If you watched the updated BBC’s Upstairs Downstairs on PBS last week you would have seen the above logo for the British Union of Fascists in an episode where Lady Persie ignorantly embraces the Fascist ideology. If you wondered what this startlingly demonic lightning bolt symbol was, the anti-democratic party was founded by Sir Oswald Mosley (below) in 1931 and proposed similar national and racial policies to those of the Nazis. The BUF also adopted the Italian faces (below bottom).
The lightening flash, influenced by the SS runes and Swastika symbol, was set against the colors of the United Kingdom. The flag was used until the party was dissolved in 1940, but the emblem reappeared after the war as the symbol of another of Mosley’s right wing parties.
