These ‘Conservatives’ are just a Thatcher tribute band singing about war and dope

WHAT is a conservative? All supporters of free speech must, of course, rally to the defence of the strange conference in Brussels which was briefly shut down by the city’s Leftist, intolerant local government chiefs last week. But if this was conservatism, then no wonder the cause is lost.

Among its planned, or actual, speakers was our own Nigel

» I’VE ASKED two ambulance services and they say that the sirens on their emergency vehicles are no louder than they used to be. To which I respond, why not? Now so many people go about wearing headphones and cannot hear anything, and with cars so well-insulated and often also full of loud music that their occupants are protected from life outside, surely it would be justified? As a cyclist who would rather eat semolina or gristle than wear headphones on the street, I am sure ambulances are louder than they were five years ago. Though I am old, I can hear them much further away than I once could, and if they pass close by, I feel actual pain in my ears.

Farage. What is conservative about him, exactly? He is the star performer of the flourishing Margaret Thatcher Tribute Band which has grown up as the Tory Party has become ever more soppy and Blairite.

But he looks to me like a liberal – much as Liz Truss does. Both of them, for instance, have spoken in favour of weakening the marijuana laws, a totally unconservative position. Then there is the Hungarian politician Viktor Orban, who knows well how to play the tunes which patriots and conservatives love to hear. But something about him suggests he is the sort of politician who goes into a revolving door behind you and comes out

in front. And there is the French politician Eric Zemmour, who has questioned the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish French Army officer framed as a spy by antiSemites in one of the most shameful events in French history. All those Belgian Leftists, who tried to stop this event going ahead, must have known they were doing these supposed ‘national conservatives’ a favour.

Their cause prospers when nobody can hear what they are saying. Silenced, they gain prestige as the martyred victims of censorship. Meanwhile, serious thoughtful conservatism has almost vanished, replaced by dubious sloganeers, wild tax-cutters, warmongers and drug legalisers.

» NOT all that long ago, early reports of the Sydney knife killings would have assumed he was a terrorist. This time, hardly anyone came to this conclusion. It’s a step forward that we have stopped making this daft assumption. But how long will it be before we begin to ask if the culprit has been a long-term user of drugs, especially marijuana?

I suspect that, if western societies started looking for this link, they would find it over and over again. But they do not want to, because so many in public life have used this drug and because the police have given up the struggle against it.

» JAUNTY little notices have begun to appear in the posher zones of Westminster (my example here comes from an alley close to the exclusive clublands of St James’s, quite near various Royal sites). They threaten severe fines for those who commit what we used to call a nuisance, on the street. Well, all right. We’d all prefer unsullied pavements. But have these bladder police tried, recently, to find legal relief? Public lavatories in Westminster (and in many other places) are either closed all the time, closed most of the time, or barred to any who lack the right sort of contactless payment card. It’s not the highest function of government but, when you think about it, it is quite an important one.