Shades of Things to Come?
Thanks to Ray Sunshine for bringing this to HJ's attention and apologies for mistakenly deleting his comment.
There were dramatic scenes in Brussels on Tuesday at the "National Conservatism Conference" offering "a harbinger of
what a police state in the heart of Europe might look like," according to the Catholic Herald.
After the conference began,
local Brussels police arrived at the Claridge building hosting the
conference, and proceeded set up barricades in front of the event venue,
preventing any further attendees, journalists or speakers from accessing the
event.
Eric Zemmous, the French
politician, who was due to appear at the conference but was barred from
entering when he turned up, said the city’s left-wing mayor had deployed the
police like a “private militia” to stop a conservative conference from
happening in Brussels.
As the situation escalated,
eventually Belgium Prime Minister Alexander De Croo felt compelled to speak
out:
“What happened at the Claridge
today is unacceptable,” the Belgium Prime Minister said on X. “Municipal autonomy
is a cornerstone of our democracy but can never overrule the Belgian
constitution guaranteeing the freedom of speech and peaceful assembly since
1830. Banning political meetings is unconstitutional. Full stop.”
The planned appearance of German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller at the
conference managed to go ahead, though he was visibly shocked by the police
standing a few feet away.
“This is like Nazi Germany,” the Cardinal said, “I never imagined that I would witness the banning of a peaceful political meeting in a supposedly free and democratic country,”
After police surrounded the
venue at 12 p.m. on 16th April, an emergency legal challenge was filed by
ADF International, an international legal organisation defending the religious
liberty of Christians, regarding the decision of the local authorities
to prohibit the conference from continuing.
ADF International had seen the
order from the city, issued by Emir Kir, the mayor of the
Saint-Josse-ten-Noode district in Brussels, where the conference venue is
located, which cited the reasons for shutting down the conference as
including:
“[NatCon’s] vision is not only
ethically conservative (e.g. hostility to the legalisation of
abortion, same-sex unions, etc.) but also focused on the defence of ‘national
sovereignty’, which implies, amongst other things, a ‘Eurosceptic’ attitude…”
The order also stated – apparently as justification for closing the conference down – that some of the speakers “are reputed to be traditionalists” and that the conference must be banned “to avoid foreseeable attacks on public order and peace”.
“Open dialogue is supposed to be at the core of European politics; yet here in the capital of the EU, a thoughtful exchange on policy has been shut down by unilateral decree,” said Paul Coleman, a British lawyer and Executive Director of ADF International, who was due to speak at the conference before he too was barred entry.
“This is a watershed moment
where the true censorship crisis in Europe is on full public display. The
crushing of political opinions opposed by those in power is something that
should be relegated to the darker chapters of European history.”
Coleman added: “ADF International is supporting an emergency legal challenge against the mayor’s order to shut down the conference, arguing it is contrary to the fundamental rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly – the pillars of truly democratic societies.”
“What happened today is an updated form of Soviet communism,” British politician Nigel Farage, who attended the conference, wrote in the Daily Telegraph. “It says that no other view is allowed, that anybody that holds it is, by definition, mad, bad, and dangerous.”
Alexander De Croo, organiser of the conference went to the Conseil d’état, Belgium’s Supreme Administrative Court. It ruled there was no evidence of a threat to public order from the event itself and that this claim seemed to be “derived purely from the reactions that its organisation might provoke among opponents”. It confirmed the mayor had the authority to seek police orders to close events if there were “serious disturbances of the public peace.”
Wiki defines national conservatism this way:
National conservatism is a nationalist variant of conservatism that concentrates on upholding national, cultural identity, communitarianism, and the public role of religion. It shares aspects of traditionalist conservatism and social conservatism, while departing from economic liberalism and libertarianism, as well as taking a more agnostic approach to regulatory economics and protectionism.
National conservatives usually combine conservatism with nationalist stances, emphasizing cultural conservatism, family values and opposition to illegal immigration or opposition to immigration per se ..
Ideologically, national conservatism is not a uniform philosophy but adherents have broadly expressed support for nationalism, patriotism, assimilationism and mono-culturalism. At the same time there is expressed opposition to internationalism, racial politics, multiculturalism and globalism. National conservatives adhere to a form of cultural nationalism that emphasizes the preservation of national identity as well as cultural identity. As a result, many favor assimilation into the dominant culture, restrictions on immigration and strict law and order policies.
Emir Kir, the mayor
at the centre of this, is the son of Turkish immigrants who arrived in the
1960s. He joined the Socialist Party in 1995. Ironically, in January 2020, he was expelled from the Socialist Party for
receiving a delegation of Turkish mayors, including two MHP elected
officials, considered to be a far-right party. Emir claimed he was “the victim of a racist and Turkophobic lynching” .
It's laughable the Emir Kir, the politician who banned the conference on the grounds that the "far right" shouldn't be allowed to speak was himself kicked out of the Belgian Socialist Party in 2020 because of his links with the Turkish "far right."
ReplyDeleteBut that was "racist Turkophobia"!
DeleteFor a second I read that as “Emir Kirstama” (emoticon indicating confusion.)
ReplyDeleteI.N.
"University student disciplined after saying ‘veganism is wrong’ in his own room"
ReplyDeleteThis headline, whilst not entirely truthful, does highlight a truth. In actual fact he was disciplined for comments regarding gender fluidity.
In any authoritarian regime you have those willing to expose their neighbour for profit.
We are now a police state and the scum is rising to the top.
We need to leave.
Hay Lian got space for a family of three in Japan?
In a private phone call to a friend he allegedly said, veganism is wrong and gender fluidity is “stupid." A student "eavesdropper" next door in his halls of residence at Exeter University reported his comments as offensive and “transphobic.”
DeleteApparently, all this took place in 2018.
He says he was later informed by letter that he had been found guilty of harassment and warned that he would be expelled if he breached any other of the university’s rules.
In other news, Patrick Harvie, the Scottish Greens’ co-leader, rubbished the Cass review saying there were “far too many criticisms of it” for him to accept it as a “valid scientific document.” This despite Dr Hilary Cass being one of the UK’s most eminent paediatricians.
@Clive there are lots of lovely villages in the countryside with traditional houses going for next to nothing, as the younger generation left to move to the cities and the older generation have now passed on. I'm more and more seriously considering moving, I spent some time living in, and helping my uncle to repair, an old hut in an abandoned shrine complex in the mountains. It was prefect. A small room and a garden miles away from all this nonsense is all I need.
DeleteBut Japan is racially homogenous, and so it's already coming under attack from the same activists. I recently watched the new adaptation of James Cavill's Shōgun, a fictionalised account of the navigator William Adams (who, in 1600 became the first Englishman to reach Japan) and his life as a western samurai in the Tokugawa era. It's produced by a Japanese producer, most of the dialogue is in Japanese, the cast (apart from Adams and the Portuguese traders) are Japanese, and they've tried to make everything as period authentic as possible. But activists are already complaining online about a lack of diversity in this series set in an insular 17th century Japan which had had very little contact with the outside world at this point. There's nothing they won't try to ruin.
Richard Osman has just announced the names of three actors who will play leading roles in the forthcoming film adaptation of his first novel, The Thursday Murder Club. One of the three is Ben Kingsley, who will play the 80-year-old psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif, originally from Egypt. But Kingsley isn’t Egyptian, he’s Indian. Furious protests on the way, perhaps?
DeleteIsn't it wearisome? The whole point of acting is to portray someone else. And Osman is a 53-year-old white man from Essex - is he even allowed to write about an 80-year-old Egyptian psychologist? Surely he can only write about the lived experiences of 53-year-old white men from Essex.
DeleteAt the rate we're going, we'll end up with a handful of woke-approved storylines that get reused over and over again. Actually, that pretty much describes the current state of modern entertainment.
1600 - Battle of Sekigahara, if I remember rightly.
DeleteI.N.
I.
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
ReplyDeleteDid gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe
A nonsense poem for an increasingly nonsense world
@HJ Paxman is an atheist.
@Lain, it sounds lovely, sadly I think the chances of me being able to learn Japanese to be as close to zero as makes no difference.
I remember watching the made for TV version of the '70's. (Of Shogun), I thought it to be a decent attempt. Of course back then no one gave a damn about diversity.
DeleteThe main character in Shōgun picks up enough Japanese to communicate in about three episodes, you'd be fine!
DeleteI was quite wary going in, because almost everything now is preachy or moronic, but I think they've done a really good job with it.
What I find interesting is who is and who isn't required to have diversity in their productions. Compare the reactions to the lack of diversity in the casts of 1917 and Black Panther...
Well, yes. Anyone who who has dared describe themselves as 'conservative' has perhaps been concerned about this for a while now (though their country of residence will certainly be a factor).
ReplyDelete