The far-right “National Conservatives” are not welcome in Brussels.

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Dear John,

The far-right “National Conservatives” are not welcome in Brussels. The two-day NatCon event barely made it a quarter of the way through before being shut down by police over public safety concerns ([link removed]) – right in the middle of Nigel Farage’s keynote, no less.

While they will undoubtedly use this development to claim persecution (some already are), NatCon attendees like Suella Braverman, Matt Goodwin, and Farage himself have suffered a major public humiliation. Any legitimacy this conference was supposed to lend their culture-war temper-tantrums and anti-woke whinging is now gone.

The planned conference – which already had to reschedule its venue twice before this – boasted guests like Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán and featured discussion panels like “Brexit Isn’t Over — It’s Only Just Beginning” and “Challenging Wokeism: An International Matter”. Belgian authorities determined that it crossed the line into a hateful gathering, thus posing a threat to public safety.

For the NatCons, this embarassing shut-down is an opportunity to fundraise through their wealthy US backers and to galvanise their dwindling UK supporters. But for the rest of us, it’s a lesson in standing up to those who spread hate and claim to speak on behalf of the majority.

The NatCons claim they are supported by a “silent majority”, that their views are the ones most people would express if it wasn’t for the forces of wokery denying them their free speech. But look at the polling and you will see that nothing is further from the truth. These people are just fringe radicals who have used dodgy data and dark money to con their way into the political mainstream.

The authorities in Brussels were right to take a stand against the NatCs. We shouldn’t be afraid to stand up to them either. The best way for us to do that is to build a fairer political system, one that accurately reflects the genuine will of the British public and doesn’t give the hate-mongers a prominence way beyond what they deserve.

The next five years are going to determine whether or not we achieve that objective. We can either let wealthy fringe groups continue to dominate the conversation and secure a foothold in Westminster, or we can take a stand and bring politics back to the people. Our actions now will determine which way we go.

Best wishes,

The Open Britain Team
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