A group of social conservatives in the Tory parliamentary party have urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to defeat the far-left in a new “battle for Britain”, branding the likes of the Marxist Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and the eco radicals Extinction Rebellion (XR) as a “profound threat”.
The Common Sense Group of some 60 Conservative lawmakers is set to release the publication Conservative Thinking for a Post-Liberal Age in which Boris Johnson is called upon to “promote British values, traditions and history”, with the group’s chairman Sir John Hayes warning that “a country divided into rigid identity groups which refuse to accept the validity of differing points of view would soon become ungovernable”.
Sir John went on to criticise leftist “culture warriors”, saying they “are not merely a disruptive nuisance, they represent a profound threat to the values which underpin our civilised social order”, according to remarks reported by The Telegraph.
“The battle for Britain has begun, and guided by the common sense of the people, we must triumph for the common good,” he added.
Another member of the group, Gareth Bacon, has confidence that the “destructive, totalitarian, divisive, negative and antidemocratic ‘woke’ ideology can be defeated.”
“It just needs us to have the courage to stand up and fight it,” Mr Bacon wrote.
In an extract of Conservative Thinking for a Post-Liberal Age seen by the Express earlier this week, the authors prefaced the publication with the warning that “the emergence of extreme cultural and political groups in the form of Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion, Kill the Bill et al — subversives fuelled by ignorance and an arrogant determination to erase the past and dictate the future — has drawn the battle of ideas into sharp focus.”
“The business of politics is values – it’s about place, purpose and pride. The Battle for Britain has begun, it must be won by those who, inspired by the people’s will, stand for the common good in the national interest,” the preface concluded.
The Bow Group, Britain’s oldest conservative think tank, took part in the book project, and said: “The Bow Group is pleased to have taken part in the new Common Sense Group book, which declares war on woke.
“Common Sense is now the most significant caucus in Parliament, and the culture war our most significant fight.”
The group added that it was “time conservative MPs joined that fight”.
Speaking to Breitbart London on Thursday, the Bow Group’s chairman, Ben Harris-Quinney, again called the Common Sense Group “the most significant caucus in Parliament” and said it is ready to address “what is now the major fight in politics: the culture war”.
“The Common Sense Group are now leading the fight against Cultural Marxism in a Parliament that remains dangerously out of touch with the public,” Mr Harris-Quinney continued, saying that for the past decade “the Conservative leadership has been a force for woke rather than against it”, citing Prime Minister Johnson’s claim in January that “there is nothing wrong with being woke”.
“The public beg to differ, and they expect to see the Conservative Party and government standing up for our national heritage and against Cultural Marxism,” the Bow Group chairman said, adding: “The culture war is the most important fight for our country; as Andrew Breitbart said, politics is downstream from culture.”
“Where many others retreat the Bow Group will continue to work with anyone who stands against Cultural Marxism, because if we lose that battle for our country, we lose our country and our way of life,” Harris-Quinney concluded.
Far-left groups have had an increased presence on the British cultural landscape in recent years, particularly following the death of American citizen George Floyd last year, which reignited the activities of the British branch of the BLM movement and saw violent and destructive protests in London, including the defacement of monuments such as that of Sir Winston Churchill and iconoclasm in cities like Bristol, where the statue of philanthropist Edward Colston was toppled and thrown into the harbour.
In the wake of mob destruction, city and local administrators have often capitulated to the far-leftists and pledged to conduct reviews or consultations on memorials and the names of streets and buildings for alleged links to colonialism, slavery, or racism.
London mayor Sadiq Khan has announced the Orwellesque “Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm”, while other institutions such as the British Museum and the Church of England are engaging in the reevaluation of its material culture for perceived evidence of historical racism or overt celebration of the British Empire.
Brexit leader Nigel Farage had warned since early on in the resurgence of BLM’s activities that the group was a “dangerous, Marxist organisation, hell-bent on anarchy” with “an agenda that I think would have made Lenin blush”.