This is a scan of a sheet of Column 88 headed notepaper, which was either the Nazi Underground or a state honeytrap, depending on what side of the bed Gable got out of that particular morning.
I obtained this from a “right wing” contact sometime in the late 1990s if my memory serves me correctly. Please forgive the poor quality of the scan, but beggars can’t be choosers. I have no idea when this was printed, probably sometime around 1976, and probably by that nice Mr Hancock, or more likely his Dad.
UNITY AGAINST FASCISM, no. 1., published by Daphne Liddle, 45, Gooding House, Valley Grove, Charlton, London SE 7 8 AT. 10 pages.
This newspaper format publication is undated; it appears to be the only issue, and was superseded by the short lived Forwarned Against Fascism in 1978. The price was tenpence.
Page 1 defines “Racialism” as “THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF ANTAGONISMS BETWEEN RACES OF MEN”
According to Liddle, the landlords are behind it. See page 1 in particular. They backed Hitler and Mussolini too.
Apparently, fascists ferment racism because:
“...the workers, at whom the fascist aims his racialism, are instinctively internationalist, not nationalist and therefore not racialist.”
Pages 7-10: INTERVIEW WITH THE ‘SPY’ – ie Daphne Liddle talking to her boyfriend.
Page 7: the spy is said to have provided “the biggest breakthrough against para-militaries for 16 years”
Liddle did the interview, she was the secretary of the grandly titled Provisional Anti-Fascist Committee, said to have been founded in London early in 1974. In her living room, no doubt.
Dave Roberts was said to have been interviewed by This Week and his slot on the TV programme to have been severely edited.
Page 7: Roberts says he met Lady Birdwood on several occasions in 1975. Les Vaughn [sic] also uses the name Richard Holler
Page 8 mentions Searchlight; the League of St. George is said to be part of Column 88.
Life threatened says ex-Front man published in the Birmingham Evening Mail, (FINAL EDITION), March 17, 1976, page 29.
David John King said he used an alias for safety reasons. He claimed he’d had threats from the 62 Group including phone calls calling him a Nazi bastard after his name appeared in the local press following his suspension from the National Front.
Secrets of three accused ‐ counsel published in the Birmingham Evening Mail, (FINAL EDITION), March 18, 1976, page 18.
Why I joined the National Front ‐ by a Communist published in the Birmingham Evening Mail, (FINAL EDITION), March 18, 1976, page 51.
Home Office investigates the new Hitlerites by Ian Mather, published in the Observer, March 21, 1976, page 3.
Another early Column 88 Dave Roberts/Maurice Ludmer fantasy. Pure garbage.
EVIDENCE ON FASCISTS FOR HOME OFFICE by Rod Caird, published in the Morning Star, March 22, 1976, page 3.
Reports on Roberts’ fantasies. Ludmer is quoted, the evidence that has emerged so far is said to be the tip of the iceberg.
Fascist inquiry published in the Guardian, (London edition?), published in the Manchester edition as Police to investigate Neo-Nazis, unsigned, page 7, (Manchester edition), March 22, 1976.
Men cleared of robbery attempt published in the Birmingham Post, March 22, 1976, page 3.
A report on the trial of Dave Roberts and others. Roberts was found guilty by a majority verdict but cleared of conspiracy to rob. King was found guilty of carrying an air gun and scaffold pole as offensive weapons; McLaren of the pole only; Roberts was cleared of both.
Nazi allegations ‐ police study city man’s report published in the Birmingham Evening Mail, (FINAL EDITION), March 22, 1976, page 5.
Roberts is said not to have been a member of the Communist Party since 1973, but still a communist. Ludmer is quoted thus: “The evidence so far collected is believed to be merely the tip of the iceberg.”
This evidence was handed to Alex Lyon, Minister of State at the Home Office, who passed it on to West Midlands Police. Among other things it was reported that young boys were to be recruited to a Nazi group and that there was a plan to set up “an illegal branch of the Ku Klux Klan in Birmingham”. Since when has the Klan been illegal?
Police to investigate Neo-Nazis published in the Guardian, (Manchester edition), March 22, 1976, page 7.
‘Nazi tapes’ man in hiding after death threat, by Bill Ludford, published in the Birmingham Evening Mail, March 25, 1976, page 37.
Ex-Red “acted as sleuth” published in the Birmingham Post, March 25, 1976, page 3.
David John King alias John Joseph Carlyle, and John McLaren, were both jailed. King was said to have been a former NF member. All three men were convicted of conspiracy to assault and beat the staff of the Bombay Restaurant, Essex Street, Birmingham.
Richard David Roberts, 26, of Ashmore Road, Kings Norton, Birmingham was tried before Judge Ross QC.
Roberts is said to have sent a report to the Home Office alleging neo-Nazi group and a branch of the illegal Ku Klux Klan in the process of being set up in Birmingham Judge said Roberts saw himself as a “sort of private detective”, (and a former Communist Party member).
Court frees man who “spied on Hitlerites” by Anne McHardy, published in the Guardian, March 25, 1976, page 24.
A report on the trial of Dave Roberts. He was convicted of conspiring with two others to assault the staff of an Indian restaurant in Birmingham. Roberts said to have been a member of the Communist Party until 1973 then to have run an “anti-fascist” information centre. Reports that Column 88 used notepaper headed with a swastika. This is incorrect. (Private information).
The London Programme
Gable was employed as a “researcher” on this current affairs/documentary programme for a time. A small inset on page 43 of the TV Times, April 3-9, 1976, reports on the first edition of the new series beginning that night, (April 4). Gable appears to have been involved in most of them; fortunately the series was not heavily political (in Gable’s field of disinformation); one programme, for example, concentrated on local radio, another on low pay. The two programmes which may have been cause for concern were the programme screened May 16, (the Chilean Embassy smear), * and the programme two weeks earlier (May 2), which had a Middle East connection, something which an arch-Zionist (and Aryan/Arab-hater) like Gable could not possibly have been objective about if he’d wanted to.
Gable’s name faded from sight the following year, but he was credited with reporting on London’s worst housing estates on May 29, 1977.
* See Zionists... by Martin Webster, Spearhead, June-July 1976.
IN THE COURTS – A BAD WEEK FOR THE NAZIS published in Socialist Worker, April 3, 1976, page 6.
Uncritical comment on the activities of Dave Roberts.
T.A. unit was involved in Nazi exercise Forest mistake by Peter Gladstone Smith, published in the Sunday Telegraph, April 18, 1976, pages 1 and 32.
Reports that twelve hours of supposedly covert tape recordings of Column 88 meetings made by Searchlight “asset” Richard David Roberts were being studied by Special Branch. Roberts said to have gone into hiding. Needless to say, nothing ever came of this Gable-esque (or perhaps one should say Ludmer-eque) neo-Nazi fantasy.
On page 32, Roberts is said to be one of eleven journalists who work part-time for Searchlight.
Man who spied on Nazis “is hiding” published in the Daily Mail, April 19, 1976, page 11.
A brief report on Dave Roberts.
Nazi-style training for TA men by Anne McHardy, published in the Guardian, April, 19, 1976, page 18.
“NAZI MEETINGS” TAPES STUDIED BY DETECTIVES by John Weeks, published in the Daily Telegraph, April 19, 1976, page 2.
TA and ‘Nazi camp’quiz by Anne McHardy, published in the Guardian, 19 April, 1976, page 18.
The one-man fifth column in Column 88: ANNE McHARDY reports on the case of the self-appointed spy who uncovered a Nazi network in the Midlands, published in the Guardian, April 19, 1976, page 11.
“The story of David Roberts...sounds unbelievable at first hearing.” Or at any hearing.
Anger over TA’s Fascist battle published in the Guardian, April 20, 1976, page 24.
Credited to our own reporter, a slightly different version of this article appeared in another edition under the title Enough trouble “without Nazis in UK”, by Anne McHardy, published in the Guardian, page 6.
[Based on photocopy.]
This is another Searchlight-inspired Column 88 report.
POLICE ASKED TO REPORT ON “COLUMN 88” published in the Daily Telegraph, April 30, 1976, page 12.
Searchlight, MAY 1976, page 16: Taxi!
This is an apology to Roy Painter, see also entry for October 1976 below.
May 1976: Searchlight
This is a scan of page 4 which includes some waffle about Column 88. The scrawl at the bottom of the page was provided by Mark Taha. Before I met him!
“No Evidence” of TA-Nazi “goings on” published in the Daily Telegraph, May 12, 1976, page 3.
Claims over TA infiltration by Column 88 ad nauseum are dismissed. “Mr John Biggs-Davison (C., Epping Forest) said his constituents were resentful that the lovely forest should be used to express political paranoia”.
William Rogers, Minister of State for Defence, dismissed Column 88 as “a small drinking club of neo-Nazi nut-cases.”
OFFICER WAS NAZI published in the Sunday Telegraph, May 16, 1976, page 3.
The Minister of State revealed that one former “Nazi” had been involved in exercises in the Savernake Forest the previous October. He had now been dismissed. He was an acting under-officer in the Army Cadet Force.
The Briton who soldiers on for Hitler published in the Sun, May 20, 1976, page 15.
Report on an ITV This Week programme to be shown that night. Said to be an investigation into Column 88. Most of the “information” therein came from Searchlight. The programme was produced by David Elstein. Say no more.
Director of Public Prosecutions v Luft and another Duffield v Director of Public Prosecutions, published in the All England Law Reports 1976, Volume 1, pages 519-26.
The above case was heard April 12-3, judgment handed down May 26. It was extracted here from an on-line database. The other party was Atkinson.
Zionists run biggest ‘dirty tricks’ operation in Britain by Martin Webster, published in Spearhead, June-July 1976, issue 95, pages 6-8 & 17.
This article claims that Gable recruited Dave Roberts to infiltrate the Birmingham branch of the National Front and that he rather than Roberts was the prime mover behind the Column 88 smear. Lists Gable as a member of the 62 Group. He is also said to have been interviewed anonymously by the BBC radio programme The World This Weekend and to have been behind The London Programme smear on the Chilean Embassy which was broadcast on May 16, 1976. Claims, mistakenly, that when Gable carried out his “service job” on David Irving that he posed as a gas board mechanic.
TWO DISMISSED OVER NEO-NAZI EXERCISE published in the Daily Telegraph, July 3, 1976, page 1.
Social Psychology and Intergroup Relations by Michael Billig, published by Academic Press, London, (August 1976).
[BBIP, 1980]
Trouble shooting by Martin Webster, published in Spearhead, August 1976, issue 96, page 17.
Same issue, page 15, TROUBLESHOOTING SCOOP.
These two articles comment on the June/July article Zionists run biggest ’dirty tricks’ operation in Britain and add a few more pertinent comments. Leslie Wooler aka John Cooper appears to have been if not their first agent/mole then one of the first.
No More Wars Between Brothers by Sonia Hochfelder, the future Mrs Gable, published in League Review, No. 10, August 12, 1976, pages 18-9.
From page 19, a report on Diksmuide “The enemies of the White Race operate on an international scale and will continue to dictate to us if we fight amongst ourselves.”
Page 24 of the same issue reviews The World Conquerors by Louis Marschalko, (review by R.R). The world conquerors in question are the Jews; Bolshevism is said to be Jewish nationalism. The Protocols of Zion is one of the less fanciful of the author’s beliefs.
Judgements of values and group polarization: Tests of the value-for-risk hypothesis by Michael Billig and Raymond Cochrane, published in European Journal of Social Psychology, 1976, Vol. 6-4, pages 495-501.
Searchlight, SEPT 1976, page 13: Apology – Mr Roy Painter
This was actually the second published apology to Mr Painter, presumably on the threat of legal action. See also entry for May 1976 (above).
DESTINY by David Edgar, published by Eyre Methuen, London, (September 1976). 55+ pages.
This play is dedicated “To Ron and Di”
“Destiny could not have been written without the help and advice of many people, including the staff of the Institute of Race Relations; Maurice Ludmer and Gerry Gable of Searchlight magazine; Benny Bunsee; Don Milligan; and, especially, Sue Clegg.”
DE July 1976
FROM UNITED KINGDOM TO UNITED EUROPE by S. Hochfelder, published in the FORUM column, League Review, December 1976, issue 12, pages 28-31.
A long article – the future Mrs Gable must have been an influential member.
The Queen, on the prosecution of John Colin Campbell Jordan ‐ v ‐ Maurice Ludmer Judgment delivered 30th December, 1976
See press reports (below) and the full transcript.
City magazine “trying to stir up trouble” from the Birmingham Evening Mail, (HOME EDITION), December 31, 1976, page 2.
Searchlight is held in high regard and noted for its “accuracy”, said Ludmer. Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?
Jordan fails to get editor sent for trial published in the Morning Star, December 31, 1976, page 5.
Magazine accused of race incitement and False friends published in the Birmingham Post, December 31, 1976.
Page 1, main article, page 4, the editorial. False friends refers to Ludmer and co. This is a report of a court case brought by Colin Jordan against Maurice Ludmer in connection with A Well-Oiled Nazi Machine. Jordan sued for criminal libel, but although both summonses were thrown out, the magistrate said that “the words in question were, prima facie, libellous.” The implication is that Ludmer was a political opportunist, instead of the hatemongering little Jewish fascist that he was.
December 31: Magazine accused of race incitement is an unsigned article on the front page of The Birmingham Post (Midland Edition).
False friends is part of the Editorial on page 4.
Magazine “incited racial violence”, unsigned article in the Birmingham Evening Mail, December 31, 1976.
[Based on photocopy.]
Searchlight accused of inciting violence by a magistrate.
To Searchlight Critical Bibliography 1975
To Searchlight Critical Bibliography 1977
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