firmly associated with the far right Anderson's involvement in politics began in the mid 1970s when he was close to certain elements on the right of the Conservative Party, particularly the Monday Club.

Anderson viewed himself as a 'respectable' figure in right wing circles and spent some time at the University of Oxford on two separate occasions studying zoology (he failed to graduate - though his election leaflets stated he was 'Oxford-educated').

[edit] National Front

Anderson joined the National Front in the late 1970s and was initially seen as a supporter of National Organiser Martin Webster. However when the Political Soldier faction led by the likes of Nick Griffin and Derek Holland moved against Webster and his assistant Michael Salt, Anderson surprisingly sided with the rebels and used his casting vote to ensure that the pair were expelled for mismanagement.

Anderson became a colse associate of Andrew Brons and, like Brons, largely indulged the Political Soldiers faction, writing for the Third Positionist party magazine Nationalism Today. As Anderson grew in influence within the NF divisions between the faction led by Brons and himself and the Political Soldiers grew, as Anderson was a strong supporter of electoral participation. He became one of the leading figures grouped around the dissident Flag newspaper (edited by Martin Wingfield) and was expelled by the Official National Front along with the rest of his faction in 1986, reconstituting as the Flag Group. The divisions reached a crescendo at the Vauxhall by-election, where an NF candidate for each faction stood (Patrick Harrington and Ted Budden), splitting what little vote there was and haranguing one another on live TV as the declaration of the results were made. Anderson, nonetheless, became a powerful figure within the Flag Group and by 1990 was effective leader, Andrew Brons having left the political scene.

With the Official NF having split into the International Third Position and Third Way, Anderson gained control of the NF in 1990 and attempted to remodel the party back along the lines of John O'Brien in the early 1970s when they had appeared at one stage to be a potential threat to the mainstream parties. The spur for this was undoubtedly the success of the Front National. He had also attempted to gain contacts in the United States and in 1989 he had established a link with Richard Barrett and the Nationalist Movement with a pact known as the 'New Atlantic Charter'. Anderson's NF suffered however from the inactivity and in-fighting of the 1980s, whilst the emergence of the British National Party was also a major check on his ambitions as leader.

[edit] National Democrats

Anderson soon came to believe that the negative connotations of the National Front name were proving a bar to success and so in 1995 he relaunched the party as the National Democrats, after a postal ballot of the members. The launch was not without its problems however, as many activists joined the continuing National Front run by John McAuley within a month.

Anderson maintained contacts in Northern Ireland (which the Flag Group's Joe Pearce had built up during the 1980s), particularly within the right of the Ulster Unionist Party and in the 1997 General Election he stood as a candidate for the Londonderry East constituency. Securing a mere 0.2% share of the vote in the constituency, Anderson soon abandoned his Northern Ireland strategy.

[edit] Current activities

Anderson quietly gave up the idea of electoral struggle and the National Democrats became the Campaign for National Democracy pressure group, which apart from a few mentions in the Daily Mail, have been largely ignored.

He was also involved in setting up the People's Campaign to Keep the Pound, along with Anthony Bennett, a leading member of Robert Kilroy-Silk's Veritas.^[2]

In 2004, he re-emerged in his new home of Epping to become a figure in community politics, campaigning for adult learning,^[3] local clean-ups,^[4] and more shops and less restaurants^[5] amongst other local campaigns.

Anderson is currently the leader of the Epping Community Action Group, which was registered with the Electoral Commission as a political party, in April 2006.^[6]