Bath Tories Have Been Liberal with the Truth

On Page 10 last issue of Impact, dated 25th of February 2008, we were greatly displeased by some of the comments made by Darien Jay, Vice Chair of Bath CF, in the article headlined “Bath’s Conservative Future Visit Parliament”.

While the content of the article was of no concern, in fact, we congratulate the society for staging the visit; but the article itself raised several red flags. The first is that, leaving understandably biased commentary aside (e.g “Mr Speaker, the Prime Minister’s saviour”), was that while talking of Parliament, Jay wrote, “Such a building, so steeped in tradition and adorned with placards representing British military success serves to stir up national pride in even the most liberal of Britons”.

There are evidently two key grievances with this sentence alone. The first pertains to the phrase “most liberal of Britons” and the second regards the issue of “military success”.

Essentially, it is nothing short of disgraceful on the part of the Conservatives to suggest that citizens who identify themselves as ‘liberal’ are not normally proud of the nation. This is a callous attack directed towards not only us of the Labour Society (and indeed the Liberal Democrat Society), but a huge section of the public yet unaffiliated with a particular party. To imply that Liberalism is somehow deliberately regressive is entirely ridiculous. To us Labourites, it is clear that each political party, despite its differences in philosophy and policy, does not wish to damage Britain. We want what is best for the country, we believe in a long-term strategy rather than opportunism, and we would welcome cross-party agreement and invite the Conservatives to issue an apology.

Furthermore, suggesting “British military success” is the most forceful trigger of ‘national pride’ is redundant and a perfect example of old-fashioned Toryism. It is unspecific which successes were mentioned, but it is likely to be the Napoleonic War, which ended 194 years ago, the Second World War, which ended over 60 years ago, or the Falklands War, which ended 26 years ago. Such nostalgia is superfluous and outdated; we should be going forward, not back. For all the claims of modernisation, it seems old Thatcherite nationalism is still alive and well.

Harking back to the days of the Empire is no example of ‘national pride’; a patriot loves his country, a nationalist hates everyone else’s, and stubborn celebration of crushing other nations is completely and utterly small-minded.