On May 6, the residents of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland can vote for a new Police and Crime Commissioner. And perhaps in a vivid demonstration of how weak the Conservative Party are as a political organisation I will simply introduce you to the background of the person they have chosen to stand in this election to potentially oversee the running of the police force in our region.
Mr Rupert Matthews is apparently the best person available to the Tories, and to say he has something of a controversial background is a huge understatement.
Mr Matthews makes a living by publishing books, yet even in undertaking this basic work he fails to follow even the most basic of publishing conventions, thus he writes popular ‘history’ books without a care in the world for citing any of the sources that he is drawing upon. This might not be a problem if Mr Matthews books were only concerned with made up nonsense about UFOs, aliens, and the elusive yeti,[1] but it seems that he applies the same sloppy workmanship in his own work in order to challenge the conventional view that Adolf Hitler was a poor military strategist.
According to Mr Matthews’ 2017 book Hitler: Military Commander, “there can be no doubting Hitler’s gifts. His grasp of strategy was, almost to the end, superb.” This needless to say is a highly contested opinion. Furthermore, ignoring the contrary evidence (of which there is plenty), Matthews reasserts the myth that Hitler was a true hero of the First World War: “Hitler excelled as a front line infantryman. His courage and skills were never in doubt…”
This is apparently the most appropriate man the Tories can find to run our police force!
As if that were not bad enough one of Mr Matthews paranormal books, Alien Encounters: True-Life Stories of UFOs and Other Extra-Terrestrial Phenomena, is currently being advertised by the book’s publisher (Arcturus Publishing) alongside an Atlantis-obsessed book that is authored by the former leader of the National Socialist Party of America! The profitable world inhabited by right-wing alien buffs is a cosy-world indeed.
In another piece of trivia pertaining to Mr Matthews political views we might note that around the time that he somehow became a representative in the European Parliament The Economist magazine observed that Mr Matthews remains “exercised by the Lisbon Treaty, which he asserts grants the European Commission powers to invade Britain, should the British ever try to leave the union.” To illustrate this point the magazine quoted him as saying:
“So for instance, were there to be massive riots in London or there were to be all sorts of problems, [the European Commission] could go to the German government and say please send us a Panzer division, and if the German government said yes, then the European Commission could send that Panzer division to London and there is nothing the British government could do about it.”
In this instance Mr Matthews was speaking at the Conservative Party conference to promote a political pamphlet he had authored that had just been published by his own publishing company Bretwalda Politics. This pamphlet which featured a tank on its front cover was Bretwalda’s policy paper No.2, while policy paper No.4 in the series courted controversy in a different way as it featured two gollywogs on its cover (this pamphlet was titled “Britain – A Post Political Correctness Society”).[2]
The Tories must surely be on the ropes if Mr Matthews is the best they have to offer the electorate! But let’s be absolutely clear that this candidate is no fascist… probably not, but he is certainly deluded.
However, if you are looking for a former Tory political candidate who might reasonably be classified as fascist then look no further than the by-election that is also currently taking place in Leicester (in North Evington). Here you will find a candidate who previously stood for the English Democrats, then for the Tories, and now for the neo-fascist For Britain movement.
NOTES
[1] To watch the Channel 4 news clip discussing Mr Matthews strange beliefs see “Unconventional Tory and his paranormal activity” (January 24, 2012).
[2] In addition to publishing all manner of right-wing nonsense Mr Matthews’ publishing house is unusual in that they have decided to republish in full a number of books authored by two famous revolutionary socialists Marx and Lenin. One can only imagine that he thinks he can make money out of these books, as he doesn’t even say anything critical about Lenin in his introduction to his work, he even refers to Lenin as a “genius.”
Thoughts of a Leicester Socialist 