This week, the UK Conservative Party Conference met in Manchester addressing issues such as identity politics and migration.
In speeches by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and Home Secretary Suella Braverman, populist issues, such as immigration and identity politics, rang through and the several references to thirty years of stagnation in British politics echoed the “drain the swamp” rhetoric of 2016 America. It appears that events in the US at that time may have shaped the modern issues defining populism in the 2020s.
Up until recently, the concept of sexual identity and the idea of gender wasn’t so difficult to navigate; the idea that opinions could be considered an act of violence was preposterous; sex education was taught in an age appropriate manner to pre-pubescent teens, at the earliest, in educational settings.
Today, adhering to these ideals of reality may even be controversial in modern Western nations. Ireland is no exception but, in contrast with the UK, the larger political parties shrink from broaching questions about such subjects at Ard Feiseanna or even in public generally.
Rishi Sunak’s handle on reality is firm, though. In a rousing first speech to his party’s conference as Prime Minister, he vociferously challenged identity politics saying “where common sense is under attack from an organised assault, we will defend it” and that “virtue signalling has replaced common sense”.
If you think this is a strange statement of the obvious, we need only look to our politicians in Ireland to appreciate how overdue comments such as these are from our ruling class. A number of independent politicians are certainly unafraid of the truth but they remain severely low in number.
Sunak asserted that people “shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be” and that it “shouldn’t be controversial for parents to know what their children are being taught in school about relationships”.
In contrast, parents in Ireland are struggling to remove their children from sex-ed classes where they are unhappy with the materials presented to their children. A handful of politicians, such as Senator Sharon Keogan and Peadar Tóibín TD, are vocal about the concerns for age appropriate materials, but many are entirely absent from the debate.
A level of delusion has taken hold with our political class. In stark contrast to the remarks made by the British government leaders, our current stock of politicians have espoused ideas around gender that differ greatly from reality. Fine Gael’s Senator Regina Doherty has previously claimed there are “nine genders”, for example.
If you’re confused by her statement, don’t feel too alone – the public certainly have been and looked to the opposition earlier this year by turning to Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin for comment on one of those supposed genders: namely, women. When asked the question “what is a woman?”, by a member of the public, he stated that “gender identity is culture” as a swerve-step from commenting on reality.
Perhaps we should have an NGO or even a public consultation to resolve the confusion. We may not have realised it but maybe we have spent millenia surrounded by people of the genders “omnigender”, “gendervoid” and “agender” and somehow never managed to identify them?
UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman mirrored Sunak’s grounding in reality, by explicitly tackling political correctness in her conference speech. On the issue of gender, she highlighted the issue of people being “chased out of their jobs for saying that a man can’t be a woman” and pledges that the government has promised to fight “this pernicious problem”, to “curb woke” and to support the “common sense majority”.
Braverman acknowledged attempts by the media to malign her as a “hate-figure”. Unafraid to tackle the tricky tightrope of political correctness, she critiqued accusations of racism over policies such as strict immigration laws created recently by her party and coined her opponents as the “luxury beliefs brigade” for their ideological commitment to open borders, gender ideology and similar issues.
She also criticised “woke” policies in business, and added that if “you don’t challenge this poison, things just get worse”.
Sunak emphasised the importance of the British public having a say on who comes into their count and that new laws means that those who illegally enter Britain will be “detained” and “swiftly removed”.
The Home Secretary also addressed “unprecedented mass immigration” which she described as “one of the most powerful forces reshaping our world”. She referenced how her parents migrated to Britain in the 20th century but stated these earlier migrations were a “mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming”.
It’s not often such direct commentary on failures and problems in a political system are conceded. In Ireland, our government and opposition politicians, when discussing migration, focus on Ireland’s “international obligations”, a stark contrast with the Tory conference sentiments on the issue. The conference routinely referred to the policy of “stop[ping] the boats” crossing the channel.
In Ireland, neither government nor opposition parties hold strong views on curtailing the glut of illegal migration in Ireland. Three out of four people now believe Ireland has too many migrants and yet no mainstream party has taken a stance on addressing this issue. Inevitably, to appeal to this voter base, either Fine Gael or Fianna Fåil are likely to lean on this issue and propose solutions, despite having almost four years of power.
Echoes of 2016 American politics are certainly resounding in Britain and the one man in the UK with a big stake in that era of political populism is no longer a fringe figure. As far as British conservatism is concerned, Faragism may well be the future.
His political movement, borne out of criticising untethered immigration heavily appeals to a younger generation of Tories. They witnessed his success on single-issue focus that allows Britons a greater say in their countries self-determination and future.
Eagerly greeted by selfie-seeking attendees at the Conference, many of whom were members of the Young Conservatives, Nigel Farage soaked up the spotlight at the conference. Younger attendees acknowledged that their demographic were further to the right than the party, as seen in the below video:
The euro-scepticism Farage managed to drum up simply isn’t palatable to the public here in Ireland and immigration for much of the 21st century in Ireland has overall been positive for the prosperity of all based here. The immigration policies of 2004 are not as self-sustaining as before. A review of many aspects of the migration complex in Ireland has been called for recently.
Sadly the thousand welcomes may already be in short supply, even for those desperately needing international protection. With an overstretched protection system and our ceaseless housing crisis, messianic mantras about commitment to international obligations when people are struggling to move out of their parents homes will soon stale, if they have not already.
No single, strong political front on the issue of migration has developed here. Instead our rulers are more concerned with photo-opportunities with causes and NGOs that promote overly represented, niche factions of our very own luxury beliefs brigade.
Instead of implementing a mass reeducation of the school system and workforce on gender ideology, a call to our politicians to look after the wellbeing and basic prosperity of the men and women of Ireland is long overdue.
The imminent attack on freedom of expression in the proposed anti-free speech laws will attempt to silence anyone critiquing such attempts to redefine reality and threaten their personal liberties simply for not having revised their opinion on sex and gender since their Leaving Certificate Biology studies.
Before long, the Irish people will have their say in three elections over the course of the next eighteen months; at that point the electorate of Ireland may lean towards the burgeoning populism of the West, which is rising in various countries in response to these issues.
Britain’s electorate will have no shortage of candidates on these imminent issues: the Tories are making their position clearly known and are already enacting policies to satisfy electoral concerns. It remains to be seen at this point which parties will consider a complete turnaround on these issues in Ireland.