I watched this extract from a speech by Katharine Birbalsingh at the National Conservative conference yesterday. I think you should to. Only by doing so can you get a sense of what this is all about.
How much do you love your country?
Enough to tweet under your own name?
To change your child's school to one that is less woke?
To do more than chat to your friends who already agree with you at dinner parties?
For heaven's sake, man, stand up and be counted.
-@Miss_Snuffy pic.twitter.com/e3UQWoBdGg
— National Conservatism (@NatConTalk) May 15, 2023
There is a fever in the manner of her address that reminds me very strongly of something that I would rather hope was long in the past.
The content only confirms my fears.
This is populist nationalism of what I think to be an extremely dangerous sort.
Three questions then.
First, do the Tories know what they are doing?
Second, if they do, what are their goals?
Third, where do they think this will end?
Worry, I say.
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She had decades of teaching experience and does the angry teacher/matron/nanny slash naughty child rhetoric well (I’m sure it plays well with that audience, just as the firm hand of Thatcher did) but I’ve seen enough newsreels to know where this sort of charismatic speaker waging a culture war leads. “Strength and honour”? Strewth. She’ll be telling us next that each gets what they deserve or that work makes us free, and recommending an anti-woke uniform. Brown or black shirts perhaps.
I’d be interested to see her defend unquestioned adult authority. Older may be wiser but show don’t tell. “Because I say so” is rarely a convincing argument.
And can she explain what she thinks “woke” means, and why “less woke” (that is, less aware, so more ignorant) might be a good thing.
There is a book called “Wounded Leaders” (Nick Duffel) which explores the psyche of ex-public school boys (written during the Gidiot & Cam-moron reign). People like Birbalsingh – the tough headmistress – “pushes a large number of buttons” amongst male tories, Since this is a famly orientated blog I will leave it to readers imagination so see where I’m going on this one. As for defining “woke” – most of them won’t do that, because that opens up a large number of vistas to do with fariness, justice and similar perspectives, which authoritarians rarely like to explore because it diverts from the simple messages – fully articulated by Miss Birbalsingh. As for posting with my own name – always.
If she ever needs a job in Bx, I know a couple of establishments where they are looking for a “firm hand” as it were 😉
Mike, yes – Nick Duffel’s book explains a lot. I also note that Rishi Sunak recently mentioned that Jilly Cooper has been ‘a favourite’. I always said that anyone seeking to understand Boris Johnson need look no further than these two little gems … Strewth.
I go to the website of the National Conservative organisation – https://nationalconservatism.org/ – and what do I find? Videos featuring Giorgia Meloni and Viktor Orban. And events in Italy, the UK and the US. Ah, so this is *international* right-wing extremism. Shame on the UK politicians supporting it. Unless of course they are supporters of nationalist populist authoritarians with more than a tinge of neo-fascism.
As it happens I’ve just been listening to a recorded lecture from last week on the origins of the “Brothers of Italy” party that Meloni leads, and the normalisation of the unapologetic neo-fascists within it. https://www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2023/05/202305111830/power
Arguably Fidesz is worse, given the way Orban has attacked the freedom of the press, the rule of law, and the democracy itself in Hungary.
Amusingly the National
Conservative organisations’s media links include the following rather unflattering article, but I guess all publicity is good publicity. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/30/national-conservatism-far-right-divisive-tories
Along with the bias, bile and conspiracy theory served up daily by GB News, this is another worrying degradation of politics in the UK.
Typo. Obvious but important enough, I believe, to correct. Should read:
“There is a fever… ***living*** in the past.
Edited
Thanks
The Nat-Con list reminds me of two things.
Firstly and most importantly, the questions I would expect to be asked in a totalitarian state just before the secret policemen started on me with their rubber truncheons.
Less importantly, the old Salesman/Dodgy Political Pollster trick of constructing a yes ladder in susceptible minds in order to elicit the desired final response.
I think you are not the only one. There is a rather good critique of both the meeting & the meeja coverage here:
https://brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/emergency-dispatch-your-future-as?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Mainstream meeja fail to call the meeting and its attendees what they are: fascists (that lable includes the ministers speaking there). There is also an interesting vignette of a demo in Westminster by fascists & the non-reaction by the thug-plods. (compare and contrast with Just Stop Oil etc).
The beginning of the end of the UK (as if it didn’t have enough problems)? Scotland and NI aren’t going to go along with this kind of stuff. Extraordinary to see that some of the most rabid nativists are descendants of recent migrants.
However, in the case of those from former parts of the empire they’ve felt threatened or even been displaced by people with darker skin whom they looked down on before. Their paranoid illiberalism will lead to nothing good, unless of course the break-up or federation of the UK turns out to be a good thing.
She is the Head of he Micheala Community School-a free school and the first Chair of Governors was Suella Braverman. It is a very regimented school which encourages kindness and attained the highest value score of any school in England in 2022.
However, grades are only part of education. It has been observed that students from very strict backgrounds don’t always flourish when put in a less structured environment. But equally, I have seen lots of kids do a lot less well than they could have because of poor discipline. They then find it harder to develop the self discipline which is necessary to achieve.
The problem IMHO with her view, is that is falls into generalisations and dogma -such as the ‘war on woke’.
I think ‘woke’ is being pushed as an ‘enemy within’ because the conservative and reactionary classes can no longer credibly claim that supporting them will make the mass of the people better off. So they mobilise ignorance and intolerance in the hopes of securing a popular following.
Thanks
A school which encourages kindness but where the head can’t get her head round the idea that many “woke” issues are about doing just that! This head needs to get out more and get some client-centred therapy especially focused on the issue of “trust”!
So that’s what headteachers do and say now days?
It is not so hard to see these who are acting and don’t actually believe anything they say.
Maloni of Italy was channeling exactly the same type of tub thumping populism, during the campaign that got her elected. She instantly reverted to type and is just another poodle of the wholly fascist reversion of our collective western collapsing world order.
Such political posturers are Just another morbid symptom of the great change. I mean compared to ‘Rivers of Blood’ Enoch for example.
If the Tories didn’t cross the line into fascism some time ago, they’re definitely doing so now with stuff like this.
The Tories are not (yet) fascists, but as the saying goes, they are quite happy to help out if the fascists are a bit busy.
They tweeted that nationalism in Germany is/was problematic and that national in Britain has and can never be a problem.
The problem with nationalism is that it is not a universal value. Many people around the world define it in different ways. And our living history tells us that politics turns very nasty (understatement of the century) when these definitions over lap.
We really do not need to look that far back to see what it has done. 1990s Yugoslavia wasn’t Germany yet there was ethnic cleansing.
Many European political movements which have claimed to be about nation and about independence have proven themselves to be irredentist. Putin invasion of Ukraine is a demonstration that irredentism still exists and all the talk of nation and independence is just pretext.
Ukraine was an independent, neutral and sovereign state. And yet it is fully reliant on foreign aid to defend itself. Such independence is not in our interest.
I find it surprising that she, along with Suella Braverman and Priti Patel are speaking to some people who definitely consider them to be part of the immigrant problem. Are they ignorant of this? Or do they think they have enough money and status to protect themselves and their positions? Their children? They really are playing with fire.
I am glad you said this.
I wonder if Suella, Priti and others are relying on the “woke” to be so wary of being seen , or seeing themselves, as racist that they will keep politely quiet
Richard
I definitely think you are right in your comments above and for seeking answers to your questions.
If I am correct in what I think her speech reminds you of, then yes, for sure we all need to worry and more importantly wake up. Let it sink in that she is the head teacher of a secondary school. This speech and the whole event needs to be to seen and understood it for what it really is.
I also have some serious doubts about the 3 protestors at the event yesterday, could they have all been staged just to attract attention, column inches, tweets, wider coverage on mainstream and social media?
My take it on it is that she is a poster girl and full well knows it. I presume she is more than happy to play the role and is already plotting/seeking a route back into politics/Whitehall/Downing St, as we speak. She absolutely enjoys the limelight because it shines a spot light on her views, the way she runs the school, her own backstory and raises her profile to say the very least. Its worked tremendously well (which is not necessarily a good thing/outcome). The proof is that I and probably many others had never heard of her or come across her before yesterday’s speech and yet we are all writing/talking/blogging/tweeting about her and sharing her content. I assume that her twitter account must have exploded, she has a full inbox and will have a busy day/week ahead and she is not complaining about that.
The sad fact is that all of this can seem very attractive for some people and they will take a liking to her as a result of her speech and the school, her wider beliefs, associates, alliances, ideology and we know where that can and does lead to.
The reality is that some of the views she holds and things she has said/tweeted/commented on in the past like dangers of smartphones/screen time for children under the age of 16, harms of drill music scene, her belief in King and Country, anti-Ofsted inspection/reports, teaching children to read before they start school, etc etc etc will resonate with many people. Dare I say it, you might even agree with her on some things (albeit unlikely and even if you do the number of topics are going to be very very few).
In her opinion and those of her supporters she claims to represent and be the voice of the unheard, has the courage to say what others are afraid to speak of publicly, gives credibility and sense of plausibility to what is on people’s minds, she advocates tough measures and going back to basics, the list goes on and on. So yeah its pure, unadulterated populist nationalism.
You have been warned, the Tories are now desperate to promote people of colour and those who fit the bill to foster echo chambers and to espouse their toxic and poisonous causes. The extreme rhetoric will evolve. It will get much worse, become more nuanced, embellished, exaggerated, magnified and will be used to effectively stir hatred, violence, dissent, disregard for law/order, institutions etc.
We are now at the crossroad and could be facing civil unrest/disorder on a scale that we have not witnessed in over a generation.
I have been aware of her for a long time, and with considerable distaste for her views
Your conclusion may well be true
How long before we move to…
NatC – how much do you love your country?
Joe McBloggs – I don’t love it at all. It has many problems, the most important being it isn’t independent from Britain.
NC – What? Britain IS the country! Aren’t you patriotic?
JMcB – I mean Scotland. I don’t believe loving a country is important. Still, my values are internationalist. I’d like to see a better quality of life for all humans, regardless of their ethnicity, where they’re from, their faith, or none, or where they’re living now. They’re just people.
NC – So you’re an unpatriotic, godless, communist immigrant. Just what I’ve warned the children to look out for. You want to destroy Britain and British values. Tweet this nonsense in your name, so every real patriot knows who you are!
JMcB – ?
NC – At dinner parties I’ve been encouraging people to stand up for British values, and no-one has disagreed with me. I have the ear of the PM and the NatC shall be encouraging him to introduce Patriotism Centres, which you ‘Scottish’ immigrants shall be required to attend until you learn British values. It’s common sense. They’ll be in Rwanda.
This may seem ridiculous but, I suggest NatC’s considering Scottish/Welsh/Irish independence supporters as immigrants, isn’t any more bonkers than anything else they say.
Still worrying though.
How far shall their ideology go?
A grotesque demonstration of rabble rousing prejudice. She seemed less extreme on TV but true colours now in full display. What is her game I wonder…
Wow – this is so interesting I don’t where to start.
I think that what the Tories are doing is redolent of Nixon and his ‘silent majority’ tactics in the 1970’s and the reaction to the unpopularity of a war (Vietnam). The Tories are obviously tuning in to those people in the UK whom the great Hannah Arendt highlighted were predisposed to this sort of rhetoric who exist in every society somewhere. I’d like to hear Tim Snyder’s views on this ‘speech’. And to think people were arrested at the coronation!
I don’t think the Tories expect to win (I mean, look at BREXIT) but what it will do is reduce or dilute whatever comes in to replace them in 2024 (if they lose). So, once again, the aim is the disruption of the creation of a coalescence of a large popular, viable anti-Tory sentiment. I think that will work I’m afraid to say.
One of the things I have difficulty with though is the ethnic background of the speaker above and people in the Tory party like Braverman, Patel, Cleverly, Kwarteng etc.
The Tories will bang on about their leaders being female and the BAME MPs and ministers of state that they have with a great deal of immodesty.
But when you think about it, society has all genders, creeds colours running throughout it and throughout all economic strata (from rich to poor).
What I’m struck by is how BAME at the rich and wealthy end is operating and being co-opted into destructive identity politics. I worry that the BAME presence is being abused to give a false coating of credibility to it all.
For me, the big problem of our times is income disparity – wages and wealth – which is maldistributed and increasingly so. Money is neutral really – it is blind to ethnicity, gender and any other identity. It’s people who distribute money – or not.
Except those of course who have a lot of it – more than others and whatever their identity is. And that’s the problem identity politics gives us and how it distorts perceptions of inequality. The Tories have played a really sly game on this point with their BAME representatives.
It’s absolutely crucial to realise that wealth itself is now the biggest problem in society – whether it be owned by male, female, LGB&T, from here or there, Muslim, Christian, or Jewish or whatever . It’s got too big for its boots and it wants more and it will resort to anything in order to preserve the ‘capital order’. Even this, above.
Because the real club at work here has only one identity and that is the size of their wad/wealth. And if your wad is not big enough – which means a hell of a lot of us – then you ain’t in it, no matter what colour or gender you are!
So, I’d ask any time we see someone with an ‘identity’ talking like the above, ask yourself some questions:
Where did they come from – what is their back-story?
Where were they educated?
What groups are they part of?
Who funds the groups or funds them?
What is their net worth?
Who do they hang out with?
And if all of this reveals wealth to be involved – well – there you go!
So remember – the threat of our times is not from gender, colour, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion but from the manipulation of those by wealth. That’s what I see in that video above.
Should we judge the Tories by what they say they’ll do or by what they do?
The reason I ask is that they have said or implied that they will restrain immigration but it looks like the figures are an all time high thanks to Conservative policies.
The intention and rhetoric are telling. We should not be fooled by the fact that they are also incompetent.
Scary. It is ‘othering’ on steroids.
Craig
‘Adult authority is long gone’ – Wouldn’t that be a concern for teachers, for everyone about schools? On further reading she seems to be about holding everyone to the same (high) standard and working on skills.
So her authority is long gone?
Is that what she is saying?
How bizarre
She was actually appointed chair of the social mobility commission in 2021!
She resigned in January this year as she would not be able to say what she wanted to say if she remained in that position.
The British have centuries of practice in promoting field slaves to house slaves knowing they will start hating the field slaves even more than their masters do, and loving their masters and seeking their validation even more than they did earlier, being the first with buckets of water if the master’s house catches fire, instinctively adopting extreme versions of the master’s narratives. Their persistent insecurity ensures absolute loyalty.
She needs to be seen in two ways. Firstly as one of the heads that creates a total institution that appears to be very successful. There are elements that are good practice, elements that many educationalists would see as extreme. You have to remember that over the life of a cohort – Year 6 applications through to Year 11 – processes of aggregate shaping occur, where compliant parents and students enter and remain, non compliant or those with different values don’t apply or are weeded out. Once a school is oversubscribed this is easily accomplished, and there are several academies that have preceded her in these practices. The closest parallel may be monotheist religious academies.
Secondly, the political arena, where she has always pushed the authoritarian right buttons, and I suspect is setting out her post Sunak credentials for a safe seat, or the Lords, and Minister of Education at least. There is a historical parallel during the Blair era when Midlands heads, and deputies like Vernon Coaker MP, were at the forefront of opening doors for business sponsorship, seeding the academy idea, as well as setting the parameters for the National Leadership college. Their ‘intensely relaxed’ view in some areas went hand in hand with authoritarian leadership then.
My own head is a Labour man, but like almost all heads, doesn’t play political in or out of school – it’s called professional. Perhaps her model is Rhodes Boyson.
Let’s be honest. This was a serously unpleasant rant, delivered in a nasty and hectoring manner. Surely nobody who means well in this world speaks like this. The vocal style is an aggressive abuse of that position of privilege – a public platform with amplification – which Bishop John Robinson, speaking of the pulpit, once called “six feet above contradiction”. The ‘content’ was also a product of angry assertion devoid of evidence, seriously beneath the standard that should be the mark of anyone responsibly engaged in education – let alone that of children. By their rants ye shall know them!
Well said
You have nailed it. Pulpits are elevated to dizzy heights these multimedia days.
It was not just a speech. It was a scene from a film, produced and directed by her ego. It was an audition piece for a part she hopes to get. A dangerous person who will be admired and used by dangerous people.
The NewsAgents latest podcast (Emily Maitlis & co) played a series of excerpts from that conference, including BurbleSing’s.
https://www.globalplayer.com/podcasts/42KuVj/
My sense is that they were as shocked as many of us are at how far the Tories have rocketed, not just ‘drifted’ across the the Far Right. And they are not slowing down. Though one is always wary of drawing analogies with Nazi Germany, these are exactly the kind of speeches that you can imagine being made at a gathering in Germany in the mid-1930s with various groups being identified as ‘enemies of the people’.
Agreed
Listen to last week’s Word of Mouth on BBC Sounds Radio 4 when Michael Rosen interviews Professor Jason Stanley of Yale University on the Language of Fascism. I’m picking up on earlier comments above. The programme is interesting not just in the light of this particular Head Mistress speaker, but of some of the others we have heard recently on the Conservative right. I hope I am correct in believing that the British population is generally too diverse now and fair minded to entertain seriously the beliefs of this element of the Tory party which strike me as loony. However, the programme makes salutary listening as, as history makes clear, one never knows.
Thanks