Miriam Cates/National Conservatives conference

[AdamRyan]

Miriam Cates was due to speak at the NatCon conference in Brussels tomorrow, on the topic of "Save The Children!"
The conference has been shut down because the Mayor will not tolerate the far right.

Here is a tweet to GB news discussing why the conference was shut down:

https://twitter.com/implausibleblog/status/1780239986861744280?s=19&t=hHgjMANzaGdj92-GTys1ig

I'm putting this here because I know a lot of GC feminists support Cates - I don't, and this stuff is why. She is awful.

https://www.miriamcates.org.uk/news/putting-children-first

I suspect Jess and Adam may have been the sort of people that she is talking about on this subject.

Oh look, I went on to Miriam Cates Website to see what she said. I'm obviously a far right winger now.

It is a mystery why she is a member of a party that insists on making it harder and harder for one parent to stay at home to raise children.

From the Guardian:

*Cates said the rise of university attendance also played a role: “Many graduates are saddled with debt, and so are unable to afford to buy a house and start a family.

“Spending so much time and money on education also makes it much more difficult, particularly for women, to decide when is a good time to pause and have children.”*

Not exactly suggesting that women should receive less education is it?

Fucking hell. Don't trigger the algorithms! 😱

Are you a constituent of hers?

No, she's still talking about us as if we were prize sows or something:

At last year’s conference in London, I warned that we are failing to produce enough of something we desperately need to secure a future for our nations. We are failing to produce enough babies.
https://thecritic.co.uk/childhood-reclaimed/

That is a massively egregious intepretation of what she was talking about. She pointed out the difficulties of being saddled with debt and starting a family. Where did she explicitly say that women should receive less education. Why should we take you seriously, you're obviously putting a bad faith spin on what she says. You do know we can look things up on the internet too? Or did that escape you?

I don't care who you vote for. None of my beeswax.

I do care that the far right have hitched onto motherhood/child safeguarding as a way to make themselves palatable to the electorate.

Why do you think Miriam Cates, Suella Braverman and Nigel Farage would choose to spend time at a controversial far right conference?

No, of an MP who was reprimanded by his then leader for attending a far right event in 2020.
An event organised by a group known as the NatCs. Haven't heard about them for a while, perhaps they have disbanded?

You don’t think that “far right” people might have some opinions that are just their opinions, based on their own life experiences and observations? Oh no, they aren’t actually real autonomous people at all, because they are part of a bad group and therefore are bad people who cannot think for themselves. So everyone else has to be warned not to read what they have to say or listen to them, for fear of being brainwashed into the bad people group, which would immediately make them a bad person too.

Chilling but not a surprise.

Exposed to this kind of stuff.

You'd think it was dark net porn.

🙄

But do YOU care about motherhood and child safeguarding, that's the question? If all political parties care isn't that a good thing?

🙄
It really does amaze me that a group of people who talk so much about ideological capture and the insidious nature of it, are so outraged when people post an example of it happening again right under their noses.

I think people who go to the Nat Con conference are bad people, yes. I have about as much interest in them having a role in public life as Stephen Whittle et Al.

I'm a centrist so extremists on either end worry me. Right wing more so because of WW2.

I wouldn't say Putin is right wing.

Nuts come in all flavours.

It's so ridiculous. Everyone cares about it! They are forced teaming you! Using the same tactics as "but of course noone wants to see trans children committing suicide!"

Look at what they say that isn't a boring statement everyone agrees with. That's where the danger is.

It’s worse and far more dangerous.

You know this level of paranoia really isn't the mark of a centrist. If you're concerned about extremes why dismiss the threats from Islamists?

In my opinion, Putin is a far right. He made the most of the overthrow of communism to make his own fascist dictatorship. His rule has all the hallmarks of fascism: strong leader, ultra nationalist, fear of a "plot", appeal to emotion etc.

The West also encouraged him for a while precisely because he was capitalist, not communist.

And of course he is friendly with Orban, and supportive of Orbans approach in Hungary.

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/kremlin-finally-puts-together-ideology

The stress on “conservative thought” alongside the course’s “civilizational approach” confirms that, ideologically and politically, the Russian authorities see themselves on the conservative, right-wing end of the political spectrum.

I think it is probably worth looking at Cates and her agreed platform with Danny Kruger. To her credit, she has never claimed to be a moderate person. I don't think she could based on her beliefs.

Nope not swallowing that humbug

I don't dismiss the threat from Islamists. I just don't agree the answer is to restrict immigration, and to bang on about "cultural integration" as a way to mitigate the threat.

That leads to a lot of Islamophobia and outright racism.

I prefer a more sensible approach of counter terrorism policing and intelligence gathering. Plus it would probably help if MENA was a bit more stable so there was less impetus for people there to blame the West for their misfortunes.

Also NatCon is backed ie funded by some very right wing Americans ie Peter Thiel. If you like Trump, you will like Peter.

"I do care that the far right have hitched onto motherhood/child safeguarding as a way to make themselves palatable to the electorate".

Safeguarding children is everyone's business. Nobody should ever make people scared of speaking up about it. It's not a right or left wing thing - it's a responsible adult thing as the women and mothers on here all know.