Four months before he died in 2018, my father, Harry Leslie Smith, made a series of videos for the UNHCR. He knew ignoring the Refugee Crisis or responding to it with indifferent cruelty would portend fascism return to power in the West.

The videos were about his memories of the refugee crisis in Europe following the defeat of Hitler’s Germany. The images from those last months of the war — and the months after peace was declared — still haunted him seventy years after he first witnessed them. It compelled him to go on the road and visit modern day refugee camps when he was in his 90s.

On the road to Hamburg, an endless procession of refugees trudged past: forced labourers, ex-prisoners, survivors from concentration camps, and Germans fleeing the Soviets. Some carried worn luggage held together with rope; others walked with nothing but the clothes on their backs. With eyes cast down, they plodded along that dusty road in search of home. (Excerpt from The Green And Pleasant Land.)

If he were alive today, Harry Leslie Smith would have given no quarter to Britain’s morally bankrupt Labour government or its self-serving Prime Minister, Keir Starmer who is the 1%’s most loyal lickspittle. The government’s plans to overhaul the asylum system — making it the most draconian in Europe — put Britain on the road to becoming, the most fascist government on the continent.

The refugee crisis continues to expand, driven by conflicts that enrich powerful Western elites and by the climate emergency, which accelerates displacement. Starmer’s government appears determined to dismantle Britain’s asylum protections not for pragmatic reasons but out of self-interest, prioritising power and privilege over humanitarian responsibility.

We live in an age of intolerance, superstition, superficiality, and hubris. The downfall of the West is no longer a question of if, but when. There is no pulling back from it. Britain, it seems, is determined to keep pace with Trump’s America as both nations race toward their own destruction.

The uploaded UNHCR video, although seven years old, can be taken as my father’s response to Starmer’s inhumane changes to Britain’s asylum laws.

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Outro:

This month marks the seventh anniversary of my dad’s death, and the fourth anniversary of my Harry’s Last Stand newsletter going live. In these past four years, this blog has grown to over 3,400 subscribers, with more than 700 posts published.

Harry Leslie Smith’s voice matters more than ever in a time when we need to remember our working-class past — and what ordinary citizens achieved when they united as one to demand, and then build, a Welfare State.

For the past eighteen months, I’ve been finishing The Green and Pleasant Land — the book my dad never had the chance to complete. It’s now finished and ready to find its audience. If you’d like a beta copy, just send me a DM.

There’s no paywall here. Every piece not only speaks to the present moment but also keeps Harry Leslie Smith’s working-class legacy alive. That’s only been possible because of your paid subscriptions and tips. Your support has kept the wheels on the bus, the lights on, and me housed.

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Take care,John

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