“National Conservatism”

Still not entirely sure that this isn’t an elaborate trolling exercise, but it would appear that they are happy to form a grouping with a name which has unfortunate historical connotations (and which could be abbreviated to the “Nat-Cs”) and to start ranting about national identity, the threat of Marxism and the need for pronatalist policies. Perhaps Rees-Mogg can be forgiven on the grounds that it’s all a bit too modern for him, but presumably at least some of them are familiar with 20th Century European history?

It’s not a good look.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/may/15/l...

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr...

I didn’t go there, they did, with their bizarre choice of name and policies straight out of the 1940’s fascist playbook.

As a side note, Mike Godwin was talking about the descent into hyperbole of comparing anything bad to Hitler, not about the discussion of actual fascist ideology and rhetoric being used by modern day politicians - and is on record as saying so.

I'm not sure that a hard right American think tank spotting what it calls "Cultural Marxism" in the writings of an early 20th Century communist says much about the origins of the term?

It would be a sad indictment of the state of the country if it did. Also quite peculiar given that less than half the population describe themselves as "Christian" on the census, and that when you dig into how people answer those questions you get people who don't believe in any of the tenets of the religion describing themselves as such.

Have the Amish ever advocated imposing their way of life on anyone else? They don't even proselytize.

I think the Tories have the same problem with these people that Labour had with Militant Tendency, and will end up having to do the same thing about it.

People tend to say "liberal" rather than progressive in that context, and they're not talking about redistributive economic and social policies but about things like women's reproductive rights, LGBT rights, racial and sexual equality, tolerance, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, etc. They're largely disconnected from economic policy. There have been some very socially illiberal, very economically left wing regimes.