Far-Right Bookshop Praised by Reform’s James Orr Faces Police Warning Over ‘Racist’ Post About Muslim Men

A far-right bookshop endorsed by a series of prominent right-wing figures – which sells books by Hitler, Goebbels, and Mosley, and whose social media account called for millions of people to be removed from Britain – has found itself being looked into by police.

Until August, Oldspeak Bookshop had a physical presence in the leafy and affluent Suffolk village of Long Melford, which has a trade in quirky independent shops.

Oldspeak became a darling of the far-right, stocking white nationalist and Nazi literature before the store said it had been hounded out by “constant hostility” in the area.

Its name is taken from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which “Oldspeak” is the ordinary English that the regime’s engineered language, “Newspeak”, is designed to replace.

Before its closure, the shop displayed a Union flag in its window bearing the words ‘Remigration Now’ – the term typically used to demand the forced expulsion of significant numbers of people, including those here legally, who are not deemed to be ‘British’.

The store’s account on Elon Musk’s social media platform X has frequently endorsed far-right material, including:

• Posting a photograph of the shop front in June with the caption “Mood #millionsmustgo”.
• Replying to GB News’ Tom Harwood, saying that the black England footballer Marcus Rashford’s parents’ nationalities mean “he cannot be English”.
• Quote-tweeting a clip of commentator Connor Tomlinson – a Restore Britain-linked activist and backer of the ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory – arguing that entire communities four generations deep should be stripped of citizenship, detained, and deported and posting: “Not sure what the problem is here.”
• Replying to a social media user who noted that people dislike a business that backs the disappearance of millions of foreign nationals with: “I don’t think they should simply disappear. Plenty of them should be hanged too.”
• Replying “not yet” with a laughing emoji, when asked whether Nazi flags (including a British Union of Fascists lightning bolt, and Swastika-emblazoned Union flags) are among the ones “these people are terrified about”.

Oldspeak Bookshop continues its trade via its website, where its list of independent publishers includes Antelope Hill Publishing – which the US-based Southern Poverty Law Centre has described as a white nationalist publisher.

Alongside some critical histories of Nazism, titles available through the website include Adolf Hitler’s collected speeches (a blurb states “he may have been Man of the Century”); The Rise of the Reich written by the SS itself (with a description praising its ‘mythic grandeur and martial clarity’); British Union of Fascists Leader Sir Oswald Mosley’s My Life; Joseph Goebbels’ Battle for Berlin; and publications on ‘anti-white racism’ and demands for ‘remigration’. The shop has run a promotion with the discount code “RemigrationNow”.

Despite losing its physical presence, Oldspeak’s owner, Joanne May – who is not from Long Melford and has previously run businesses in Essex – said she is “honoured to return” to the Battle of Ideas festival in London later this month, with a stall selling books by speakers.

It is organised and hosted by the Academy of Ideas think tank – the founder and director of which is Baroness Claire Fox, an independent peer in the House of Lords. Neither responded to requests for comment.

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Prominent Backers, and a Police Report

In September, May – who runs Oldspeak’s X account – posted a photograph of two young Muslim men waiting at a bus stop in Long Melford, one dressed in prayer clothes, with the caption: “It’s started.” (Their faces were not blurred in the original).

Responses to the post included “doesn’t look good there. Remigration solves this” and “nowhere is safe I’m afraid!”. One user posted an image of a flamethrower being used with the words “don’t mind me. Just watering my Muslims”.

Suffolk Constabulary told Byline Times that a member of the public had contacted the police “after a reportedly offensive photo was posted on social media that showed two individuals, believed to have been taken from within Long Melford”.

“Enquiries currently remain ongoing, while the two people pictured have been spoken to by officers,” the police spokesperson said. “Anyone with information is asked to contact Suffolk police quoting reference 37/57288/26.”

Local resident and writer Simon Edge told Byline Times he believed May expressed “racist” views which she “flaunted by flying far-right flags outside her shop”.

“What made matters much worse was the public praise she received from some very senior politicians, including members of the House of Lords,” he said.

Edge argues that, if politicians had endorsed a bookshop expressing antisemitism “as opposed to Islamophobia, the media would have been all over it”.