I’ve instructed on the necessity for a truly conservative leader of Britain’s supposedly right-wing party now for years. It seemed like it would never happen. Some people even had quixotic notions of Nigel Farage somehow cruising to the stewardship of the Conservative Party. Now there is a decent hope.
The Tories are full to the gunwales with wets and liberals who may not let it happen. But this is potentially the only chance we will have in some time. Cometh the hour, cometh the Mogg.
Even a few months ago it was unthinkable that Jacob Rees-Mogg should assume the leadership of Britain’s Conservative Party. For suggesting such a thing, I was laughed out of debates, similarly to how Ann Coulter was treated when she suggested President Trump would happen.
In fact, over the past few years, I have predicted, some years before they came to pass: Jeremy Corbyn, President Trump, President Macron, and Brexit.
I hope my instincts are equally correct as far as Jacob Rees-Mogg is concerned.
Not only is Mr. Rees-Mogg the consummate English gentleman, his disposition also marries perfectly the British predilection towards classical liberalism — what Americans may deem ‘libertarianism’ and his own internalised conservatism.
Take for instance his interview on Good Morning Britain, where even loudmouth Piers Morgan seemed unable to land a blow, as Rees-Mogg argued against abortion, and even same-sex marriage.
These are major liberal shibboleths in British political discourse. Lives and careers have been ended as a result of opposition to such things.
But Rees-Mogg easily navigated the issues, explaining that legislation surrounding such matters are usually free votes in Parliament, rather than policy dictated by party leaders or prime ministers. Effectively, he said: “I am personally a conservative, but I respect parliamentary sovereignty, and the representative will of the people on such matters.”
Contrast that to prime ministers who have sought to stack the cultural decks in the United Kingdom for years: Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron — all of these premiers routinely dismissed or attempted to diminish British public opinion. Some of them are still doing so.
In contrast with the Conservative Party’s “modernising” instincts — which really just means liberal-left centralisation — the Moggmentum movement is entirely grassroots led.
While the Tories attempt, once again, to astroturf their youth movement and activist wing, Moggmentum is a real-world, real-person response to a liberal Britain almost fully off the rails.
People outside major population centres cannot believe what they hear when it comes to London’s multicultural largesse, or even what their children are being taught at school. Jacob Rees-Mogg is not just the antidote to this, he is potentially the last chance we will see in a long time for the Conservative Party to not fall foul of false advertising rules per its name.
Neo-liberalism dragged the Tories to the left.
Cameronism dragged the Tories to the left.
Theresa May is dragging the Tories, once again, into the swampy waters of unelectability.
Mr. Rees-Mogg is offering the party a life boat, and should be placed in charge of steering the ship onto dry land.
Please, Tories, for the good of the country, take this opportunity.
Raheem Kassam is the Editor in Chief of Breitbart London and author of No Go Zones: How Shariah Law is Coming to a Neighborhood Near You