In the latest episode of the UK’s political soap-opera, the Conservative Party, have installed as Prime Minister an unelected billionaire linked to the World Economic Forum, with strong family ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s plans for digital tyranny. The “most successful political party in history” looks politically, morally, and philosophically bankrupt, as it so often does. For instance, in what counts as blistering counter-cultural criticism at the Telegraph, Camilla Tominey takes aim at the alleged “leadership contest” of the so-called “Conservative Party”:
“In the race we have now been saddled with, there is no Kemi-type leading the Right-wing charge; no vision that appeals to both the hearts and minds of the Tory base. None of the leading candidates is a proud cultural conservative. There is no avowed defence of our great history or free speech…
I say all this to send a warning shot to the Conservative parliamentary Party, which seems to have forgotten its own philosophy. It’s bad enough that they are willing to tolerate high taxes, which the 2019 manifesto expressly rejected. And it’s astonishing that they have put immigration and the culture wars on the back burner. But if they don’t make an attempt to win back the Right soon, the consequences will be devastating.”
She is diplomatic to pretend that they ever had a philosophy, but, well, we are British. That party has never conserved anything.
Nigel Farage is being pushed to put together a new centre-right party that “believes in the nation”. That might make great telly, but is that really going to happen? Whatever happens, we could do with a label other than “Conservative.” There is nothing “conservative” about the Conservative Party, and probably never has been. The political labels “Conservative” and “Tory” have historical roots, but there is no point in looking to philology or history to discover their ‘real’ meaning. They mean the same thing now; and no matter what you might hear at some conference fringe event, it is not Burkean stewardship of our collective inheritance. That is why every British government in living memory has spoken only about economic growth, as if that was the only thing in life.
It is not just that the people involved are insulated from the social consequences of the policies they promote. Many are wholly on board with the project to dissolve the nation state with international capital and woke ideology. Why shouldn’t they be? They are anywhere people. They have no loyalty to the place. That is why they were happy for EHRC to over-rule UK law. That’s why they are silent on cultural issues, except for “Multiculturalism good; Thousand-year culture bad.” They have nothing invested in the places they represent, and can live anywhere where the weather is nice.
As Roger Scruton put it, “For ordinary people, living in free association with their neighbours, the ‘nation’ means simply the historical identity and continuing allegiance that unites them in the body politic. It is the first-person plural of settlement….A shared language and shared curriculum have a similar effect in making familiarity, proximity and day-to-day custom into sources of shared attachment. The essential thing about nations is that they grow from below, through habits of free association among neighbours, and result in loyalties that are attached to a place and its history, rather than to a religion, a dynasty, or, as in Europe, to a self-perpetuating political class. “(1)
When the Conservatives talk about the nation, they talk about “Global Britain” (2)
“Our departure from the EU has given us an unprecedented opportunity to forge new alliances and strengthen our partnerships around the world. The interests of the British people now lie at the heart of everything we do around the world—from our trade policy to our sanctions policy….”
“We now have control over our customs and border processes and are using that control to make the UK border the best in the world. We have control over our migration policy and have ended EU free movement replacing it with a points–based immigration system. We are free to negotiate our own trade deals around the world, tailored to our country. We are asserting our international voice with our own independent seat in international fora and the ability to move faster than the EU and go further without the need to reach consensus first….
“Through education we can enhance existing international partnerships and encourage the forging of new relationships across the world. … This academic year the Turing scheme will be able to support mobilities in over 150 destinations worldwide. The networks created help the UK forge lasting relationships with countries around the world and strengthen our Global Britain agenda.“
By Global Britain, they mean globalised Britain: a boundary-less economic opportunity zone for international capital; cheap labour from a cowed, deracinated population; total digital surveillance by unaccountable corporates; and ideological control of all areas of life.
No matter how personable or plausible individual politicians are, the Conservative party speaks for other interests. If Conservative party members think those spokesmen are going to preserve their way of life, and the land they love, they are wrong.
1) Roger Scruton, How to be a Conservative. 2) HM Govt, The Benefits of Brexit.
Nigel Farage Issues Party Rallying Call (Michael Heaver/YT):