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    Kemi Badenoch likens Conservatives to Trump’s Maga movement
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    Kemi Badenoch likens Conservatives to Trump’s Maga movement

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    1. 1-randomonium on

      (Article)

      —

      Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch sought to compare her party to Donald Trump’s Maga movement on Monday, arguing that a second stint in government was required to “really know how to fix” a nation’s problems.

      In a keynote speech opening the right-leaning Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (Arc) conference on Monday, she said that both western civilisation and the UK Conservatives are in “crisis”.

      The Arc event for 4,000 delegates at the Excel Centre in east London aims to examine how to restore and renew western societies, and to shake up what the organisers see as a “stagnant” realm of ideas in the Anglosphere.
      Badenoch told the event that people ask her what difference new leadership — under her auspices — will make to the Tories, who suffered their worst-ever defeat at a general election last year.

      “Well, take a look at President Trump. He’s shown that sometimes you need that first stint in government to spot the problems, but it’s the second time around when you really know how to fix them. And it starts by telling the truth,” she said.

      Badenoch was referring to the Conservative party’s 14-year period in power that ended last summer. Her analogy may raise eyebrows, however, given the Tories have been in office many times before, unlike Trump who has occupied the Oval Office only once previously.

      She suggested that the UK’s parliament was “obsessed with trivia” and presided over “stagnation despite making more and more laws”. This is contributing to young people’s disaffection towards democracy, she added.
      The Tory leader said she was embarking on her party’s “largest renewal of policy and ideas in a generation”, warning that a failure to renew would mean “our country and all of western civilisation will be lost”.
      The Arc conference is “part of finding those answers”, she said, adding it filled her with “hope”.

      Delegates responded positively to Badenoch’s speech. Molly Banerjei, a Toronto realtor who leads a campaign for December to be declared Christian heritage month in Canada, said it was the first time she had heard the “very refreshing and thoughtful” Tory leader.

      “It’s good to see someone who may have been born here, but grew up in another country, who shares the conservative values, who has a vision to see that implemented here in this country,” Banerjei said.

      However, Badenoch’s intervention met a vexed response from other opposition politicians. Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper accused Badenoch of “competing with [Reform UK leader] Nigel Farage to fawn over Donald Trump” and parroting the US president’s “dangerous rhetoric” rather than “standing up for Ukraine and Europe’s security”.

      Framing herself as a champion of “classic liberal values”, Badenoch hit out at left-wing ideology for promoting “embarrassment” about the west’s legacy and “in extremis, a hatred of western history and even its culture”, as she pinpointed universities as a crucible for “poisoning minds” with such views.

      “A country cannot be successful if its people and intellectual elite don’t believe in it. This means dealing with the poisoning of minds through higher education,” she said.

      She said the left’s focus on pronouns, climate activism, and diversity, equity and inclusion were being used as devices to “control” populations, as she lambasted the “poison of left-wing progressivism”.

      Appearing to defend populism, the Tory leader said: “Don’t listen to the media class complain about populism. The very essence of democracy is acknowledging the will of everyday people — and then actually making it happen.”
      Badenoch argued that “some cultures are better than others”, adding that it was “only contentious to say this because honesty has become impossible”, but declined to name the cultures to which she was referring.

      It marked the reprisal of a theme with which she has stoked controversy previously. Last autumn she raised eyebrows by claiming that not all cultures are “equally valid” and criticising “recent immigrants who hate Israel”, adding: “I don’t think those who bring foreign conflicts here should be welcome.”

      Badenoch also praised high-profile British headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh for successfully facing down attempts by some religious pupils to encourage the wearing of headscarves and practise of prayer rituals in her secular school.

      The first morning of the three-day conference heavily featured explicitly Christian themes, as well as music from a Christian band.

      Republican Speaker Mike Johnson spoke about the biblical teachings that underpinned the foundation of the United States and the inherent value of each human which is “give to us by God”.

      Controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, an Arc co-founder, addressed the crowd about the “Christian drama” and the “sacrifice most pleasing to God”.

      Evangelical hedge fund boss Sir Paul Marshall, one of the founders of Arc, last week told the FT that “there should be no mix of faith and politics — it’s a dangerous combination”, but insisted the conference is about ideas, which are “upstream” of politics — despite the event featuring a raft of senior British and American politicians.
      Farage, Peter Thiel and American entrepreneur-turned-politician Vivek Ramaswamy are among other right-leaning figures due to address the event.

      The third annual Arc conference, it has more than doubled its in-person audience since its inception. More than 1,000 delegates have travelled from the US, and more than 300 from Australia and New Zealand, to attend the event this week.

      Debates about the economic cost of net zero, the value of the family, declining birth rates, free trade and the disruption caused by technology are among the core themes this year.

    2. 1-randomonium on

      Its strange to see both the Tories and Reform still falling over each other to prove their love for Trump even after he’s launched a political and trade war against Western Europe. Is he actually that popular among British Conservative voters, to have essentially replaced Churchill and Thatcher as their totems?

    7. the_dry_salvages on

      she is really struggling for relevance. doing warmed over culture wars stuff which Farage did first and does better. and she apparently has not noticed the fact that most Britons aren’t big fans of Trump. her leadership is not long for this world imo

    8. permaxsun on

      They will do whatever necessary to obtain / hold onto power, usually by pleasing their specific ‘base’.

    10. Humble-Variety-2593 on

      DESPERATE for the Reform vote

      Absolutely disgusting second generation anchor baby self-hating piece of shit that she is.

    11. Gone_4_Tea on

      A deranged power-grabbing platform for the rich underpinned by the aged, the ignorant and the incurably self-interested aka insane. Well good luck wresting that position from Reform.

    12. Available_Monitor_92 on

      I voted for conservative, has much as Kier has gone back on his word alot. I’m voting who ever is going to stand up to that bully trump who stands for nothing of our values.

    16. lastaccountgotlocked on

      > “Well, take a look at President Trump. He’s shown that sometimes you need that first stint in government to spot the problems, but it’s the second time around when you really know how to fix them.”

      TIL fourteen years in government is a “stint”.

    18. qwerty_1965 on

      Deranged ideologists hell bent on stripping the fabric of the state back to the point it collapses in on itself?

    20. davus_maximus on

      What, catastrophically irresponsible, financially reckless, racist, criminal and utterly self-serving? Sounds about right.

      Seriously, why aren’t half the Tory party in prison yet?

    21. Cynical_Classicist on

      What, you’re controlled by fascist billionaires who want to destroy the country, and think that election results should be overturned if you lose them?

    22. sirweevr on

      They still haven’t realised that Reform-like “conservatism” has a hard cap in the UK electorate, and it’s far below a majority in Parliament. Starmer must be watching this and feeling so grateful for his second term already.

    23. TannerRob on

      The Conservatives once again proving how out of touch they are with the general public.

      It’s generally impressive how incompetent they are.

    25. Confudled_Contractor on

      The only way I can explain Kemi Badenoch is that it’s a 2 year plan to make the return of Boris Johnson look like a sensible and sound way forward.

    26. XenorVernix on

      By 2029 we will have seen how much Trump has destroyed the US economy and their standing in the world and that will be enough to ensure Labour get their second term.

      I say that as someone who doesn’t even like Labour.

      By 2034 the Tories will have reverted to being more traditional style conservatives and will stand a good chance of getting elected as people will be fed up of Labour by then.

    27. WillDanceForGp on

      Trump: fuck the UK, they suck and we hate them

      Farage & Kemi: yes orange daddy please degrade me like that, we love you

    30. YesAmAThrowaway on

      Sorry, but that “medal” clearly goes to Reform. The Conservatives are to Reform what the CDU/CSU in Germany is to the AfD. Useful tools and enablers that will inevitably kill their own parties in the efforts to try to gain back voters by moving even further right, encouraging more people to just vote for the original extremists.

    31. jojimanik on

      I absolutely hate it when ppl of colour like Suella and Kemi act like they are the saviours of Nazi sympathisers . Do they even know they will the first ones to sent to concentration camps if they get a chance !!

    32. memory_mixture106 on

      If this country has a hope for a sane future, the Tories need to stop trying to align with this US / Trump bullshit and go on the attack against Farage. If a mainstream political party allows itself to get replaced by Reform or become aligned with Reform, we’re pretty much doomed to the direction the US is headed.

    33. TwoFacedHoods on

      Wait what? The Conservatives are now openly supporting a fascist white supremacist regime that is planning to, and currently actively dissolving democracy?

    34. peacisco on

      My parents have flipped between Labour and Tories before but they cannot stand Trump. Any cosying up to him from the tories will see them guaranteed to vote Labour. Especially so if Trump continues to undermine Ukraine

    36. Panda_hat on

      My god the conservatives have fallen so far. Utterly pathetic.

      Pandering traitorous sycophants that hate this country and its freedoms, one and all.

    37. Scared_Turnover_2257 on

      They are mainly aiming for young angry men who likes Trump because he’s rich and can fuck women who say no with immunity. It’s exactly the same reason they like people like Tate (rich and can fuck women as a result). Basically we need a leader who is rich and can fuck women through being funny,kind and making a mean lasagne untill that happens….well

    39. perark05 on

      It’s adorable to see Kemi actually believe that she will remain conservative leader the second the party has a route to Downing street

    40. PositiveMaster8236 on

      We just endured 14 years of Conservative misrule aided by Garages personality cult, we’ve had it with them, Labour is definitely Flawed but within rational limits & at least Starmer is now belatedly answering him back. Trumps personally insulted the UK, Musk is also posting almost comically hilariously bad misinformation about the UK.

    42. FoxySlyOldStoatyFox on

      “We were in power for 14 years. But we need a second go at it because we didn’t know what we were doing.”

      It’s a good job that Badenoch never makes mistakes – and I know that’s true, because she said so herself – because otherwise I’d be questioning whether she had been snorting Cif.