The Free England Party
An interview with Andrew Constantine
Interviewed by Tony Linsell, 26th May 2008
Published in Steadfast Magazine, December 2008
TL You have seemingly emerged from nowhere and quickly created a political party. Is there something in your personal background that has influenced your political development and led you to adopt a political life?
AJC My father brought me up as an English nationalist. He was career RAF having joined up in 1939 and we often moved around, and we lived abroad in Singapore, Malta and Italy. Our family was, and still is, very close and the fact that we moved so much and lived abroad in some ways reduced outside influences.
I am a 52 year old Yorkshireman, descended on my father’s side from some 250 years of Constantines living in Sheffield as metal workers and tradesmen. None of my family had been to university, nor had any professional qualifications, and both my parents left school at 15 or 16. I was the lucky one, for with no money in the family, I still had the benefit of a world class - grammar school - education, and being a natural scholar of history and literature got to Cambridge.
TL What opportunities were opened for you by your degree?
AJC My obvious career should have been the law or the civil service, but I started work in 1977 training as a chartered accountant. As soon as I could, I got out of audit and accounting and became a corporate tax adviser, which is as much based on law as accounting.
I work in the City for one of the large banks and run a tax compliance team. My personal philosophy in relation to tax - and other areas of life - is that we should seek to follow the broad spirit - intention - of laws, as well as the detail or fine print. A civilised society requires individuals and business to pay their fair share of taxes.
TL How and why did you get involved in English nationalist politics?
AJC My father’s influence was important. He helped form my strong sense of Englishness and my passion for preserving what is good about our country. Those who are hostile to any expression of Englishness are likely to think this means I am obsessed and inward looking. On the contrary, while we need to analyse and tackle our own problems, we also need to be outward looking and learn from others and appreciate “Abroad”. I lived in Singapore, and can appreciate the remarkable achievements and success of the Singapore government following independence. In Glamorgan as a schoolboy, I was force-fed Welsh and Owen Glendower, but despite, or because of it, I have a very great respect and affection for Wales, and, well, everyone likes Italy.
But what turned me from just having a very strong English identity and a deep interest in politics and modern history was a bit of personal bad luck. In 2005, I had a holiday in Florida. After flying back, I found that I had “economy class syndrome” (the full works: DVT and large clots moving to the lungs) and was soon close to death. After three weeks spent in the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, I left it - almost able to stand on my feet - but now determined to change the condition of my country.
TL In what way?
AJC Big picture stuff, where the key to changing England lay in creating a proper democracy where those who governed us and made our laws were accountable to us, the people. Membership of the EU is a big barrier to achieving that. With greater control of our political, economic and social affairs it will be possible to make the necessary radical reforms.
I had believed for years that we have to stop further immigration - from whichever source - and that the State needs to lead in protecting the rights of the law-abiding against the criminals, as well as to intervene to move the underclass into jobs and well, into a decent life. Spending three weeks in a large hospital ward in a poor area of London gave me a ring-side seat to some appalling behaviours and the losers from Blairite capitalism.
That illness also caused my assumption of a healthy and long life to be rudely undermined. If you want to make a difference, to do good, to help others, then that experience told me you should crack on with what you think is important.
Anyway, I was a within a few months of that episode standing - just about by then too! - for UKIP in the May 2006 local elections. When I notified UKIP and the English Democrats (EDs) that I belonged to both parties, UKIP told me to quit the EDs or else. In contrast, Robin Tilbrook was his usual affable self and soon after that the EDs put me on to their National Council (NC), where on the unexpected death of their national Treasurer I inherited that role and was also soon chairing their London Area.
TL You left the English Democrats (EDs) in January 2008. Why?
AJC As background, in December 2007 Garry Bushell stood down as their London mayoral candidate. I then became the unannounced replacement mayoral candidate. Then Matt O’Connor of Fathers for Justice (F4J) appeared out of the blue. The usual three senior EDs who control the party, seem to have seen him as a saviour, and they then in effect sought to de-select me.
What pushed me not to stand in a primary against Matt O’Connor was a surprise withdrawal of support from two other ED NC members. What required me to resign from the EDs in January this year was their appointing Mr O’Connor as the mayoral candidate. I felt that I could not belong to a party which thought Mr O’Connor was a suitable candidate for public office.
TL Creating a political a party is a big commitment in time, energy and usually money. What led you to make that leap and set up the Free England Party?
AJC After resigning from the EDs, I had about one week of total freedom from activism, which was an odd but very enjoyable time - like being on holiday.
I then approached the Campaign for an English Parliament (CEP) to see whether they would like me as an official. But I also caught up with another former English Democrat and member of the CEP, Richard Aitkins, who has been a keen advocate of English independence and we quickly decided to set up a new independence party. I wanted to be an official of the new party, but Richard expected me to become party leader and so it went on from there. The name of the party “Free England” was Richard’s choice too. We work very well together, and with our other colleagues. It’s a happy ship - and long may it stay so!
TL Why set up another political party? Surely it’s a head-banging exercise?
AJC Some people are best suited to pursuing their political and social objectives through a political party and some are better suited to working in other ways. If you are campaigning for a political cause, you have to decide whether to do so via a non-party campaign group, or via a political party. It happens that I am familiar with political parties and love taking part in elections, so it was an easy decision. And in some ways, a political party gives you the best of both worlds. If your policy platform is attractive to people, you can force the other parties to tack in your direction.
In view of my unhappy experience with the EDs and my belief that it would be futile to work for change from within, I saw the creation of a new party as something positive, worthwhile and necessary. Differences between the FEP and the EDs include a different approach to immigration. There is also marked difference between our policy of independence for England and their policy of an English parliament within the Union. We give equal emphasis to a wide range of policies whereas the EDP is seen as a one issue party.
It is better that the English people have a choice of parties - it will enable them to express a preference for one approach or the other. In the not too distant future, I expect to see the traditional UK parties replaced by, or to evolve into, English parties of different political moulds.
Despite the competitive nature of politics, I am on good terms with Chris Nickerson (who is the leading campaigner for English independence of many years’ standing). And I retain respect for Robin Tilbrook of the EDP and so on. But the new Free England Party is unique in that while we are a decent and civilised civic nationalist party, we are also radical and very passionate about our policy platforms, and the leadership are keen to stand in elections. After all, if you do not like elections, then why be in politics?
TL You say that yours is a ‘decent and civilised civic nationalist party”. This provokes several questions. What do you mean by ‘civic nationalism’? Does it mean that like the EDs you promote an inclusive Progressive English identity founded mainly on place? Or do you believe that there is more to being English than place of birth or residence? Are you implying that ethnic nationalism - for example Kurdish, Palestinian, Jewish, Tibetan, English - is not decent and civilised?
AJC I understand the point you are making and can best answer it by saying that I accept the word ‘English’ has many meanings and that there are several kinds of Englishness. People and things might be called English because of their association with England - this is an inclusive place identity, which is sometimes called a civic identity - which it isn’t because there can be no English civic identity until there is an English state, Second, in law, there is an exclusive English racial group identity. Third, there is ethnic English identity, which is founded on a common history, ancestry, culture and communal identity.
The Free England Party does not promote any particular English identity but we look forward to the day when there will be an English state and an English civic identity - an English citizenship. That civic identity will be an additional English identity - it will not replace nor diminish an ethnic English identity.
The next point is that I used ‘decent’ and ‘civilised’ in a careless way - I was being defensive. I suppose I meant respectable and positive. The problem - as you will know - is that our enemies promote the perception that English nationalists - unlike wholesome Irish or Tibetan nationalism - is thoroughly nasty - as indeed are English nationalists. It is a form of successful negative political propaganda that we have to contend with.
TL Free England is clearly different from the EDs in that the Free England Party campaigns for England to become a sovereign state, whereas the EDs are federalists who wish to see an English parliament within a reformed Union. What other differences are there?
AJC Apart from being a new party and still much smaller, I think we have a different outlook. Our role is to provide the sparks that set England alight and we will in the immediate future focus on building up a party structure and fighting local elections. I would like the party culture - the working atmosphere - to be better than the EDs.
I wish to see the Free England members to behave like a band of brothers and sisters who get on well with each other, who will give a message of optimism and hope to voters, and who will be respectful of nationalists in other parts of the UK. So I can see genuine cultural, organisational and policy differences between the parties already.
Sometimes the differences between the Free England Party and the EDs are ones of emphasis. For example, over the amount of subsidy Scotland gets under the Barnett formula. I think Scotland is a successful nation already, and no one really knows how to split the UK tax-take between the home countries - the figures are simply not available.
So while I do make reference to unequal treatment for England, I am not fixated on it. Better democratic and independent and poor, than rich and ruled by the EU and/or a British government that takes no account of our interests or wishes.
But the choice between freedom and wealth is not one we have to make. Independence for England, Scotland and Wales would, after a period of adjustment, make them all better off in economic, democratic, social and cultural terms.
And while I have very strong views on both the EU and immigration, I can see both sides. I assume that the generality of officials working for the Commission will be hardworking and honest - I just wish for an England that is not part of the European project.
Despite all that has been done to it, England is still a very good country in which to live, so it’s no surprise that half the world wants to move here. Immigrants are sensibly pursuing their best interests - it is for us to pursue our best interests. We are the fools for losing control of our borders.
TL Why did you establish “The English Claim of Right” this April 2008?
AJC One of my few real talents is the ability to produce good ideas and initiatives and then to effectively take them forward. I have at any one time four of five of these ideas and I just need some free time and, usually, an able website developer to get them off the ground.
In this case, Fred Bishop had produced some time ago some fine research on the Scottish Claim of Right, Richard Aitkins was pushing me to build up the Free England Party and Marcus Stafford of The England Society then worked with me and produced a stunning and functional website for the Claim. (English Claim of Right - Home)
I should add that Marcus is launching a forum for those who have signed the Claim, with the intention that we will have a community of English nationalists who will push the political classes into holding an English Constitutional Convention and hence creating an English Parliament. I feel that the Claim will be instrumental in achieving this.
TL What other initiatives can you tell us about?
AJC I would like to sponsor a new association and attached website dedicated to Anglo-Saxon England, and generally I think it is wonderful that there is such a huge increase in Anglo-Saxon studies. This has helped raise English national consciousness, and I find the life of, say, Alfred the Great a wonderful inspiration and one that repays study. There seem to me to be obvious parallels between England in his period and today.
TL You seem willing to accept advice and give credit to others - you also have energy and a strong sense of Englishness, which indicates to me that you might have what it takes to be leader of a successful political party. What we don’t know yet is whether you have the spark of leadership. How do you see your role as leader?
AJC The whole point of an organisation, whether it’s a business or a political party, is that it is a means of allowing a number of people to work efficiently and harmoniously together, with the idea of producing their desired outcome. I see my task as being the person who makes this possible.
In a business, employees work to produce profits. In our party, English nationalists are encouraged to co-operate with other like-minded people and to shape a shared vision of an Independent England.
Although there are many similarities between a business and a political party there are also many differences. This especially so in a small political party where those who show flair in any area need to be given freedom to develop their talents and not made to feel that they have to refer everything to a person or persons who control every aspect of party activity.
I must add that I have been surprised and touched by some senior English nationalist statesmen who have got in touch with me and offered advice and help of all sorts. If I may address a brief request to them, I really do wish to benefit from your advice and knowledge. The more help you give to us, the more surefooted and effective our campaign will be.
TL Why did you make an apology on behalf of the English nationalist community for some EDP “anti-Scottish” posters?
AJC Because someone needed to, and fast! I felt the posters were crass, crude and ill-judged. I believed that I spoke for decent Englishmen in making that apology to the Scots.
I would add that the Union has arguably robbed the Scottish just as much as, maybe even more than, the English of national independence. I am wholly sincere in looking to the other nationalists whether in Wales or Scotland and working with them to despatch the UK. I believe that as Alex Salmond said: “The English and the Scots should be the best of pals, the closest of buddies with equality of status”.
Many living down South do not appreciate just how unpopular Labour is in Scotland. I would prefer the English to fight for and to gain national independence by their own efforts. But Alex Salmond might be taking Scotland out of the Union soon after 2010 or 2011 and so England would then get her independence by default.
TL Let us look forward to a time when England, Scotland and Wales are independent states - what happens next?
AJC Policy is a passion with me and so I can easily reel off a list of what an English Government might wish to do, with this one prior explanation. I believe it is a logical fallacy that a liberal democracy has to treat its enemies with kid gloves. So what would I suggest:
- Enact legislation to leave the EU and cancel all EU legislation and case law;
- Legislation to make English traditional freedoms and liberties a bedrock to our lives;
- Follow the Swiss example and go for neutrality - I do not see any benefit, nor purpose, to England being the world’s policeman or America’s poodle;
- Bring back our brave servicemen from Iraq and Afghanistan and other foreign commitments;
- Work to keep good relations with the other nations in these Islands;
- Force foreign owned media to sell to English business and reform the BBC;
- Go for organised crime (drugs, various rackets etc) with a drive and force that will destroy it;
- Codification and simplification of all our laws;
- New English citizenship law along with a generous English state pension;
- An immediate stop to all immigration, expulsion of most EU nationals, the foreign rich and failed asylum seekers;
- Create the factors that will aid the rebuilding of family life and traditional communities;
- Make public transport so good that the private motor car will dramatically decline;
- Use all the options available to us under WTO rules to rebuild English manufacturing behind tariff walls. Do whatever is necessary and practicable to achieve the aim;
- Grammar schools for the academic: superb technical and vocational training for most and English history - with a focus on Anglo-Saxon period - and literature and culture for all;
Generally England has lost so much ground in so many areas of national life that I think we should study other countries and see what we might usefully learn and copy.
TL I can see difficulties with most of these policy proposals but they show the general direction in which you would like to take the Free England Party and England. Are there any closing remarks you would like to make?
AJC Politics is above all about building rapport and trust with others. You have to look outwards to others, you have to be on “receive” and not just “send” mode and you have to be passionate about what you believe in. And leadership is about serving others.
But I am very optimistic: there is still Anglo-Saxon bedrock to England and much of the damage caused in recent years - whether to English society, to our democracy or to our country - can be reversed. I think the English are awakening. I would do anything for England and I know many others will to. We are English after all. It is our right and duty to preserve our identity and way-of-life."
