Norris McWhirter (The original Brexiter, 29 November) may have been a man with “a cranial database [of] fascinating facts” but he was an avowed champion of apartheid. As a leading member of the National Association for Freedom (Naff) – now the Freedom Association – he sought to prevent the BBC from broadcasting Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday concert in 1988 on the grounds that it would constitute “anti-apartheid propaganda”.
McWhirter’s libertarianism is mischaracterised as a commitment to freedoms from restraints and obligations, but it was in fact a commitment to freedom to oppress and exploit. Grunwick boss George Ward sought support from Naff to sue the postal workers’ union for its active solidarity with the Grunwick strikers – a section of the ruling class involved in financing strike-breaking against a group of female Asian workers fighting for union recognition.
These “libertarians” came together over support for Rhodesia and South Africa and a hard line against Irish republicanism. To treat them as a laughing matter is to give space for their ideas and history to gather support again.
Nick Moss
London
• Reading about Norris McWhirter took me back to 1972 when his brother Ross decided to challenge the Heath government’s decision to take the UK into what is now the EU. My role was to help Ross, a litigant in person, to draft the writ and issue it in the high court. Having completed the formalities, Ross decided that we should serve the sealed document on the appropriate secretary of state.
After being turned away by the PC at the House of Commons, we hastened to the Treasury solicitor’s office in Whitehall, where a senior official solemnly informed us that we were in breach of parliamentary privilege for attempted service of legal process within the precincts of the Palace of Westminster. Fortunately the threatened knock on the door by the serjeant at arms never came.
Len Blomstrand
London
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