From Monday to Wednesday this week, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage spoke at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) Forum. In normal times a gathering of the terminally online modern political right here in London with speakers like Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, and Louis Mosley (before you ask, yes, he is) would not merit much analysis, but this year two people with a chance of being the next Prime Minister joined the fray.
We were intrigued to hear what the two contenders for the crown of leader of the British right had to say, and where their movement is intellectually in a Trumpian world. Unwilling to stump up the eyewatering £1500 ticket price, the Progressive Britain team settled for a chat with delegates as they came in and out of the venue.
What then was it all about? The self-description, “an international movement with a vision for a better world where empowered citizens take responsibility and work together to bring flourishing and prosperity to their families, communities, and nations” is as benign and content free as physically possible. The true crux of the debate though was ‘the West’. Specifically, Western values and the ‘left’s’ mission to undermine them. This is not new discourse. Indeed at least one attendee complained to us of a striking lack of stimulating discussion or fresh ideas from speakers and attendees of the conference.
They would have us believe that the West in its entirety is under siege. From without by immigrants and from within by self-loathing liberal elites (often a dog whistle for antisemitism). Hence, much talk about birthrates. This is a common area of interest between American evangelicals and the European far-right. Defending Western values does not extend to Ukraine however; a predominantly Christian country currently being sold out by the US to the Russian invaders – something unthinkable in the time of Reagan.
We should make no mistake about the territory this topic is intertwined with; the obsession with birthrates is a natural extension of the far-right Great Replacement conspiracy theory. In a dangerous perversion of reality, increasing birthrates (read white birthrates) is one way to fight back against a sinister plot to orchestrate the replacement of what is perceived as white European culture by immigrants in collaboration with liberal ‘elites’.
For this incarnation of the right, Western values and Western culture are white values and white culture. Just look at the fringe of this event, where it was the claimed that former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is ‘not English’ by Konstantin Kisin, another speaker. In sane times, this comment would have drawn thunderous condemnation from the current leader of the Conservatives. But these are not sane times, and Badenoch is praying that the same people who have leveraged these narratives, and the funding and voters they bring, so effectively in the US can provide the blueprint for a Conservative revival.
The right in the UK and Europe is now dancing to Trump’s tune and a quick scan of the speakers list, along with our chats outside, revealed a distinctly American evangelical flavour to proceedings. Prominent US organisation ‘Them Before Us’ was represented at ARC by founder Katy Faust. ‘Them Before Us’ preach that same sex parents are wrong, IVF violates “children’s right to life” and have a whole host of transphobic positions. Faust is also the co-author of Raising Conservative Kids in a Woke City.
This shift to the Americanised extreme is both sad and alarming. There was once a specifically British vision of what the centre right should be. Its leaders came armed with their own ideas, which referred to the country’s actual problem. We, of course, fundamentally disagreed with their analysis and approach but the situation now; total intellectual surrender to what seems to have worked in America, insane solutions to non-existent problems, and alliances with deeply sinister groups around the world is far worse.
Thus, the Party of MacMillan now finds itself desperately vacillating in the ideological wilderness with no one to blame but themselves as they risk being consigned to the dustbin of history. From the safety of the ARC, Kemi Badenoch can wax lyrical about saving the West whilst Keir Starmer is getting on with the job by providing global leadership defending Ukraine. Directionless, their only belief is that drinking the far-right Kool-Aid can prevent their demise at the hands of Farage. For an electorate not glued to Musk’s X, Badenoch is out of touch and rapidly running out of time.
Frankly the Conservatives can do better than this. Reform perhaps not, but it must wound Farage somewhat to go from the most impactful distinctly English politician of a generation to a mouthpiece for a distinctly American evangelical nationalism. As Badenoch finds herself relegated to a Farage warmup act, Reform find themselves wholly captured by the pro-Russian international right – a vote for either is (ironically) a vote for Putin.
Trump is the flood which we must all contend with. But the drowning of sensible centre right alternatives helps no one. An ARC full of conspiracists is not the life-raft either of the two leaders of the opposition think it is.
For more on the dangerous spread of far-right sentiments in the UK, click here.
