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Tuesday 26 March 2019

Tories Embrace The Far Right

It seems that it is not merely UKIP, now with rather fewer elected representatives under new leader Adolf von Batten, that is lurching to the right: the Tories are, too. And the worst thing about this divergence from the political mean is that those taking it often seen unaware that their actions are anything out of the ordinary.
Two actions recently, seemingly independent of one another, merely confirm this worrying development, with the first being, as i News has reported, “A group of Conservatives pushing for a hard Brexit have been condemned for allegedly referring to themselves as the ‘grand wizards’. However, they later appeared to deny the name, which is associated with the white supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)”.
It’s as if being a member of the Tory right means having one’s self-awareness surgically removed. And there was more. “The alleged existence of the nickname was first revealed by the BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, who tweeted that a group of Tories who met the Prime Minister at Chequers on Sunday had used it. ‘The “Grand Wizards” (the new name for the Chequer’s daytrippers apparently) also had another meeting this morning, where they discussed again whether they could get on board to back PM’s deal and there was no firm conclusion,’ she said”. Ms K., true to form, then rowed back.
Suella Braverman

But despite a sort-of-denial from the ERG’s singularly unsavoury enforcer Steve Baker, the impression is given that this is a deeply intolerant and disrespectful strain of The New Conservatism. It is surely no coincidence that Baker was one of those  awarded the Golden Dolphin Award by the now-moribund Young Britons Foundation.
Then, as if to underscore that the problem is more widespread than the odd KKK resurrection, Brexiteer purist MP Suella Braverman went one better at a meeting of the Bruges Group, which celebrates Margaret Thatcher’s speech, although only the part of it that matches their agenda. The “Heart of Europe” part is binned in the retelling.
Peter Walker of the Guardian was there. “Next up is Tory MP Suella Braverman. She begins with a slightly off-piste condemnation of ‘cultural Marxism’ in the UK and moves to limit free speech and expression … Cultural Marxism is a very loaded term, one often used by the far right to propagate conspiracy theories”. Oh dear!
Snigdha Nag was unimpressed. “Suella Braverman MP talks of ‘cultural Marxism’; the right wing conspiracy theory favoured by Anders Breivik, which is also known to be Anti-Semitic. What is going on in British politics? How is this acceptable?” Tories veering across the anti-Semitism line and no outraged reaction? No change there, then.
You'll have to speak up, I'm a bit Mutt and Jeff

Emma Goldman was also not happy about Ms Braverman’s choice of language. “‘Cultural Marxism’ is a neo-nazi dogwhistle, directly derived from the Nazi term ‘kulturbolschewismus’ or Cultural Bolshevism. The fact that elected representatives are ignorant and stupid enough to use it is a damning indictment, especially in the wake of the Grand Wizard thing [my emphasis]”. Repeated incidents suggest it’s no coincidence.

The Tory Party is already riddled with Islamophobic bigotry. These latest incidents suggest that the malaise is both broader, and deeper. I’ll just leave that one there.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just lurv your senser yuma, Tim.

The tories ARE the far right.

Burlington Bertie from Bow said...

But so are the BBC, Labour 'moderates', Lib Dems, 'Independent' Group, Oliver Letwin, Kenneth Clarke, Anna Soubry, all other Tory 'moderates' and all your other hate-figures, Anon.
It's very crowded out there on your 'far right'. Still, keeps it nice and simple though, doesn't it?

Anonymous said...

Things must be getting desperate out there on the far right.

Cue the not unexpected (re)appearance in the last few days of Bomber Benn and "Windbag2" Kinnock.

The latter is full comedy value after completion of his pr make-over, new suits, changed demeanour 'n'all. Sadly for him it'll all fail...for the straight forward reason is that he'll ALWWAYS look and sound like he's got a stick up his arse extending to the top of his baldy head - after all, there's fuck all to block it. Unfortunately too, after Brexit he won't be able to follow Daddy's hapless example as an unelected EU commissioner; though he may be able to re-use Daddy's words as he shuffled for said position, "I've been a good boy".

Benn, of course, can always be relied on to support the aerial bombing mass murder of innocent Syrians. He made that clear when he helped reduce the House of Commons to the level of the Reichstag circa 1939.