On Tuesday, day two of its conference at the Excel Centre in east London, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was invited to talk to Peterson about Ideas with a capital I. Peterson is not a man who warms up with small talk about the weather.
It’s fair to say Peterson is not a natural interviewer. He launched straight into a two-minute soliloquy about net zero policy. He takes the view that one shouldn’t use one word where four will do.
As he finally drew breath, he asked Farage to answer the unanswerable. “It’s like, how appalling is it?” Peterson queried.
Farage reported a conversation with the late astronomer Sir Patrick Moore to argue that sunspot activity and underwater volcanoes produce more carbon than mankind does. Those in the hall who knew who he was talking about recognised an all-round good British egg. Farage’s innate understanding of what his British audience is looking for made this conversation all the more weird and disjointed.
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Read MoreAt the ARC conference there are some highfalutin ideas being thrown around, watched by a large proportion of jet-lagged American delegates. On Monday, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch made waves by suggesting Western civilisation might fall without the Tories.
Farage, even among a sympathetic audience, is too clever to speak in anything other than plain English, although there was an amusing half-moment when his reply suggested he might be coming out of the closet himself.
But no. The sentence, when completed, was merely a statement of fact. “I may not necessarily be the best advocate for monogamous heterosexuality… or stable marriage having been divorced twice,” Farage actually said, adding that he has tried to bring his children up in as much stability as he can. The sketch writers put down their pens and scratched their noses in disappointment.
That optimism isn’t going to come under the “declinist,” “miserabilist” Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Farage argued, echoing criticisms Labour has made of his brand of politics.
Peterson is part of a wave of North American right-wing thinkers such as JD Vance who believe the UK and Europe have given in to leftist ideas that stymie free speech.
But it comes with other ideological baggage, such as the push for higher birth rates. X and Tesla boss Elon Musk appears to be repopulating the world by himself, one baby at a time. Do Brits really want this idea imported into the UK?
The ARC conference can be seen as a warm-up gig for North American liberal right of centre philosophy. You ain’t seen nothing yet. Later this week, the right-wing roadshow moves to Washington, DC for the Conservative Political Action Conference or CPAC. That’s where the big Republican guns come out: Donald Trump is due to speak. The actor who played Superman in the 90s will be there. Farage will be speaking too.
If Peterson is a duck out of water in London, Farage will be hoping to blend into the Maga crowd in Washington, perhaps after a photo with Trump. He’ll be attempting to prove to the Labour Government back home where the diplomatic channel of ideas really lies, and to British voters who he thinks they should be listening to.
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