The NatCon conference showed how a rightwing network is spreading toxic ideology – away from government, it will only escalate
Oblivion. Possibly even extinction. That’s where the Conservative party is headed, it would be safe to assume, after the local elections wipeout, persistently poor polling and the failure of any mythical “Sunak bounce” to materialise. Based on last week’s National Conservatism conference, it looks as though the extreme Brexit-addled wing of the party is all but guaranteeing the Conservatives’ obsolescence by swimming against the cultural tide, too. Tory MPs joined rightwing authors, journalists and cultural influencers for three days of broadly bonkers, anachronistic views on family values, white population decline and the merits of nationalism, much of which had seemingly racist and homophobic overtones. Marriage between a man and a woman was “the only possible basis for a safe and successful society”, said Tory MP Danny Kruger. Douglas Murray declared that nationalism shouldn’t be underrated simply because the Germans “mucked up twice in a century”.
Weird? Yes. Out of touch? Definitely. But not entirely irrelevant. The fact that these conference attendees may soon not be in government or close to government doesn’t mean that their views hold little power, or that they are the preserve of some dangerous but quarantined “online right”. Theories about white replacement, the threat of multiculturalism, the death of Europe and of whiteness under siege have all been represented for some time in our politics and mainstream press, and among government advisers.
Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist
