Western Goals Institute
Encyclopedia
The Western Goals Institute (WGI) was a conservative pressure group in Britain, re-formed in 1989 from Western Goals UK, which originated in 1985 as an offshoot of the U.S. Western Goals Foundation
. Its stated intent was anti-communism
, although the group was also known for its opposition to non-white immigration into Europe
and Britain
.
The Institute and its predecessor were affiliated with the World Anti-Communist League
. In July 1990, WGI sent a delegation to the 22nd WACL Conference in Brussels
and from 1991 WGI was the UK chapter of the senior World League. In 1992 the World League declined to be further associated with the Institute. The group was disbanded in 2001.
. In March 1987 Western Goals UK had filed a complaint with the Charity Commission for England and Wales against three major British charities, Oxfam, War on Want, and Christian Aid claiming that they were involved in political campaigning work (which was then contrary to UK charity law) in support of left-wing organizations due to their campaigns against apartheid in South Africa. The Charities Commission partially upheld the Western Goals complaint, obliging War on Want (which at the time was led by Labour MP George Galloway
) to halt political campaigning.
In line with the ‘Reagan doctrine
’ policies of its American patrons, Western Goals UK had established links with militant, and often violent, anti-Communist groups internationally. These include the Angolan UNITA
movement (in October 1988 Western Goals facilitated the visit to London of UNITA’s leader, Jonas Savimbi
) and the Salvadoran Nationalist Republican Alliance
(ARENA) party, whose leader, Roberto D’Aubuisson, became, along with US Major General John K. Singlaub
, the group’s international patrons. It was also claimed that Western Goals may have been used by its U.S. partners as a conduit for funds to the Nicaraguan Contras
following the ‘Contragate’ scandal.
As a result of their expanding activities, membership and organisation, Western Goals UK was relaunched in 1989, becoming the Western Goals Institute, independent of the U.S. foundation. The Institute's stated aims were to "combat the insidious menace of liberalism and Communism within all sectors of British society" and its initial activities included denouncing what it described as "extremist" left-wing Labour Party
candidates. In addition 1989 was the year it formed close links with the Conservative Party of South Africa
which it saw as fighting communism in the form of the ANC.
Initially, the Western Goals Institute drew some support from Conservative parliamentarians. The London magazine City Limits (21 June 1990) stated that "Western Goals is talking the same blunt authoritarian language as many Tory backbenchers and rank and file Tories. It is a group to be reckoned with ... having a formidable list of honorary patrons and Vice-Presidents".
The Institute stated its aims on the BBC in 1991:
"Western Goals works to establish networks and links with conservative groups dedicated to the preservation of the cultures and identities of western nations. We are conservatives who believe in traditional conservative values. A multi-cultural society does not work. We wish to protect the way of life we had before immigrants arrived. It was a mistake to permit these people to come here. Politicians must now accept this. Large numbers of immigrants reject European culture and wish to remain alien in religion and culture. We want European culture in European countries. We would seek to have treaties with countries to permit resettlement.".
Following the end of the Cold War
, however, the group lost its original anti-Communist raison d’etre in Europe, at least, but continued to forge links with other ultra-conservative political parties such as the Front National
of France. This association with Le Pen and his party resulted in many of the group’s former Conservative supporters distancing themselves from the organization.
, in particular via the right-wing Conservative Monday Club
with whom it shared some members.
In the late 1980s, WGI's predecessor, Western Goals UK, had established a parliamentary advisory committee of Conservative MPs which included Sir Patrick Wall
, Nicholas Winterton
, Neil Hamilton
and Bill Walker, as well as Martin Smyth
of the Ulster Unionist Party
. In 1991, Western Goals was accused in a newspaper report of engineering a "take-over" of the Conservative Monday Club, and there were reports that some veteran members believed the Club had become "more extreme". Club Political Secretary Gregory Lauder-Frost rejected these claims in a right-of-reply letter published the following week.
On 12 October 1989, the Western Goals Institute hosted a controversial fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool
, at which Pierre Ceyrac
, a Front National Member of the European Parliament
, was the Guest Speaker. In December 1991, after a visit by French right-wing leader Jean-Marie Le Pen
at the request of the Institute, its Director Andrew Smith was quoted as saying:
The possibility of founding a new right-wing party, on the model of Le Pen's Front National, appears to have been abandoned by Smith after the Conservative Party's win in the 1992 General Election
ensured that proportional representation
stayed off the political agenda for the foreseeable future. However even at the time, the gradual defection of the parliamentary advisory committee and the decision of the leadership of the Monday Club and associated MPs to stay away from the Le Pen Dinner made the prospect unlikely.
, in an attempt to distance the Conservative Party from the Institute, said that "No one in Western Goals is known by Central Office to belong to our party". This followed the Institute's invitation to Jean-Marie Le Pen, and 31 year-old Italian parliamentary deputy, Alessandra Mussolini
, to address fringe meetings at the 1992 Conservative Party conference (although they both were unable to come to Britain and the meetings were subsequently cancelled). The invitation to Miss Mussolini were said to have "caused outrage", and led to calls for a ban on her entering the country. The Institute rejected Fowler's remark, saying that the majority of those associated with the institute held Conservative Party membership.
The Jewish Chronicle reported on 25 September 1992 that Marc Gordon, director of the libertarian International Freedom Foundation
urged the Conservative Party to expel members of Western Goals, and in the same newspaper on 2 October, Julian Lewis
(now a Member of Parliament, then deputy head of Conservative Central Office's Research Department), said he would strongly advise local associations that Western Goals was hostile to Conservative objectives. The Guardian subsequently accused the WGI of attempting "to infiltrate fascists into the Conservative Party", which the WGI disputed as "rubbish".
. A press conference was held for the delegation in a committee room of the House of Lords
on 5 June. Conservative Party of South Africa MP Clive Derby-Lewis
, then one of sixty members of the integrated State President's Council, was made an honorary vice-president of the WGI. Derby-Lewis is currently serving a life sentence for conspiracy to murder Chris Hani
, the leader of the South African Communist Party
and leader of the ANC
's terrorist arm, who was assassinated in 1993. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(2 July 1993) lists the Western Goals Institute as an "impediment" to the elimination of racial discrimination in South Africa, saying of the Institute that it "claims to be devoted to protecting the Western way of life by offering self-defence training to white South Africans".
On 25 September 1989, Lord Sudeley
chaired a Western Goals dinner at Simpson's-in-the-Strand
for El Salvador's President, Alfredo Cristiani
, and his inner cabinet. The guest list included figures such as Sir Alfred Sherman
(policy advisor to Margaret Thatcher), Lord Nicholas Hervey
, Antony Flew
, Zigmunt Szkopiak
, Denis Walker
and Harvey Ward
.
In Europe, Western Goals gave their open support to the French Front National
, the populist right-wing political party led by Jean-Marie Le Pen
. On 12 October 1989, WGI hosted a controversial fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool
, addressed by Front National Member of the European Parliament
, Pierre Ceyrac
. Western Goals also examined the possibility of links with the right-wing German Republicans party, which in 1989 had six members in the European Parliament
.
On 12 August 1989, a delegation from the Western Goals Institute attended an anti-communist demonstration at Moln, near Lübeck
which over 20,000 people attended. The rally was organised by Die Deutschen Konservativen
e. V., led by Joachim Siegerist
, now a Latvia
n parliamentarian with whom the WGI had contacts.
The group hosted social events including an Annual Dinner at the Grosvenor Hotel at Victoria on 24 November 1989 when the guest of honour was Kenneth Griffith
. On 20 November 1990, they hosted the General Franco
Memorial Dinner, commemorating the anniversary of his death. This was also chaired by Baron Sudeley
. A WGI notice in The Times stated that the late ruler of Spain was "remembered as a hero against communism".
Western Goals hosted a widely reported dinner for Jean-Marie Le Pen at the Charing Cross Hotel in the Strand, London
in December 1991. There was a large demonstration against the dinner outside the hotel and some damage to property took place, notably the hotel's front doors and surroundings, which were smashed; an exclusive of the dinner appeared in The Mail on Sunday
on 8 December. Western Goals director Andrew Smith speaking in April 1993 is quoted as saying that "on reflection the Le Pen visit was the zenith and also the beginning of the end" for him. However Private Eye
cited him at the same time as saying that the Institute was "currently inactive, i.e: in a state of 'suspended animation', but we have other plans and projects under way.".
, meant that the group's activities diminished. In 1994/95 Lauder-Frost, writing as WGI Vice-President, called for the Union of Great Britain to be strengthened and rounded on John Major
and Jeremy Hanley
's comments about traditional Tories being "the enemies within" the Conservative Party. A successful Annual Dinner, chaired by Lauder-Frost, was held at the Grosvenor Hotel, Victoria, in March 1995, at which the guest-of-honour was the Democratic Unionist Party
Member of Parliament
, Peter Robinson
, now First Minister of Northern Ireland.
Lack of adequate finance reduced any subsequent campaigning to their occasional policy papers, the glossy newsletter, press releases, and letters to editors. The organisation was wound up in 2001 following the death of its Patron, General Sir Walter Walker.
Western Goals Foundation
The Western Goals Foundation was a private intelligence dissemination network active on the right-wing in the United States. It was wound up in 1986 when the Tower Commission revealed it had been part of Oliver North's Iran–Contra funding network....
. Its stated intent was anti-communism
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
, although the group was also known for its opposition to non-white immigration into Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
The Institute and its predecessor were affiliated with the World Anti-Communist League
World Anti-Communist League
The World League for Freedom and Democracy is an international anti-communist political organization founded in 1966 in Taipei, Republic of China , under the initiative of Chiang Kai-shek. It was founded with the aim of opposing Communism around the world through "unconventional" methods...
. In July 1990, WGI sent a delegation to the 22nd WACL Conference in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
and from 1991 WGI was the UK chapter of the senior World League. In 1992 the World League declined to be further associated with the Institute. The group was disbanded in 2001.
early aims
The Western Goals Institute was founded (as Western Goals UK) in May 1985 as the British branch of the American organisation the Western Goals FoundationWestern Goals Foundation
The Western Goals Foundation was a private intelligence dissemination network active on the right-wing in the United States. It was wound up in 1986 when the Tower Commission revealed it had been part of Oliver North's Iran–Contra funding network....
. In March 1987 Western Goals UK had filed a complaint with the Charity Commission for England and Wales against three major British charities, Oxfam, War on Want, and Christian Aid claiming that they were involved in political campaigning work (which was then contrary to UK charity law) in support of left-wing organizations due to their campaigns against apartheid in South Africa. The Charities Commission partially upheld the Western Goals complaint, obliging War on Want (which at the time was led by Labour MP George Galloway
George Galloway
George Galloway is a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster who was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010. He was formerly an MP for the Labour Party, first for Glasgow Hillhead and later for Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, the same year...
) to halt political campaigning.
In line with the ‘Reagan doctrine
Reagan Doctrine
The Reagan Doctrine was a strategy orchestrated and implemented by the United States under the Reagan Administration to oppose the global influence of the Soviet Union during the final years of the Cold War...
’ policies of its American patrons, Western Goals UK had established links with militant, and often violent, anti-Communist groups internationally. These include the Angolan UNITA
UNITA
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the Angolan War for Independence and then against the MPLA in the ensuing civil war .The war was one...
movement (in October 1988 Western Goals facilitated the visit to London of UNITA’s leader, Jonas Savimbi
Jonas Savimbi
Jonas Malheiro Savimbi was an Angolan political leader. He founded and led UNITA, a movement that first waged a guerrilla war against Portuguese colonial rule, 1966–1974, then confronted the rival MPLA during the decolonization conflict, 1974/75, and after independence in 1975 fought the ruling...
) and the Salvadoran Nationalist Republican Alliance
Nationalist Republican Alliance
The Nationalist Republican Alliance is a conservative political party in El Salvador. It was founded on September 30, 1981, by Roberto D'Aubuisson, in order to oppose the reformist military junta that was ruling El Salvador at the time...
(ARENA) party, whose leader, Roberto D’Aubuisson, became, along with US Major General John K. Singlaub
John K. Singlaub
John Kirk Singlaub is a highly-decorated former OSS officer and a retired Major General in the United States Army, and a founding member of the Central Intelligence Agency . He was a joint founder, with Congressman Larry McDonald, of the Western Goals Foundation, a conservative private...
, the group’s international patrons. It was also claimed that Western Goals may have been used by its U.S. partners as a conduit for funds to the Nicaraguan Contras
Contras
The contras is a label given to the various rebel groups opposing Nicaragua's FSLN Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle's dictatorship...
following the ‘Contragate’ scandal.
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
candidates. In addition 1989 was the year it formed close links with the Conservative Party of South Africa
Conservative Party (South Africa)
The Conservative Party of South Africa was a conservative party formed in 1982 as a breakaway from the ruling National Party...
which it saw as fighting communism in the form of the ANC.
Initially, the Western Goals Institute drew some support from Conservative parliamentarians. The London magazine City Limits (21 June 1990) stated that "Western Goals is talking the same blunt authoritarian language as many Tory backbenchers and rank and file Tories. It is a group to be reckoned with ... having a formidable list of honorary patrons and Vice-Presidents".
The Institute stated its aims on the BBC in 1991:
"Western Goals works to establish networks and links with conservative groups dedicated to the preservation of the cultures and identities of western nations. We are conservatives who believe in traditional conservative values. A multi-cultural society does not work. We wish to protect the way of life we had before immigrants arrived. It was a mistake to permit these people to come here. Politicians must now accept this. Large numbers of immigrants reject European culture and wish to remain alien in religion and culture. We want European culture in European countries. We would seek to have treaties with countries to permit resettlement.".
Following the end of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, however, the group lost its original anti-Communist raison d’etre in Europe, at least, but continued to forge links with other ultra-conservative political parties such as the Front National
Front National (France)
The National Front is a political party in France. The party was founded in 1972, seeking to unify a variety of French far-right currents of the time. Jean-Marie Le Pen was the party's first leader and the undisputed centre of the party from its start until his resignation in 2011...
of France. This association with Le Pen and his party resulted in many of the group’s former Conservative supporters distancing themselves from the organization.
Relationship with the Conservative Party
The WGI initially worked towards its goals within the British Conservative PartyConservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
, in particular via the right-wing Conservative Monday Club
Conservative Monday Club
The Conservative Monday Club is a British pressure group "on the right-wing" of the Conservative Party.-Overview:...
with whom it shared some members.
In the late 1980s, WGI's predecessor, Western Goals UK, had established a parliamentary advisory committee of Conservative MPs which included Sir Patrick Wall
Patrick Wall
Major Sir Patrick Henry Bligh Wall KBE , MC, VRD was a British senior commando in the Royal Marines during World War II and later a Conservative politician. He was Member of Parliament for Haltemprice, East Yorkshire and subsequently for Beverley...
, Nicholas Winterton
Nicholas Winterton
Sir Nicholas Raymond Winterton is a retired British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Macclesfield from 1971 until he retired from the House of Commons at the 2010 general election....
, Neil Hamilton
Neil Hamilton (politician)
Mostyn Neil Hamilton is a former British barrister, teacher and Conservative MP. Since losing his seat in 1997 and leaving politics, Hamilton and his wife Christine have become media celebrities...
and Bill Walker, as well as Martin Smyth
Martin Smyth
Reverend William Martin Smyth is a Northern Irish unionist politician, and was Ulster Unionist Party Member of Parliament for Belfast South from 1982-2005...
of the Ulster Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
. In 1991, Western Goals was accused in a newspaper report of engineering a "take-over" of the Conservative Monday Club, and there were reports that some veteran members believed the Club had become "more extreme". Club Political Secretary Gregory Lauder-Frost rejected these claims in a right-of-reply letter published the following week.
Front National
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
, at which Pierre Ceyrac
Pierre Ceyrac
Pierre Ceyrac was a longstanding friend of Jean Marie Le Pen who served the French Front National Party first as a Deputy to the National Assembly of France, and then as a Member of the European Parliament....
, a Front National Member of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
, was the Guest Speaker. In December 1991, after a visit by French right-wing leader Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
at the request of the Institute, its Director Andrew Smith was quoted as saying:
- "There is scope for a radical right alternative outside the Conservative Party. The Tories have betrayed their principles since Mrs Thatcher fell. With this contact with European leaders we are laying the foundations for a new party.".
The possibility of founding a new right-wing party, on the model of Le Pen's Front National, appears to have been abandoned by Smith after the Conservative Party's win in the 1992 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...
ensured that proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
stayed off the political agenda for the foreseeable future. However even at the time, the gradual defection of the parliamentary advisory committee and the decision of the leadership of the Monday Club and associated MPs to stay away from the Le Pen Dinner made the prospect unlikely.
Opposition grows
In September 1992, Sir Norman FowlerNorman Fowler
Norman Fowler, Baron Fowler, PC is a British Conservative politician who was from 1981 to 1990 a member of Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet.-Early life:...
, in an attempt to distance the Conservative Party from the Institute, said that "No one in Western Goals is known by Central Office to belong to our party". This followed the Institute's invitation to Jean-Marie Le Pen, and 31 year-old Italian parliamentary deputy, Alessandra Mussolini
Alessandra Mussolini
Alessandra Mussolini is an Italian politician, the granddaughter of Benito Mussolini, and previously an actress and model...
, to address fringe meetings at the 1992 Conservative Party conference (although they both were unable to come to Britain and the meetings were subsequently cancelled). The invitation to Miss Mussolini were said to have "caused outrage", and led to calls for a ban on her entering the country. The Institute rejected Fowler's remark, saying that the majority of those associated with the institute held Conservative Party membership.
The Jewish Chronicle reported on 25 September 1992 that Marc Gordon, director of the libertarian International Freedom Foundation
International Freedom Foundation
The International Freedom Foundation , was a self-described anti-communist group established in Washington, D.C. founded in 1986 by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Its purported aim was to promote individual and collective freedoms worldwide: freedom of thought; free speech; free association; free...
urged the Conservative Party to expel members of Western Goals, and in the same newspaper on 2 October, Julian Lewis
Julian Lewis
Dr. Julian Murray Lewis is a British Conservative Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for New Forest East in Hampshire since the 1997 general election.-Education:Born on 26 September 1951 in Swansea, Dr...
(now a Member of Parliament, then deputy head of Conservative Central Office's Research Department), said he would strongly advise local associations that Western Goals was hostile to Conservative objectives. The Guardian subsequently accused the WGI of attempting "to infiltrate fascists into the Conservative Party", which the WGI disputed as "rubbish".
Notable activities
WGI supported the continuance of apartheid in South Africa, and hosted a visit to the UK, in June 1989, by the hierarchy of the Conservative Party of South Africa, which some years previously broke away from the National Party of South Africa after P.W. Botha instituted limited reforms. The delegation included the Conservative Party leader Andries TreurnichtAndries Treurnicht
Andries Petrus Treurnicht was a South African politician, Minister of Education during the Soweto Riots and for a short time leader of the National Party in Transvaal...
. A press conference was held for the delegation in a committee room of the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
on 5 June. Conservative Party of South Africa MP Clive Derby-Lewis
Clive Derby-Lewis
Clive John Derby-Lewis is a South African ex-politician, who was involved first in the National Party and then, while serving as a Member of Parliament, in the Conservative Party. He is serving a life sentence for his role in the assassination of South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani...
, then one of sixty members of the integrated State President's Council, was made an honorary vice-president of the WGI. Derby-Lewis is currently serving a life sentence for conspiracy to murder Chris Hani
Chris Hani
Chris Hani, born Martin Thembisile Hani was the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress . He was a fierce opponent of the apartheid government...
, the leader of the South African Communist Party
South African Communist Party
South African Communist Party is a political party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa by the joining together of the International Socialist League and others under the leadership of Willam H...
and leader of the ANC
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
's terrorist arm, who was assassinated in 1993. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees , also known as The UN Refugee Agency is a United Nations agency mandated to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to...
(2 July 1993) lists the Western Goals Institute as an "impediment" to the elimination of racial discrimination in South Africa, saying of the Institute that it "claims to be devoted to protecting the Western way of life by offering self-defence training to white South Africans".
On 25 September 1989, Lord Sudeley
Merlin Hanbury-Tracy, 7th Baron Sudeley
Merlin Charles Sainthill Hanbury-Tracy, 7th Baron Sudeley, FSA is a British peer, author and veteran right-wing activist. In 1941, at the age of three, he succeeded his first cousin once removed, the 6th Lord Sudeley, to the Barony of Sudeley and until the House of Lords Act 1999 sat in that body...
chaired a Western Goals dinner at Simpson's-in-the-Strand
Simpson's-in-the-Strand
Simpson's-in-the-Strand is one of London's oldest traditional English restaurants. Situated in the Strand, it is part of the Savoy Buildings, which also contain one of the world's most famous hotels, the Savoy....
for El Salvador's President, Alfredo Cristiani
Alfredo Cristiani
Alfredo Félix Cristiani Burkard, popularly known as Alfredo Cristiani was President of El Salvador from 1989 to 1994....
, and his inner cabinet. The guest list included figures such as Sir Alfred Sherman
Alfred Sherman
Sir Alfred Sherman, KBE, was a writer, journalist, and political analyst. Described by a long-time associate as "a brilliant polymath, a consummate homo politicus, and one of the last true witnesses to the 20th century", he began life as a Communist soldier in the Spanish Civil War but later...
(policy advisor to Margaret Thatcher), Lord Nicholas Hervey
Lord Nicholas Hervey
Lord Frederick William Charles Nicholas Wentworth Hervey was the only child born to the 6th Marquess of Bristol by his second wife Lord Frederick William Charles Nicholas Wentworth Hervey (26 November 1961–26 January 1998) was the only child born to the 6th Marquess of Bristol by his second...
, Antony Flew
Antony Flew
Antony Garrard Newton Flew was a British philosopher. Belonging to the analytic and evidentialist schools of thought, he was notable for his works on the philosophy of religion....
, Zigmunt Szkopiak
Zigmunt Szkopiak
Dr. Zygmunt Szkopiak was a Polish scientist, diplomat and historian who from 1986 until its dissolution in 1990, served as the last Minister of Foreign Affairs in the London-based Polish government-in-exile....
, Denis Walker
Denis Walker
Wilfrid Denis Walker is a former Rhodesian cabinet minister resident in the United Kingdom. He is known for his monarchist activities and anti-communism and is also the Company Secretary, Director and Treasurer of the International Monarchist League and its UK subsidiary, the Constitutional...
and Harvey Ward
Harvey Ward
Harvey Grenville Ward was Director-General of the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation, noted for his anti-communism and for his support for Ian Smith's government in Rhodesia and South Africa. He was a leading member of the Conservative Monday Club.-Background:Ward was born in Southern Rhodesia to...
.
In Europe, Western Goals gave their open support to the French Front National
Front National (France)
The National Front is a political party in France. The party was founded in 1972, seeking to unify a variety of French far-right currents of the time. Jean-Marie Le Pen was the party's first leader and the undisputed centre of the party from its start until his resignation in 2011...
, the populist right-wing political party led by Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
. On 12 October 1989, WGI hosted a controversial fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
, addressed by Front National Member of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
, Pierre Ceyrac
Pierre Ceyrac
Pierre Ceyrac was a longstanding friend of Jean Marie Le Pen who served the French Front National Party first as a Deputy to the National Assembly of France, and then as a Member of the European Parliament....
. Western Goals also examined the possibility of links with the right-wing German Republicans party, which in 1989 had six members in the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
.
On 12 August 1989, a delegation from the Western Goals Institute attended an anti-communist demonstration at Moln, near Lübeck
Lübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
which over 20,000 people attended. The rally was organised by Die Deutschen Konservativen
Die Deutschen Konservativen
Die Deutschen Konservativen is a German conservative anti-communist organisation, which developed out of a conservative campaign to support Franz Josef Strauß in the 1980 federal election...
e. V., led by Joachim Siegerist
Joachim Siegerist
Werner Joachim Siegerist is a German-Latvian journalist, author and conservative politician. He is chairman of the anti-communist German Conservatives and co-publisher of the Konservative Deutsche Zeitung...
, now a Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
n parliamentarian with whom the WGI had contacts.
The group hosted social events including an Annual Dinner at the Grosvenor Hotel at Victoria on 24 November 1989 when the guest of honour was Kenneth Griffith
Kenneth Griffith
Kenneth Griffith was a Welsh actor and documentary filmmaker.-Early life:He was born Kenneth Reginald Griffiths in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales. Six months after his birth his parents split up and left Tenby, leaving Kenneth with his paternal grandparents, Emily and Ernest, who immediately adopted...
. On 20 November 1990, they hosted the General Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
Memorial Dinner, commemorating the anniversary of his death. This was also chaired by Baron Sudeley
Merlin Hanbury-Tracy, 7th Baron Sudeley
Merlin Charles Sainthill Hanbury-Tracy, 7th Baron Sudeley, FSA is a British peer, author and veteran right-wing activist. In 1941, at the age of three, he succeeded his first cousin once removed, the 6th Lord Sudeley, to the Barony of Sudeley and until the House of Lords Act 1999 sat in that body...
. A WGI notice in The Times stated that the late ruler of Spain was "remembered as a hero against communism".
Western Goals hosted a widely reported dinner for Jean-Marie Le Pen at the Charing Cross Hotel in the Strand, London
Strand, London
Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...
in December 1991. There was a large demonstration against the dinner outside the hotel and some damage to property took place, notably the hotel's front doors and surroundings, which were smashed; an exclusive of the dinner appeared in The Mail on Sunday
The Mail on Sunday
The Mail on Sunday is a British conservative newspaper, currently published in a tabloid format. First published in 1982 by Lord Rothermere, it became Britain's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper following the closing of The News of the World in July 2011...
on 8 December. Western Goals director Andrew Smith speaking in April 1993 is quoted as saying that "on reflection the Le Pen visit was the zenith and also the beginning of the end" for him. However Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
cited him at the same time as saying that the Institute was "currently inactive, i.e: in a state of 'suspended animation', but we have other plans and projects under way.".
Last years
Negative publicity, the departure from the Directorate in late 1993 of A.V.R. Smith (replaced by Stuart Millson) and the end of the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, meant that the group's activities diminished. In 1994/95 Lauder-Frost, writing as WGI Vice-President, called for the Union of Great Britain to be strengthened and rounded on John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
and Jeremy Hanley
Jeremy Hanley
Sir Jeremy James Hanley, KCMG , is a politician and chartered accountant from the United Kingdom. He served as the Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1994-95, and as a Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Richmond and Barnes from 1983-97.Hanley was educated at Rugby School,...
's comments about traditional Tories being "the enemies within" the Conservative Party. A successful Annual Dinner, chaired by Lauder-Frost, was held at the Grosvenor Hotel, Victoria, in March 1995, at which the guest-of-honour was the Democratic Unionist Party
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, Peter Robinson
Peter Robinson (politician)
Peter David Robinson is the current First Minister of Northern Ireland and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party...
, now First Minister of Northern Ireland.
Lack of adequate finance reduced any subsequent campaigning to their occasional policy papers, the glossy newsletter, press releases, and letters to editors. The organisation was wound up in 2001 following the death of its Patron, General Sir Walter Walker.