There are chaotic scenes in Brussels as police officers attempt to shut down the National Conservatism conference as Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman speak at the event. The Telegraph has more.
They arrived to issue a notice to close the National Conservatism summit after a municipal mayor ordered the event be shut down on security grounds.
Emir Kir, the Mayor of Saint Josse, said: “I issued an order from the Mayor to ban the National Conservatism Conference event to guarantee public safety. In Etterbeek, Brussels City and Saint-Josse, the far-Right is not welcome.”
The notice served by the police said the event posed a danger to pedestrians outside the venue, a conference source said. …
Nigel Farage described the attempt to shut down the National Conservatism conference in Brussels as “monstrous”.
He said it had further convinced him that the U.K. leaving the European Union “was the right thing to do”.
Speaking to broadcasters, Mr. Farage said: “We have got the Prime Minister of a country coming, we have got a Roman Catholic bishop coming, we have got representatives of parties at the top of the polls all around Europe in elections.
“This is the sort of complete old communist-style thing. You don’t agree with me, you have got to be banned, you are mad, and to be shut down. It is monstrous.
“I’ll tell you what, it has done me a favour because at times I think oh, I wish the Government had done Brexit a bit better than they have and why haven’t they tightened the borders up.
“But if anything has convinced me that leaving the European Union ideology was the right thing to do it is the events of today.” …
The National Conservatism conference was already forced to relocate over the weekend after claims of “political pressure” from the Mayor of Brussels.
It was due to be held at the Concert Noble in the city before it was moved to the Sofitel Brussels Europe hotel.
Yoram Hazony, the conference Chairman, said his team had been told by the venue that it had to pull the event amid “political pressure” from Philippe Close, the Socialist Party Mayor of Brussels.
Pressure had been growing on Concert Noble to cancel the conference, including from the Belgian League of Human Rights and the Belgian Anti-Fascist Coordination, according to local reports.
Evidence, if any were needed, that many on the Left have no interest in free speech or freedom of assembly for anyone who disagrees with them on anything of consequence.
Worth reading in full.
According to the Guardian, the conference has continued after police left without enforcing its closure: “The police have not been able to shut down the NatCon event in Brussels where Nigel Farage was speaking – because they don’t have the authority to do so.”
The Telegraph reports that: “While the event organisers mount a court challenge against the order, the police agreed to let the conference continue but have prevented anyone from entering the venue.”
Nigel Farage has written a piece for the Telegraph: “These nasty people have done the cause of freedom – and Brexit – an enormous favour.”
Stop Press: Laurie Wastell has written a piece about this afternoon’s event from NatCon for the Spectator.
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So now “Conservatism” is called Far Right.
Free speech only applies if you’re a left-wing EU Socialist.
Not now. It’s already been like that for years.
If you go against the policies and narratives established at a global level, you don’t just have a different point of view, a different set of legitimate interests. You’re a fascist.
And of course it’s complete gaslighting, because actually what the global establishment is rapidly imposing more and more is a sort of fascism. State power in cahoots with the industrial and commercial oligarchy at an international rather than national level to maintain “order” and control.
They accuse their detractors of the very thing that they are.
Yep exactly
No one suggests the Conservative Party is other than somewhat left. The conference was for philosophical conservatives from several nations and parties.
I look forward to a lengthy report on BBC News this evening (sarc).
It’s an intimidation play. “Get back in line with your party!”
Wasn’t it George Carlin that said how there is no need for a conspiracy when big business & government collude.
How far is the UK from the far left leadership of Brussels?
A good point was made on GB News about Sur Kurr Stammer.
If the next Prime Minister his ability to maintain his position depends on placating the conflicting demands of the same left which put Jeremy Corbyn in the hot seat.
What are the odds he will not be PM for very long before being replaced with a far left leader?
And that is aside from him having to implement policies which placate the far left.
The commies are clearly feeling the pressure hence the attempts to shut down the Nat Con conference. All in all some good publicity for the politics of reason and common sense. The interesting point is that Suella Braverman is happy to share a platform with Nigel Farage. Further positive developments would seem a possibility.
This story may just aggravate a few more fence sitters so potentially good news.
Next up will be bans on any meetings in which participants are deemed “far right.” To protect “our democracy” of course.
I am a bit late on the scene on this article but I hope you see my comment.—–You are absolutely spot on about the “commies”, and while we condemn what the Mayor of Brussels did here, we should not forget that the so-called Tories got rid of Braverman themselves. ————I remember getting a bit of a chill down my spine a good few years ago when I think it was Nancy Pelosi who said “We are all Socialists now”.——-It seems she wasn’t wrong.
Yes I saw this earlier. The socialist mayor…but I’m pleased that he didn’t win and it still is going ahead. A win for sure! Meanwhile, this is for the ‘free speech absolutists’. Do you really want these psychos as part of our society? It makes me laugh that Leftards have gone all out in demonizing the so-called ‘far-right’ ( basically anyone who challenges them and their policies, then ) and yet we have human detritus like this in every Western nation. If you don’t like it, GTFO!!;
”In a social experiment, a couple friends and I went to a Pro-Palestine protest in NYC with just American flags. The protestors’ reactions were truly shocking. Two of our flags were lit on fire and one was stolen. They praised Osama Bin Laden and chanted “death to America” This is not just a fight for Israel. This is a fight for America!”
https://twitter.com/Davidlederer6/status/1780143103048888493
Maybe the people stealing and burning the flags were also there as part of a “social experiment”. Governments and philanthropists like to do social experiments.
It is fight for freedom versus tyranny. For good versus evil and for our standard of living from retarded Liberal Progressives whose virus is spreading all over the western world
Marxism is well and truly here. Sooner than we thought?
It can’t be Marxism if they operate in collusion with corporations and oligarchs. This dictator was probably a champion of the covid jabs enriched BioNTech, Pfizer and co.
It’s fascism actually – the thing they accuse everyone else of.
Marxism and Fascism are almost identical. The only difference is who sits at the very top. In the first it’s a new caste of self appointed revolutionaries representing the people, supposedly. In the second, the ruling class use exactly the same methods and system of organisation – socialism and force – to continue sitting at the top. Same system, different group of elites sitting at the top.
That’s a communist theory you’re presenting here: Fascsims is just the ultimate form of capitalism. Reality is a bit more complicated: The better known fascist regimes of the 20th were totalitarian. As were the communist ones. As was the rule of the catholic church during the first millenium. An the concerned (COVID) lefties also prefer totalitarian rule.
It is interesting listening to the BBC this morning saying how the ‘Red Wall were most in favour of Lockdowns in a discussion on how libertarian Britain is regarding rules during a wider discussion on the ban on smoking. From my experience it was the left that were first to call for the Lockdowns. Brexiteers were generally more sceptical than the Remainer counterparts. The Red Wall was mostly Brexiteers.
How exactly is fascism the ultimate form of capitalism?
The fundamental aspects of capitalism are free exchange, free markets, property rights.
Fascism has nothing to do with these things. It is about state control, central planning, force and order. Italy under Mussolini had 4 year plans. Hitler’s Germany was centrally planned also. Both Mussolini and Hitler started out in socialist movements. Their fascist movements were spin offs based on the same idea but with nationalism incorporated.
The current form of fascism that is spreading around the world is a new form, internationalist rather than original nationalist It’s the same idea of melding of state and corporations to centralise power and control but at a global scale.
Quite. Here is an extract of a speech by A. H. in 1937. He doesn’t sound much different to all the Lockdown/BLM/Climate fanatics, especially the 2nd half, and notice the use of the word ‘comrades’.
“…For you must also understand this, my people’s comrades: No leader can use more strength than his followers give him! What am I without you? What you do not give me, I can never use for your own benefit! If you refuse me your unanimous unity, what should I do?! I am a single man, I can possess the best will. The will is not worth more to you than your will is worth to me! And that brings us to the problem of freedom! Freedom, yes! Insofar as the interest of the national community gives the individual freedom, it is given! Where the freedom affects or even impairs the interests of the national community, the freedom of the individual ceases! Then the freedom of the national community takes the place of the freedom of the individual!”
How exactly is fascism the ultimate form of capitalism?
That’s exceedingly simple: It retains private ownership of the means of production. That’s something you wrote yourself, by the way, when you referred to corporations and oligarchs — the oligarchs are capitalists and the corporations their vehicles. As it does so, it’s obviously a development of capitalism, specifically, totalitarian capitalism where the workers have essentially become slaves to the capitalist-run state exploiting them for the benefit of the capitalists. That’s roughly how this theory goes.
This obviously doesn’t make much more sense then the meek theoretical underpinning the so-called American right uses to justify referring to their political opponents as Nazis as well, which is also mostly based on willful ignorance. The socialist movement got started in Germany in the 19th century and it was originally about working-class self improvement by founding and running societies for that. That’s were the social came from.
The majority of the original socialists later adopted Marxism as ideology, at least in name, because the idea of a worker’s revolt blowing away the monarchies so that they could take over was very attractive to them. But as aftermath of the German revolution of 1918 would show, they weren’t really Marxists, just opportunists lusting for power. This ultimatively begat the KPD (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands) and the NSDAP as diametrically opposed forces of the political spectrum.
But why am I writing all of this? You don’t want to learn anything about history, anyway, you’re entirely happy when you, too, can simply call your political opponents “Nazis” because that’s a surefire vote-winner!
We can give it all manner of names but there is one name we cannot give it ———–Freedom.
Yes – Fascism. Mussolini’s definition: “”Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”
That’s exactly what we are experiencing.
Another win here of a different kind. It’s a two-fingered salute to Islam appeasement, perma-victimhood and their sense of entitlement. I hope the pupil now gets expelled due to causing so much trouble, wasting everybody’s time/money and making so many people’s lives a misery. That really would send an effective message;
”A Muslim student who took legal action against her London school over its ban on “prayer rituals” has lost a High Court challenge.
The pupil at Michaela Community School claimed the school’s policy on prayer was discriminatory and “uniquely” affects her faith due to its ritualised nature.
According to the school, the rule was first introduced in March last year by its founder and headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh – a former Government social mobility tsar.
Justice Linden said: “It seems to me that this is a case … where the claimant at the very least impliedly accepted, when she enrolled at the school, that she would be subject to restrictions on her ability to manifest her religion.
“She knew that the school is secular and her own evidence is that her mother wished her to go there because it was known to be strict.
“She herself says that, long before the prayer ritual policy was introduced, she and her friends believed that prayer was not permitted at school and she therefore made up for missed prayers when she got home.”
https://www.gbnews.com/news/katharine-birbalsingh-michaela-community-school-prayer-ban-court-ruling
Correct ——-There is an article on that here on DS
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68731366
Michaela School: Muslim student loses prayer ban challenge
2 hours ago.
Excellent news. At least the judge hadn’t been bought.
For the nasty, evil student and parents who forced the case please Foxtrot Oscar back to Pakistan tout suite. You do not belong in this country.
Haha great minds….
Actually the police are barring people from entering the conference and people are only allowed to leave. So it is effectively shut down, especially if they can’t even get any food delivered. Disgusting. Watch, they’ll probably cut the electricity next. It’s ridiculous it really is. It’s like when over here Rutte banned David Icke from entering the Netherlands. Well I’m not an Icke fan but I though to myself you’ve got way bigger issues with the people already living here or awaiting their asylum application being granted then some barmy bloke who believes in lizard people! Perspective on the threat level well and truly skewed.
https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1780212238764089631
It’s a good news story in a way. Such an outrage against political opponents will bring much needed publicity and strengthen those opponents.
Gawd, who is this muppet? He’s full of himself;
https://twitter.com/JackElsom/status/1780230280852222208
They did the same with Gert Wilders coming here beck in 2009 or some time around then.
They should be charged Costs, even if it’s just a small amount …… pour encourager les autres not to bring similar cases.
Didn’t the DS moderator recently refer to “good free speech”?
Someone decided this was bad free speech which must be a concept if there is such a thing as good free speech.
You mean bad free speech like asking questions about the royals in relation to covid jabs?
That’s a good example, particularly if such a discussion was subjected to censorship.
Would people join a Partial Censorship Union?
Have they enlightened us why they closed down that discussion?
Nope.
“Good Free Speech” as determined by who?
Other reports say access to the event was barred by police. However, if the Guardian, for ince, was accurate and the police had no authority to close the meeting, is it not disturbing they would go along and claim such power on the sat so of a political opponent if those seeking to speak.
When campaigning for a referendum and to leave the EK, I was several times denied access to places where the left had free run. Seems there is a pattern.
I think the same could be said for the 2020 US Elections.
“Emir Kir, the Mayor of Saint Josse”— the key is in the name: a Muslim Turk, who of course objects to anyone trying to stop the Stealth Invasion of the Caliphate Army into the West.
“including from the Belgian League of Human Rights”
Anyone want to bet a pint that this group were quiet over the scamdemic
Surely the chief of Police could just ask, is what we’re being asked to do legal, or do they just follow orders like Drones!
Michael Shellenberger gets it;
”This is outrageous totalitarianism and must be condemned by all Western political leaders, no matter where you sit on the political spectrum.
Police officers in Brussels shut down a conservative political gathering while former UK politician @Nigel_Farage
was on stage.
This is the kind of thuggish gangsterism that we rightly associate with Nazism and Communism.
Shame on the police and mayor of Brussels for this totalitarian tactic!”
https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1780235684395282598
Matt Goodwin and others still there. The show must go on;
https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1780229380125393318
Bear in mind this was written after the previous two venues had been cancelled, before the latest in a hattrick of debacles;
”The far Left and its sleazy accomplices in government cannot be allowed to prevail over the fundamental principles of free speech in a liberal democracy. These mayors have disgraced their cities by treating them like an American college campus. They send the signal that the only Europeans allowed to assemble and speak in Brussels are those on the Left, and figures of the feeble European establishment Right, who pose no challenge to the status quo.
Why is the mayor of Brussels so afraid to allow a contrary opinion to be heard in his city? It is somehow fitting that Mayor Philippe Close has taken this contemptible stand. Typical of the Left’s worst politicians, Close cannot bring himself to face the reality of life in contemporary Europe.
For example, he governs a city with a large Islamic population, one that is home to one of Europe’s most radical Muslim communities. Last month, Belgian police arrested four young jihadists who were allegedly planning to carry out a terror attack on a Brussels cultural center. The terror watch level in Brussels as NatCon gathers is at level three, with level four being the highest rating.
Who knows? By the time you read this, the third venue might have been intimidated into kicking NatCon out on the streets. If it does, then we will stand on the sidewalks of Europe’s capital if we must, and speak the truth. We cannot be intimidated by these bigots and thugs. What they are trying to do to NatCon in Brussels today symbolizes what they will do to everyone on the European Right tomorrow, if given the chance.
These people have hollowed out democracy and wear it as a skin suit. That much is clear by their attempt to silence an intellectual conference featuring a democratically elected head of an EU member state government, a distinguished Catholic cardinal, and other top conservative figures. A Europe in which government officials, collaborating with left-wing mobs, shut down open debate, in part by pressuring businesses to do the government’s bidding, is neither liberal nor democratic.”
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/we-will-not-go-meekly/
Thanks for the link.
Astonishing news that the Belgian Prime Minister has boldly denounced the Muslim Turkish mayor and defended Freedom of Speech! Have Toby & the team set up an FSU branch in Belgium??? Well done to Prime Minister Alexander de Croo!
“Belgian PM denounces ‘unacceptable’ bid by Brussels mayor to ban right-wing political conference attended by Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman as police barricade entrance and hold attendees ‘hostage’ | Daily Mail Online
The Belgian Prime Minister wrote:
‘What happened at the Claridge today is unacceptable.
‘Municipal autonomy is a cornerstone of our democracy but can never overrule the Belgian constitution guaranteeing the freedom of speech and peaceful assembly since 1830.
‘Banning political meetings is unconstitutional. Full stop.’
This is not so good as it may seem: Judging from the event, the local police is under authority of the mayor who cooked up a pretext to prevent this conference from happening and the PM can’t stop this.
In similarly unwelcome news, both Farage and Braverman apparently couldn’t think of a better response to this then brexranting despite the mayor of Brussels is most certainly not an EU functionary.
Clearly, a complete “none of the above” situation.
First they came for —— (enter name of any “right wing” pundit who has already been cancelled/arrested/jailed etc) … You know the rest.
Nazism was far left. They were called the National Socialists. The Left try to distance themselves from Nazism by branding it Far Right but the key question is what kind of person tries to shut down any opposition and force it’s ideology onto all and by using laws created for that purpose?
“Fascism, Nazism, Communism and Socialism are only superficial variations of the same monstrous theme—collectivism.”
Ayn Rand
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As Thatcher once pointed out “Socialists don’t like you having choice, because you might not choose them”. —–It really is as crude as that. On every issue there is this attempt to make right wing opinion illegitimate and even criminalise it by the Progressive Left. You see it all the time on issues like the phony “climate emergency” where wagons are circled and no one dares ask any serious questions in eg Academia because funding will be put at risk, which all comes from the government. Hardly anyone asks the serious questions on mainstream media for fear of OFCOM silencing them. We remember the first martin Durkin Film “The Great Global Warming Swindle” on Channel Four being viciously attacked by the climate cult and his new film “Climate The Movie” isn’t even on Mainstream TV because no channel wants the spiting fury aimed at them and their offices covered in red paint by brainwashed climate junkies. ———It truly is sad when in so called Free Countries all dissent from orthodoxy must be silenced. ——-Communism did not die in 1989 when the wall came down, it just migrated to the West and hijacked the environment as means of control.
Only last week, lunatic Labour MP, Clive Lewis, posted a rather smug account of how he and numerous far left European head cases had come together in a similar vein to NatCon, only to agree that anyone possessed of a different world view to them, should now be labelled the far right and that something must be done to ‘deal’ with them.
Maybe this is what they meant?
One wonders if Monsieur Kir was in attendance…