I’d like to draw your attention to a few characteristics of fascism…
Watching the stupid unfold from the stage at the National Conservatism conference we compiled our Top Ten of the stupidest things said at the new event that marks the convergence point of the Tory party with neo-fascism …
Straight in an No. 1 is Yoram Hazony …
What is national conservatism?
Before anything else, it’s that step forward where you say: “There is a British nation, and, for the past thousand years, it’s been a shining beacon for the world.”
That’s your inheritance.@yhazony at #NatConUK pic.twitter.com/3tgoxOrQF4
— National Conservatism (@NatConTalk) May 15, 2023
Just to say Yoram – Britain hasn’t existed for 1000 years – it’s not been a shining beacon for anywhere – and this isn’t my inheritance. Apart from that, this is great stuff.
Straight in at No 2 is Tory MP Danny Kruger …
Tory MP Danny Kruger tells NatCon that Western civilisation is threatened by a “new religion”, a mix of “Marxism, narcissism and paganism”, conforming to the “dystopian fantasy of John Lennon”
— David Broder (@broderly) May 15, 2023
Kruger is soon upstaged by Katharine Birbalsingh (no me neither) who has some great insights into Whitney Houston lyrics …
Katharine Birbalsingh tells NatCon that Whitney Houston was right to sing the children are our future — but wrong about them leading the way
“The celebration of ‘me’ in 1986 was the precursor to the ‘me, me, me’ culture in 2023”
— Dominic Penna (@DominicPenna) May 15, 2023
Straight in at No. 4 is Alex Kaschuta …
Alex @kaschuta speaking now.
“The only thing more powerful than an edifice of carefully constructed lies… is to be able to speak the truth… The truth is, no, not all cultures and peoples are the same.” pic.twitter.com/8zKeYNYN2W
— Jack Hadfield 🇬🇧 (@JackHadders) May 15, 2023
I mean we hear ya Alex! I guess the best thing about these far-right gatherings is what they say when they are off-the-leash. No need to de-code this Ted Talk!
Next up at No. 5 is the Tories very own Danny Kruger with one of many pledges to the Traditional Family:
The normative family, the mother and father sticking together for the sake of the children, is the only basis for a safe and functioning society.
Marriage is not only about you, it’s a public act to live for the sake of someone else.
-MP @danny__kruger at #NatConUK pic.twitter.com/wZrEgwGGJA
— National Conservatism (@NatConTalk) May 15, 2023
At No. 6 and 7 we have big Frank Furedi with some quotes that sound like they’ve been made by the SpikedBotQuoteGenerator …
Leftist ideology sexualises children while infantilising themselves.
These are the people who are abolishing the border between the private and the public, who argue that the distinction between humans and animals is a kind of racism.
–@Furedibyte #NatConUK pic.twitter.com/I7fiuuJpkU
— National Conservatism (@NatConTalk) May 15, 2023
Notions of boundaries are important. As people try to erode these, what is ultimately being destroyed is our capacity to discriminate between good and evil.
-Author @Furedibyte at #NatConUK pic.twitter.com/P6SSReb9gg
— National Conservatism (@NatConTalk) May 15, 2023
At No. 8 more from Mad Frankie …
In Brussels, every single identity celebrated. Little leaflets are handed out reminding you that yet another identity has been invented…
There’s one identity in Brussels that isn’t celebrated. Do you know what that is? The identity of the nation.
–@Furedibyte at #NatConUK pic.twitter.com/ZRTQsFNVzh
— National Conservatism (@NatConTalk) May 15, 2023
Straight in at No 9 it s Miss Snuffy!
How much do you love your country?
Enough to tweet under your own name?
To change your child’s school to one that is less woke?
To do more than chat to your friends who already agree with you at dinner parties?
For heaven’s sake, man, stand up and be counted.
–@Miss_Snuffy pic.twitter.com/e3UQWoBdGg
— National Conservatism (@NatConTalk) May 15, 2023
At No 10 we have Suella with more of the “It’s Not Racists to Be Racist chat” … (yes it is you fucking travesty) …
It’s not xenophobic to say that mass and rapid migration is unsustainable.
Nor is it bigoted to say that there are too many asylum seekers in this country.
It’s not racist for anyone to want to control our borders.
–@SuellaBraverman at #NatConUK pic.twitter.com/YxBiNql8iW
— National Conservatism (@NatConTalk) May 15, 2023
Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.
…or Tory dingbats !
And?
What’s the point of this?
Tories are bad, m’kay.
No shit?
Well we’re stuck with them until we either replace the burst SNP or it somehow purges itself of 90% of its own useless or traitorous payroll weight and remains alive.
That’s priority number 1. The SNP is either supplanted from without or overhauled from within. Nothing else positive for Scotland can happen until that does.
These aren’t just ‘Tories’ – this is a new and particularly radical strain of thinking bringing together the most toxic elements of the far-right. If you can’t discern a difference I can’t help you. Some of it is laid out here: https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2023/05/01/britain-and-the-new-national-conservatism/
Don’t Mike. He’s all over the National with the same tripe. Don’t feed him.
SNP – supplanted by who?
Alba – a party born out of bitterness whose main aim seems to be to bring down the SNP (like it or not the only feasible political party for independence), who are doing the unionists dirty work for them and who have consistently polled virtually bugger all in every Scottish election.
The hard facts are that for Scotland to become successfully independent it will require approval by and support from the majority of democratic countries, the EU and other international institutions.
Realpolitik dictates that this approval will only be forthcoming when other countries and international institutions see that the majority of Scottish electorate support independence. The 2014 referendum was described by AS at time as the Gold Standard method to achieve independence and remains. so. I fail to see how using other elections as de facto referendums will achieve independence which is why this strategy fails to achieve widespread support across independence movements.
In my opinion if Westminster will not agree to a Section 30 then all de facto routes can do is bring pressure to bear on Westminster to agree to an S30.
Otherwise the only route to independence is for Holyrood to organise a referendum without Westminster consent. This will probably be boycotted by No side in which case there will need to be a massive Yes vote probably equalling or surpassing the No vote in 2014. A scale of vote that no de facto method would come close to achieving. A large vote of this magnitude in favour of independence would clearly demonstrate that independence was settled will of Scottish electorate and gain the internal support required for a successful independent Scotland out enormous pressure on Westminster to accept vote and negotiate an independence settlement.
What the SNP need to do is get over current difficulties which will pass, improve openness and governance and set out a clear and realistic path for independence and engage with other independence groups to achieve this aim.
The tenor of this conference is so nasty, and polarising. But I’ve read so many rightly horrified comments in my feed I’m here to take a slightly dissenting view.
As a widow who took two decades to line up all the ducks for starting a family, I see everything my kid misses out on by not having a father. I consider the years spent toiling in some bureaucracy, suffering low level sexual harassment and pay discrimination, as essentially wasted years compared to the fulfilment of having a family.
I will defend the right to have an abortion to my dying breath. But we live in a country where almost 1 in 4 pregnancies are aborted. Surely there needs to be a conversation about that – be it sex education, giving parents more support, or access to contraception?
As an atheist: is more evidence for the existence of Jesus as a historical figure than there is for a gender that is distinct from sex. Identity ideology is a madness; and the growing practise of surrogacy that facilitates it is, in my view, a moral wrong which is profoundly anti-woman.
So yes, I deplore everything about these nasty, crypto-fascist loons. But let’s have a serious conversation about this. Do we at least agree that society needs limits to moral relativism, as a starting point?
Is some of this an attack on King Charles, or am I assuming too much coherence, rationality and consistency here?
It’s an interesting point. For these people I suspect Charles would be considered ‘woke’.
I wondered about that too; and on Boris Johnson.
@thought-policed, indeed, and quite a lot of other politicians, and paragons of the right, seem to be massive hypocrites about ‘family values’.
I was reminded again of the white Christian supremacist (and arch hypocrite, apparently) J Edgar Hoover when I read this book review today:
“A new book looks back at the long-serving FBI director’s devotion to keeping America a white Christian republic and the devastating effect he had”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/21/the-gospel-of-j-edgar-hoover-lerone-martin
The author is quoted as saying: “Psychology and history tells us that it’s often those who are protesting extremely loudly as it relates to queerness are battling something inside beyond just concerns about other folks being queer.”
@Niemand, yes, but what is the NatCon solution to a hereditary monarch they take a dislike to? Are they pro- or anti-nepotism? Or does their political platform not really make any sense as a model? Do they recognise that the British Empire still exists, and its territories will be affected by things like the tranche of EU-era legislation listed for expiry (tax havens etc.)? Or are they just repeatedly changing flags like a pirate ship zig-zagging through the Caribbean in the age of sail? Or just stooges, lackeys, grifters, delusionists, attention-seekers, agents and assets?
Viz got it spot-on – as they do from time to time – with their prody of a – presumably – tory MP. I forget his name, Victor Values or something like; speak one way and act another.
@Derek, sounds like the Victorian values of public virtue, private vice.
Oh, perhaps I am being unkind, and National Conservatism is simply the result of years of accumulated air pollution on human cognition. Well, with the Tory bonfire of environmental law, they may finally have found the recipe for unity, as Britain will be smothered beneath a stupefying cloudbase of toxic vapour against which the European west coast will have to erect giant batteries of gargantuan fans, which will so resemble wind turbines that our cognitively-defunct population will be kept in a perpetual state of harmonious rage.
Baxter Basics Deek.
I believe @Miss_Snuffy is Katherine Birbalsingh who was the pet education reformer of Gove
My goodness, the author must spend a lot of time on Twitter. Does he think it’s influencial to most people or maybe Tiktok is hip? Is he ruled by the South African Space Captain (Twitter On Mars?)? Perhaps Scots have a wish to evolve into internet-enabled mobile phone creatures and be goverened by O2. Anyway, #Tories bad, #eat the rich, people not #profits, climates #not capatalists#.
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Hello