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.

Even if you want to call the attendees 'far right' it is no excuse for the literally fascistic and authoritarian actions that occured in Belgium. Europe is entering some pretty unsettling times if this is the measure of the mood.

'I googled him and that said he was a bad man so I'm pretty pleased he was banned'.

We are in the presence of a total genius here.

https://thecritic.co.uk/childhood-reclaimed/

😴😴

"Failing to produce enough babies" makes women sound like some kind of farm animal.

Not entirely sure what she's proposing. It sounds like turning off the Internet. I could probably get behind that.

I'm more alarmed by the fact it seems increasingly fashionable to say you get your facts from everywhere , all facts as equally valid (even if the "fact" is an anecdote on the internet) and there is no such thing as far right, it's just anti Conservatives.

But then I'm interested in European history.

I'm not sure what your one person crusade against Miriam Cates is supposed to be about? You know that a variety of views are acceptable and within the mainstream when it comes to women and their rights? You don't have to agree with everything someone says to recognise they have a right to a voice and a view.

Lots of women regret that they've not been able to have children, or have left it too late to have children.......All societies do need to have children in order to sustain themselves. Families, even traditional nuclear families, are not necessarily a bad thing...they can be the most functional way to bring up children, especially if women are to be given the freedom to choose whether or not they want to return to work full time after giving birth.

I'm not sure what your one person crusade against Miriam Cates is supposed to be about?

There's a new focus each week. Miriam Cates is this week's KJK! 🤔

She's an MP. One who's been tipped for leadership. Therefore her "view and voice" are a lot more influential than mine, for example.

I don't want a far right government. I don't really want far right MPs in government. I think its destabilising, potentially dangerous and bad for the UK population. Therefore when I see FWR positively promoting people who spread far right ideology I'm going to point it out so and other posters can be fully informed.

Don't vote for her then. Nobody is compelling you to. It is not 'far right' to want to support motherhood. 'Far right' is fascism and totalitarianism in which the state is all-powerful. Britain does not have a history of such far right movements being in power. British politics, whatever the colour is always fairly mainstream, not extreme.

When you try to close people down it actually escalates extremism.

Politics does not have to be so intolerant and tribalistic. It is possible to work with people from across the political spectrum on certain issues and not on others. When you are able to co-operate on shared values you recognise that the 'opposition' are not all red eyed devils - they are just people with a different take or persepctive on some issues. It is good to have contacts and even friends with a wide range of views. It makes for a more successful and cohesive society.

Thank you for pointing to this. Miriam Cates doesn’t see the same solutions as I do, but she sees some of the same problems. I liked this:

“The left is notoriously suspicious of parents and families, preferring the state to raise our children. But sometimes the right abandons parents, by privatising the family and attempting to absolve society of our collective duty to be responsible for raising the next generation.”

Do you not understand? He's banned from visiting Germany. This is the speech which got him banned.

https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2024/04/13/my-berlin-speech-on-palestine-that-german-police-entered-the-venue-to-ban/

And do you think people should only speak on topics they're experts in? In that case you should stop posting threads about politics.

I find it shocking that you think anyone should be shut down.

A judge ruled on it at 2am this morning. Do keep up

It's still peaceful. Albeit irritating to be held up on the roads. Paintings can be cleaned up. There's no broken bones, dead bodies, so yes it's peaceful.

Adam: amazed you have not heard of Yannis Varoufakis. Professor of economics and former finance minister of Greece. Read "The Adults in the Room" - an escoriating attack on the EU's behaviour over the Greek financial crisis, when he attempted to re-negotiate his country's relationship with the EU. An eye-opening read. A fascinating peek behind the EU's dealings behind closed doors - despite which, he said Greece should remain in the EU. He describes himself as a libertarian Marxist so no populist right winger. He is utterly fearless about what he supports and what he condemns. Whether you agree with him or not he is devastatingly logical and impervious to condemnation by right or left.

Personally, I see left and right as a circle rather than a line - extreme left and extreme right are equally authoritarian, they just choose different things to be authoritarian about.

The smoking ban is a real libertarian test and I say that in spite of losing my mother and my husband to smoking-related cancer and hating the wretched addiction. There's a lot of things I don't agree with Cates about and some I do - the eternal dilemma of the centrist; but we must be vigilent over how much we allow the state to determine how we live or we will end up with authoritarian laws - whether they are from the right or the left, both equally abhorrent IMO.

Collective duty really?

The state can keep their beak out of my family thanks

There is no threat from the "authoritarian left" in this country, if indeed there were was.
The far right on the other hand are closer every day. And this current thing of "oh we must take them seriously or they will have a tantrum" doesn't work for me.

Miriam Cates' views on motherhood are not unique enough for me to want to support her other tendencies, namely hanging out at far right conferences, and churches with questionable attitudes to gay people.

We can find better politicians than that. In my opinion anyway.

Quite. I don't want anyone else deciding what's best for my kids. She can be quite judgy:
Parents who have sufficient material resources, are married, and raise their children in a faith community are all statistically more likely to raise flourishing children

There was huffing about Corbyn a few years ago. I didn't agree with some of his beliefs but didn't rant and rave about him either..

So I'm not going to froth about some conservatives having a pow wow either

I think what that refers to is that we are all responsible for the children in our community - even if they have nothing to do our family. If you see a lone child misbehaving in a public place then you should not necessarily hold back from reprimading them, or suggesting to them better ways to behave, and so on.
If you see a parent abusing a child in public, it is not always good to turn the other cheek because you it has nothing to do with you. Children need to know that some adults can be relied on to be there for them.

You are joking.....Women have been sacked, ridiculed, cancelled, banned from forums, been isolated in ther local constituency parties, reported to the police for wrong think.

There is no threat from the "authoritarian left" in this country, if indeed there were was.

Someone actually posted that with a straight face on this forum of all places.

It is also suggestive of a society in which people look out for each other and for each other's children.That we all have a duty of care.

I don't want anyone else deciding what's best for my kids. She can be quite judgy:

Oh the irony.

Presumably someone who wanted to do that would also look out for desperate people including children fleeing persecution who want to seek sanctuary in the UK?