The first in the Red Wedge series of events was cohosted with the Labour Movement for Europe and was chaired by the newly elected MP for Wolverhampton North East, Emma Reynolds. She introduced former MEP and deputy leader of the EPLP, Richard Corbett, the shadow Europe minister, Chris Bryant, the director of the Centre for European Reform, Charles Grant and Gideon Skinner, research director at Ipsos MORI.
Gideon Skinner began by pointing out that everyone in the room was a bit ‘weird’ – not so as to insult anyone, but in comparison to the rest of the country gathering together to discuss Europe is surprising given it ranks so low in the public’s priorities. In fact it has been falling in importance since 1997 and even during last year’s European elections only 5 per cent of the public named it as the most important issue facing Britain. There has also been a fairly consistent, if slightly narrowing, majority in favour of membership of the EU. Events have had an impact on views: a year ago, deep in the financial crisis still, two thirds said that EU membership was more important than ever, but the narrative of Europe has changed already as the debate moves on to Greece, sovereign debt crises and the deficit.
The euro crisis had, said Charles Grant, ‘discombobulated’ the eurosceptics: instead of being able to rail against a European superstate they now see a weakened EU which is in no position to ‘run Britain’. So that leaves the eurosceptics slightly dormant for the moment, but he also noted that Cameron, Hague and Osborne decided not to pick any fights with Europe and may attempt to carry on in that pragmatic vein. Financial regulation and national budgets were two issues which could creep up and throw the government off course.
Chris Bryant also thought that speeches on Europe had so far been carefully planned and worded and said he looked with interest to upcoming matters in justice and home affairs, where the UK has an opt-in under Lisbon. Most of these matters are in Britain’s interest – so would the government move to oppose them? He also made the case for a strong Labour ‘wedge’, a coherent Labour position that was positive in nature rooted in internationalist and democratic socialist values, and moving away from the triangulation of previous years where vast amounts of ground were ceded to a nationalist agenda. In terms of driving a wedge in the coalition, he said it is hard at the moment to find where to place grappling hooks on the iceberg that is the government. Indeed, fissures may not yet be visible, but in the end, another panelist pointed out, these splits may appear earlier between frontbench and backbench Tories than between Tories and Lib Dems.
Approaching faultlines could include the EU budget, where the European commission will want a larger budget, arguing that it is now doing more and the budget should reflect this. On foreign policy the EU will have to find greater resolve to act together to solve world problems. The proposed ‘sovereignty bill’ is not worth much more than the paper it’s written on, even if it does ever come to pass.
When the debate opened up to the floor, Martin Phillips of the Labour Movement for Europe asked if Europe can ever be a votewinner? Not really, responded Gideon Skinner, but he pointed out that Europe was a little like the public’s reaction to Tory policies where there is a tendency to like individual policies but turn away from them once they learn of their origin.
Maureen Tomison, chair of Kent Labour party, pointed out Labour’s transition from a eurosceptic party to a pro-European one, but made clear that members as much as the general public need to be enthused. One former member of a Lincolnshire ECLP pointed out the value under the old system of having a direct representative in the European parliament.
Audience members duly retreated to St Stephen’s Tavern for a post-event discussion. We hope all those who attended enjoyed the event, and invite you to attend our next event in the series, Red Wedge: human rights
Thanks too to Labour Movement for Europe for being partners in this event
I have three main objections to feminism. 1 The political territory which feminism claims to occupy is already covered by classical liberalism. We already have perfectly good theories about human rights and civil rights and political equality, and we just don’t need another one. Under a liberal reading, women are no different from anybody else: there isn’t really any such thing as ‘women’s rights’, any more than ‘left-handed people’s rights’. 2 The intellectual quality of the analysis offered by feminists is desperately poor. Feminists have appropriated the domain of sexual politics for themselves. ‘We are the authority on this matter’, they claim, ‘if you want to know about sexual politics, come to us, and we will tell you what to think. Your opinions are not welcome’. Not only is this a deeply authoritarian attitude, which should arouse our hostility in itself, but having seized power in this area, they have, from society’s point of view, done a spectacularly poor job. Surely the first task of any such organisation would be to produce an analysis, a model of the task domain. Yet not only is feminism’s analysis of sexual relations pathetically inadequate, it is, even worse, dangerously misleading, dogmatic, self-serving and divisive. 3 They are not fulfilling their responsibilities to society. Surely, the role of any organisation which claims to address problems in sexual politics should be, first and foremost, to act as an honest broker. Feminists should be the UN peacekeepers of the sexual landscape, the impartial police who arbitrate in disputes, who identify potential sources of conflict and pour oil on troubled waters. The primary role of any such organisation should surely be to promote harmony, good relations and communication between the sexes. Yet feminists do precisely the opposite. Far from impartial, they act only in their own narrow interests, they regard men as an enemy to be defeated, they stir up hatred and moral panic at every opportunity. They are not police but vigilantes. Forever married to the outdated Marxist and Psychoanalytic dogmas of the late 1960s, their analysis of issues can never improve. The 1960s counter-culture produced an outlook on life which is deeply anti-social and maladjusted to say the least. The society in which we grew up, the safest, wealthiest, healthiest and most liberal society in history, is regarded as the root of all evil in the world. The whole society in which we live, our own culture, must be completely razed to the ground. Only then can we rebuild a New Jerusalem from the ashes. To say that this is an irrational belief is putting it mildly. Revolutionary politics is misleading and pessimistic, because it teaches us that social reform is impossible. We cannot change anything unless we change everything. Yet that is the political outlook, derived from the most unsavoury role models, Marx, Lenin and Mao, that the hippies of the 1960s adopted. Feminism is the Western world’s last surviving bastion of that totalitarian thinking. Feminists have concentrated their efforts on attacking marriage, the family, heterosexuality and men in general. The fact that they think women’s interests will be served by this indicates just how deeply deluded they are. Coupled with this destructive and irrational hatred of one’s own culture was a peculiar narcissism. Experimentation with ‘alternative lifestyles’ was probably inevitable once a sufficiently wealthy and liberal society appeared. The data is now in, and the results are deeply unedifying. What the 1968 generation – the last surviving remnant of which is the feminist movement – gave us was widespread social collapse. Divorce, fatherlessness, family breakdown, abortion, crime, drug abuse, child neglect, sexually transmitted infections, personal heartbreak, educational failure. Single-parent households living off public funds, leading to an increase in traffic, pollution, housing shortage, taxation and the intrusive power of the State. The feminist movement has served the short-term selfish interests of middle-class white women, but its effects on the wider society have been catastrophic. They are under the delusion that they are trying to save a misguided world from its own folly. The arrogance of this position is stunning. There are several reasons why feminist theory is so intellectually bankrupt. One cause is an inherent left-wing distrust of the establishment. Any theorizing done by the male establishment must be rejected. Thus, science and logic cannot be pursued in any honest way. Aspects of mainstream science and philosophy will be appropriated (and then arbitrarily dropped) if they happen to suit short-term political convenience, but that is all. The second factor is that women are very socially-focused creatures. I know from my own experience that men will discuss science, economics, history and philosophy, but women only ever talk about themselves and other people. They find men’s conversation on these subjects boring and geeky. They concern themselves with the minutiae of personal relationships, almost to the exclusion of all else. This tends to militate against any kind of large-scale theorizing, which the feminist project requires. A second outcome from this preoccupation with social issues is a desire to fit in and be accepted. This tends to mean that women will latch onto any passing fad or trend. Most of the feminists I have known in my life are interested in every kind of mysticism from astrology to reiki to homeopathy. It’s easier and more fun than reading evolutionary psychology. With a lack of intellectual rigour and a desire to be trendy and popular, every kind of nonsense is actively embraced. This tends to make for very poor theory. Post-modernism comes to the rescue by claiming that every theory is just as good as every other, a notion as intellectually bankrupt as it is possible to get. Thirdly, there is the dogmatic moral arrogance of feminism. Anyone who dares to ask questions is pilloried as a misogynist. This is a deliberate tactic used to suppress debate and silence criticism. Naomi Wolf recommends that dissenters should be subjected to female psycho-social violence around the middle-class dinner table. At every social gathering, the unfortunate victim will be subjected to scorn, filthy looks and verbal abuse until they cave in and stop disagreeing with feminists. This is an openly totalitarian mindset. It is the middle-class equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition. This behaviour can have real and very severe consequences, including the breakup of relationships and damage to people’s mental health. For some reason, feminists seem to think that they are immune from scrutiny or criticism. Such attitudes simply cannot be accepted in a democracy. Lastly, feminism is a modern-day religion, and its adherents act like any other religious believers. They dare not question the Holy Writ for fear of excommunication. They hold established religious ideas in sacred reverence. Anyone who does not do so is a heretic or an infidel. They create cults of personality around significant past leaders, whose wisdom cannot be questioned. This religious mindset is anathema to free intellectual enquiry, which, again, makes for very poor theory. Once a bad idea has become established, it is very difficult to displace it. Feminists are not fulfilling their responsibilities towards the wider society because they simply do not believe that they have any; they believe only that society has responsibilities towards them. I don’t have to do anything, I’m already perfect. It is a cult mindset which strokes the ego of insecure and dysfunctional women. It is long past the time when this bizarre cult must be openly challenged.