The Conservative Woman (TCW) has doubled its readership in the five short months since its launch in March on International Women’s Day. We chose that day deliberately – and rechristened it International Moaning Day – because we wanted to signal the fact that many women do not subscribe to the dreary feminist insistence that they are an oppressed “minority” ground down by men.
But how many women? Given that feminism has become the new orthodoxy across great swathes of the media, politics and education, how many women – and indeed men – would respond to our unashamedly socially conservative, with a small c, agenda? Had the whole country been bullied into sullen acquiescence by the equalities agenda pioneered by Harriet Harman and slavishly followed by David Cameron and Theresa May and the rest of the Tory leadership?
As for Labour, the sisterhood has long controlled everything it says about vital matters such as the family (they come in all shapes and sizes), marriage (not important if not downright reactionary), single parenthood (empowering), abortion (a matter of a woman’s choice), Christianity (one faith among many and none in a relativist world), multiculturalism (enriching), drugs (a lifestyle choice), the State (always good), subsidised childcare (even better), working mothers (yes please) – and much else besides.
Well, all is not lost. Total hits in our first month were 32,000. By July, we had doubled that to 64,000 with nearly 30,000 unique visitors – the size of a decent crowd at a premiership football match. We are at least as popular as West Ham United! Overall, we have had a quarter of a million hits since launch.
Our aim is simple – to give a voice to people, women especially, who reject the stultifying liberalism of modern Britain. Until the millennium, conservative voices, those who argue that centuries of tradition should not be lightly tossed aside in the pursuit of modernity, were regularly heard. Values such as the centrality of the married family to the well-being of society, the unique bond between mother and child, respect for the wisdom and contribution of the old, the importance of manners and courtesy to the harmony of the nation, and the perils of meddling with God and nature (such as three-parent children and euthanasia) have been eclipsed by the selfish materialism that emerged in the 1960s and by never passing judgement on destructive behaviour, celebrity and political correctness that mark the modern age.
TCW has made a start. We now rank second to the fearsomely PC Conservative Women’s Organisation on Google and we have every intention of overtaking them. Downing Street was forced to brief the press that we are not an official party organisation – we most assuredly are not. Former special advisers to our right-on Deputy Prime Minister have tweeted abusively, dismissing the views on our site as “drivel” and observing that we believe “feminism ruins everything”.
Such responses only reinforce our argument: that the prissy urban elite that runs the country and seeks to censor debate under a bullying blanket of PC name-calling is profoundly out of touch with many decent, ordinary people.
Nick Clegg, famously monstered by Laura Perrins, one of our co-editors on LBC radio, for his contempt for stay-at-home mothers, may view our agenda as “drivel”. But clearly, Mr Clegg’s brand of progressive politics (only “bigots” oppose gay marriage) is failing to chime with the public given that he is polling in single figures, only a third of his support at the 2010 election. He does not seem to have a hotline to the masses either.
We are not associated with any political party – only with small c conservatism. But the rise of UKIP, to victory in the European elections, is further evidence of a gap in the market for traditional values.
Only 10 or 20 years ago, the kind of opinions we express were commonplace in the mainstream media. Newspapers such as The Daily Mail, The Daily Express, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, and The Sun routinely advocated many of the commonsense views we advance today. There were even some pockets of resistance in the BBC before it fully embraced its mission as the nation’s cultural commissar, dedicated to wiping out the last remnants of ‘oldthink’. It has even set itself up as a scientific authority, portentously decreeing that the climate change debate is over, as David Keighley has demonstrated on this site more than once.
State education is even worse when it comes to brainwashing the young, as Chris McGovern has pointed out. One ray of hope was Michael Gove’s recognition that the NUT-dominated educational establishment was at the heart of the problem. But that faint light was extinguished when Cameron panicked in the face of the “Blob” and booted him out in search of a quiet life with the emollient Nicky Morgan at the helm.
With the honourable exception of the Mail, and occasionally the Telegraph and Express (now a shadow of its former self), the liberal Left rule the press and the airwaves. The Americans call these the culture wars and Britain, with its post-War penchant for collectivist, socialist and internationalist postures, has long been susceptible to appeasement in this clash of values.
TCW is unashamedly on a cultural counter-offensive against the intolerance and ignorance of the liberal Left. If you share our concerns, please offer to write for us or comment on our site. And since we are funding TCW out of our own pockets, with no BBC-like poll tax to sustain us, we are very grateful for any help you can give us through our Donate button.
