Two prominent foreign nazis were banned from attending a high-profile far-right gathering in the UK at the weekend.
The event was the annual Heritage and Destiny conference held just outside Preston on Sunday. H&D is a magazine which poses as the theoretical journal of the UK nazi movement – with many connections to foreign fascists.
Its conference attracts nazis from across the far-right political spectrum in the UK. It is run by veteran nazi Mark Cotterill and his deputy Peter Rushton.
Extremist views
One of those banned was the notorious Spanish nazi Isabel Peralta, the magazine’s Spanish correspondent, who sparked outrage when she was admitted to the UK two years ago to speak at a H&D conference despite having been banned from entering Germany because of her extremist views.
This year the assembly of around 70 nazis were told that she could not attend because he had been barred by the Home Office.
This was mostly true – she hadn’t actually tried to come to the UK but had assumed that a ban imposed last year when she tried to enter for a ‘family visit’ was still in force.
Home Office ban
More surprising was the ban on American nazi Kenneth Schmidt who had been invited and was expected to speak.
He spoke at the H&D conference two years ago but without the furore surrounding his visit that was a feature of Peralta’s.
This year, however, he found himself on the receiving end of Home office ban at rather short notice and was prevented from attending.
