Attitude To Race Relations
Boaks's "White Resident" label led to him being labelled as racist by the Anti-Nazi League, but Boaks chose this mostly as a means of provoking left-wingers, whom he disliked (despite having a number of rather left-wing views of his own, particularly on the Health Service), and partly as he hoped to undercut votes for the National Front (NF) and similar parties. Boaks was contemptuous of the NF, having stood against a number of its members in the 1950s and 1960s when they belonged to more openly neo-Nazi groups, such as John Bean's British National Party, Colin Jordan's White Defence League and Oswald Mosley's Union Movement. The "White Resident" tag was also a means of more easily attracting media attention during the heated debate over immigration in the 1970s in the UK, in order to push his "Public Safety" agenda.
Boaks's stance led to his becoming the first promoter of ethnic minority candidates in United Kingdom elections. His usual set-piece response when confronted over his label by anyone non-white was to say "Why White Resident? Because that's what I am!" He would then grab the questioner's hand, slap a pound note into it and say "Now find 149 more of those and stand as a 'Black Immigrant' candidate for what YOU believe in. If you don't, who will?" Boaks reckoned that he had given away a couple of hundred pounds in this manner.
Read more about this topic: Bill Boaks
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