Peter HUTCHISON
Thu, 2 November 2023
Similar debates about 'culture war' issues have been had in the United States (Oli SCARFF)
Right-wing thinkers from around the world gathered in London this week, giving an indication of how far Britain's ruling Conservative party could make the so-called culture wars an issue for the general election and beyond.
Speakers at the inaugural Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference railed against "woke capitalism", lamented Western decline and hit out at economic regulation and multiculturalism.
"The culture war matters," Conservative MP Danny Kruger, from the right wing of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's party, told AFP after interviewing former Australian leader John Howard on stage.
"A lot of Conservatives think that it's a distraction, that it's just the concern of rival fanatics on either side.
"Actually, it's about the core character of our country and about the future for our children."
Prominent Tory lawmakers mixed with high-profile US Republicans and online Conservative influencers and television personalities during the three-day event in Greenwich, which ended Wednesday.
Organisers billed the gathering as a "major" get-together of international political, business, and cultural leaders who want alternatives to "big government and top-down solutions".
UK government ministers Michael Gove and Kemi Badenoch spoke, as did former US House of Representatives speaker Kevin McCarthy, controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson and US TV doctor Mehmet Oz.
Current House speaker and Donald Trump ally Mike Johnson and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination Vivek Ramaswamy both addressed the conference virtually.
Ramaswamy slammed "woke capitalism", dubbing it a "cancer" on society, while McCarthy hit out at "the impact of cancel culture" and called for an end to "victimhood".
- Drift right -
Right-wing broadcaster GB News -- which employs several Tory MPs as presenters and recently announced the signing of former prime minister Boris Johnson -- had a stand at the conference.
British financier Paul Marshall, the channel's major investor, sits on ARC's advisory board.
He suggested that "crony capitalism" could reduce free market capitalism to "a form of corporatism not so different to socialism itself".
Marshall joined Ramaswamy and others in criticising Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards related to ethical investment.
The gathering comes after the National Conservatism Conference held in May, a similar meeting which was also seen as evidence of the Tories' drift to the right.
The Conservatives lag well behind the main opposition Labour party in most opinion polls ahead of a general election that Sunak must call by the end of next year.
The Tory leader has indicated he will push culture war issues as he tries to see off Keir Starmer's centre-left party to win a fifth-consecutive term for the Conservatives, who have been in power since 2010.
Sunak has rolled back green energy policies, pledged to stop small boats carrying migrants from France and referenced gender identity as he tries to put clear water between the two parties.
- Immigration -
He told his party's conference last month: "We shouldn't get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be. They can't."
"I think the Prime Minister's instincts are very good on these questions," said Kruger, 49.
"So, I'm encouraged by what I see him say. I think on policy though we do need to do more, certainly on migration (and) also on the curriculum in our schools and our family policy.
"The question is whether he's able to push the necessary changes through what is a very resistant political machine," he added, hinting at opposition from those on the centre of the party.
During her address, fellow Conservative MP Miriam Cates bemoaned the "erosion of family life," adding: "Unless fertility rate decline is reversed we are heading for a future of certain economic stagnation or destabilising mass immigration or both."
A defeat for the Conservatives at the next election is likely to lead to a bitter fight for the direction of the party.
Business Secretary Badenoch, tipped by many as a possible future leader, told the conference that companies and individuals should not be "distracted by all sorts of silly things, like pronouns and what critical race theory is saying and measuring people's skin colour".
ARC CEO Philippa Stroud, a Conservative Party member who sits in Britain's upper House of Lords, said the conference "has been about telling a better story about who we are here in the West".
"It has lessons for everyone, everywhere, regardless of their political colours," she told AFP.
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