next moves...

Reimagining the Conservative movement  

The intellectual foundation of the renewed conservative movement would have to be sufficiently specific in its aims, but broad enough to absorb disagreement. I’ve given some thought to what that would look like, and have settled upon a secularised (and plagiarised) version of National Conservatism (.org), based on a limited number of core principles as follows (developed from The Harrogate Agenda)

1. National Independence. We wish to see a world of independent nations. Each nation capable of self-government should chart its own course in accordance with its own particular constitutional, linguistic, and religious inheritance. Each has a right to maintain its own borders and conduct policies that will benefit its own people.

2. Internationalism not supranationalism. We support free cooperation and competition among nation-states, working together through trade treaties, defensive alliances, and other common projects that respect the independence of their members. But we oppose transferring the authority of elected governments to transnational or supranational bodies—a trend that pretends to high moral legitimacy even as it weakens representative government, sows public alienation and distrust, and strengthens the influence of autocratic regimes.

3. National Government. The nation-state is instituted to establish a more perfect union among communities, parties, and regions of a given nation, to provide for their common defense and justice among them, and to secure the general welfare and liberty for this time and for future generations. We believe in a strong but limited state, subject to constitutional restraints and a division of powers. We recommend a drastic reduction in the scope of the administrative state and the policy-making judiciary that displace legislatures representing the full range of a nation’s interests and values.

We recommend the localism principle, which prescribes a delegation of power to the respective states or subdivisions of the nation so as to allow greater variation, experimentation, and freedom. However, in those subdivisions in which law and justice have been manifestly corrupted, or in which lawlessness, immorality, and dissolution reign, national government must intervene energetically to restore order.

We believe that government must be by consent, and that all decisions or policies resulting in fines, forfeitures or taxes are subject to a popular vote. We believe everyone has the right to freedom of speech provided they are not inciting violence or crime, or directly threatening another person.

4. The Rule of Law. We believe in the rule of law. By this we mean that citizens and foreigners alike, and both the government and the people, must accept and abide by the laws of the nation without exception. The law must be enforced without fear or favour.

5. Free Enterprise. We believe that an economy based on private property and free enterprise is best suited to promoting the prosperity of the nation and accords with traditions of liberty that are central to the British political tradition. We reject the socialist principle, which supposes that the economic activity of the nation can be conducted in accordance with a rational plan dictated by the state.

But the free market cannot be absolute. Economic policy must serve the general welfare of the nation. Today, globalised markets allow hostile foreign powers to despoil Britain and other countries of their manufacturing capacity, weakening them economically and dividing them internally. At the same time, trans-national corporations showing little loyalty to any nation damage public life.

A prudent national economic policy should promote free enterprise, but it must also mitigate threats to the national interest, aggressively pursue economic independence from hostile powers, nurture industries crucial for national defense, and restore and upgrade manufacturing capabilities critical to the public welfare. Crony capitalism, the selective promotion of corporate profit-making by organs of state power, should be energetically exposed and opposed.

6. Family and Children. We believe the traditional family is the source of society’s virtues and deserves greater support from public policy. The traditional family, built around a lifelong bond between a man and a woman, and on a lifelong bond between parents and children, is the foundation of all other achievements of our civilization.

The disintegration of the family, including a marked decline in marriage and childbirth, gravely threatens the wellbeing and sustainability of democratic nations. Economic and cultural conditions that foster stable family and congregational life and child-raising are priorities of the highest order.

7. Immigration. Today’s penchant for uncontrolled and unassimilated immigration has become a source of weakness and instability, not strength and dynamism, threatening internal dissension and ultimately dissolution of the political community. We call for a long term moratorium on immigration and aggressive policies to promote assimilation. We demand that those with no right to be here, or no means to support themselves, are removed, and unassimilated immigrants are encouraged to leave.

I think @NewCultureForum is best placed to become an entryist right wing version of Momentum. This is what we must do to restore Britain.

Please engage on Twitter (buggered if I am going to call it X) @WoteUk; original thread here...