Kemi Badenoch reveals plan to unite Britain around ‘common culture and identity’
A Conservative government would tackle the rise of “separatism” in the UK by uniting people “around a common culture and a common identity”, Kemi Badenoch has announced.
In a speech laying out a series of planned commissions focused on integration, the leader of the Opposition said Britain has become “too tolerant of those weaponising identity politics for their own gain”.
She defined separatism as “a way of living that keeps a group apart from the wider society” which leads to sectarianism and “the politics that follows when people are taught to think in blocks”.
Mrs Badenoch claimed separatism was “most visible in some Muslim communities, with extremism its most violent expression,” but said the issue was also emerging elsewhere.
Concerns have been raised about people forcing family members to vote in a certain way in the recent Gorton and Denton by-election, with Nigel Farage claiming it was a victory for “sectarian voting and cheating” after Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer won the seat.
Mrs Badenoch said she did not believe women were “marched into the voting booth to stop them from voting Reform”, but claimed something “much deeper and disturbing” was happening.
She added the by-election featured campaigning “designed to mobilise voters on ethnicity and religion, not domestic priorities”.
“People were voting not based on who would increase their wages or fix their schools, but on who would protect the interests of their identity groups and punish those who they disagree with. This is not healthy and it is not British,” she said.
Mrs Badenoch added her party’s approach would be “bold” and “brave” but strike the “right tone” to avoid fermenting division.
She added: “It is about bringing people together around a common culture and a common identity.
“There is a vacuum of competence on this issue right now and that is why Conservatives have to lead. No-one else will do this properly. We have to.”
Mrs Badenoch said: “British culture exists. We live it. We benefit from it and we have a duty to defend it and pass it on.
“The answer to this is integration, but for integration to work people have to know they are integrating into a culture which is strong and self-confident.
“It does not work if Britain is a mess of competing cultures and it cannot work if we are not brave enough to say who we are and what we expect.”
Commission
She said her party would launch a commission to recommend an integration and cohesion plan that “sets out the culture that we want people to assimilate into, what we expect and what we will enforce”.
She added: “But first we must do away with what has failed. Integration being treated as an administrative process has not worked. That era is over.
“We will act on a simple doctrine. We will end identity politics in the state full stop. No racial preferences, protected characteristics will not be used as criteria for hiring, promotion, admissions or procurement.”
Mrs Badenoch promised to establish “universalism”, described as “one set of rules for everyone, enforced fairly”.
Expanding on the concept, she added: “Universalism will run through every aspect of government policy, from education to policing, welfare to immigration.
“We will review every single code of practice to ensure standardisation across public bodies and prevent them from doing their own thing.
“We will replace the promotion of multiculturalism in schools with a national story, one that is inclusive of the many people who have come to Britain, but without the grievance or the guilt which is corroding our cultural confidence.
“We will not teach our children that all cultures are equal. Instead we will teach them why Britain’s civic culture matters.”
‘Self-censorship’
She also said her party would “end institutional self-censorship that stops people from doing the right thing”.
Lord Toby Young has been asked to lead a review on this element of the plans.
A commission will be established to assess how to overhaul the Equality Act “so it prioritises meritocracy and strengthens integration”, Mr Badenoch said.
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Britain has no, and never has had, a common culture and identity. Reason why it’s made up of Scotland, England and Wales. It’s also wrong to assume that within England itself that there exists a common culture and identity. That is, in itself, diverse.
tory party missing a few natty pillow case hoods it seems.
They don’t fancy using their own. They’d have to put holes in them.
And the common culture would be the English culture, like it always has been. No thanks. The Welsh people have rejected tories at every election so please shut the door on your way out
Says the self-declared hater of identity politics who has just blamed the Gorton and Denton results on “the monster of harvesting Muslim community bloc votes”. And who, when David Tennant criticised her views on an immigration issue, without a word to foist an identity on her, just a reaction to her stated views, responded that a wealthy white middle-aged man had no business commenting on the views of a black woman. And in comments on Nigeria said about Muslims in the north “We had nothing to do with Those People”. She may have meant just the terrorists though – I… Read more »
She’s very much like the Orange moron in the white house in that she seems to react to whoever whispered some rubbish & nonsense in her ear that morning, all that’s missing is the rage tweeting at stupid o’clock in the night time. She’s proving to be a very very poor quality politician with one overriding agenda, she may as well join up with the fartrage PLC lot & fully wrap herself in one of those flags behind her in the photo.
Presumably her definition of “common culture” involves a mandatory Thatcher shrine in every home.
Huh- a common identity – that is what the London establishment has been doing for centuries to us, the Welsh, the scots and the Irish- it took the threat of a hunger strike to give us a welsh language tv channel.
Her idea of ‘common identity’ has so many opt-outs it doesn’t make sense. Diversity is by now the only common thread she can possibly find! Apart from national identities of the four nations ( or 3 and a half?) that make up the UK, we have political, racial, religious, and a variety of cultural differences within those identities. If she can find any common elements among all that, God help her.
The only thing that unites this island is the love of a cup of tea, a biscuit and a nice sit down.
What exactly is a ‘common British identity?’ There are four different countries within the UK: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all with there own distinct identities. Have you ever known a British National Football team competing in the World Cup? For most people being British is reserved for official documents such as passports.
More Conservative claptrap from Kemi Badenoch. Her idea of a “common culture and identity” effectively means Tory Whitehall ramming England and Union Flags down our throats in a English one-size-fits-all. Dim diolch! #CymryAmByth 🏴
And Toby Young to lead the review ? My God. Does she really think that will produce a good outcome. And, by the way, he is no relation of mine. None i’m glad to say.
Ah, Toby, the lovely eugenics guy. Don’t worry, he doesn’t have sole rights to the name.
Badenoch, like many English nationalists, is so caught up in her own assumptions that she cannot see the stupidity of what she is saying. She is telling the Muslims in Gorton and Denton that they voted for the wrong reasons. In a democracy, people can vote for whatever reasons they wish. They certainly don’t have to explain themselves to politicians.
She might be onto something. I loved when we all put our differences aside to bully Lettuce Liz out of office. Who could ever forget that disastrous mini budget?
No thanks. The Union Jack just represents theft, genocide and abuse to some of us.
She’s completely off her rocker.
Just calling it the union flag is problematic denialism or history washing because the exact same flag was flying over the empire and on war ships forcing drugs into China. It’s will always be the empire flag until redesigned. Imagine if Germany or Japan still proudly flew their old imperial flag.
Badenoughs’ vision of unity for all under her jack boot order involves being white, English, English speaking only with an enforced subscribership (chargeable) to a Torygraph, Fail, Scum, Excess, Slimes, Dictator, KGBeebies, Talks**t opinion indoctrination for all. I must be a separatist because i will be remaining separate from all of that – forever.