Our favourite malnourished author is back.
>Authoritative to authoritarian: rightwing radicalisation is blurring the Conservatives’ political red lines
>On law and order, immigration, net zero, multiculturalism, press freedom, the British empire, Donald Trump’s administration, the European convention on human rights, the condition of British cities and general state of the nation, leading Conservative and Reform UK figures routinely say inflammatory things, far outside the supposed bounds of responsible conservatism.
Stop dismantling our grip on power!
>In some ways, Britain’s current rightwing politics of mingled libertarianism and authoritarianism, slippery populist pledges and largely symbolic policies, originates in the already half-forgotten era of Boris Johnson. He purged centrist Conservatives, illegally prorogued parliament, insulted Muslims and invoked English nationalism in ways that pleased the far right. Pro-Boris placards were waved at their rallies. Despite all his lying and rule-breaking, most of the rightwing media stayed loyal. Johnson’s path to victory at the 2019 election was eased by Farage’s Brexit party agreeing not to campaign in Tory seats. The British right became more uninhibited during these years, and has never really calmed down.
He thinks Boris was extreme.
>This week, Jenrick tried to sound tougher than both Farage and his own party leader, Kemi Badenoch, arguing that asylum seekers should be confined in “rudimentary prisons”, rather than the “holiday camps” proposed by Reform.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/05/rightwing-radicalisation-conservatives-immigration-multiculturalism-press-freedom-britain