Imagine a trusted activist, welcome in a wide range of far-right organisations, described by the British National Party as “a keen Party member and an active supporter over the last eight years … [who] would travel across London to support meetings in any area”. A man who “would never miss an opportunity to go out leafleting, despite having to use a walking-stick to get around … devoted to the Nationalist cause … a regular supporter of the Trafalgar Club fund raising dinners … [and] attender at the Red White and Blue gatherings, where his humour and love of life made him very popular”.

That was Duncan Robertson, who died aged 48 on 19 March 2013 and whose glowing obituary, by the BNP’s Croydon and Sutton branch, appeared on the BNP website on 29 April.

The British National Party’s glowing tribute to Duncan attracted 17 positive comments, providing further evidence of how successful his infiltration of the far right had been over the past ten years. Here are some of them – spelling, grammar and silly names are all their own.

“RIP fellow patriot” – imnokuffar

“RIP proud patriot” – A Wayne Lamport

Duncan’s funeral ceremony included a selection of readings chosen by the celebrant from the British Humanist Association in agreement with Searchlight. We reproduce two here.

Man’s dearest possession is life, and since it is given to him to live but once he must so live as to feel no torturing regrets for years without purpose; so live as not to be seared by the shame of a cowardly and trivial past; so live that dying he can say “All my life and all my strength were given to the finest cause in all the world, the fight for the liberation of mankind.” – How the Steel was Tempered by Nikolai Alekseyevich Ostrovski

The Bruges Group describes itself an independent all-party think tank which opposes further European integration. Several Conservative MPs have addressed its public meetings and until her death Margaret Thatcher was its president. However its latest function brought together a number of Nazis and far rightists, as well as supporters of the Conservative right and UK Independence Party, and provided a forum for the sort of anti-immigrant rhetoric promoted by UKIP. To find out what the Bruges Group is all about these days, Cato attended its latest meeting on behalf of Searchlight.

Sir Andrew Green, founder and chairman of Migration Watch UK since 2001, was the main speaker at the Bruges Group meeting held in London on 23 April, which attracted 130 people. A former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, he had previously addressed the group on 20 May 2009. Migration Watch says it recognises that many immigrants have made a valuable contribution to our society in terms of skills and diversity so is not opposed to “moderate and managed” immigration. The group, which has produced a large number of briefing papers, has become a prominent anti-immigration voice in the media over the past ten years.