Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/14/the-uks-conservative-party-r.html
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The only other thing I know about Nancy Astor was that she and Winston Churchill didn’t get along. She reportedly once said to him, “If I were your wife, I would poison your tea”, to which Sir Winston replied, “If I were your husband, I would drink it.”
Now I like Churchill even more.
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As I said in the earlier topic, anti-Semitism is something that has to be rooted out of Labour, but it’s baked into the Tories in way that it can’t come out.
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Try and keep up. This happened over a month ago.
She was an exceptional person - and exceptionally weird. She converted to Christian Science which is weird enough. There is no excuse for anti-antisemitism. Or Anti-Catholicism. Or many of the other bonkers views she had.
She still deserves a statue. If you want one to Countess Markievicz, eldest daughter of the equally interesting Sir Henry Gore-Booth, go right ahead.
This little piece is a rather shy attempt to smear current conservatives. Which is sort of… sad.
In the words of the T-shirt: I think you’ll find it’s a little more complicated than that.
Perhaps next week, we’ll actually start to grapple with xenophobia - which cuts across every political line.
Hatred sucks.
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Do you have a name to go with your claim about the project leader?
According to the project site, the campaign was run by “Plymouth Women in Business Networking, a Community Interest Company, Registered Number 11191632”.
The MPs for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport since 2010 have been two men, one Tory and one Labour. It would be odd for either of them to lead a project that’s focused on feminism (to the explicit and rather desperate exclusion of Astor’s bigotry).
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“the memorial, paid for through a crowdfunding campaign” [“run by Plymouth Women in Business Networking”]
“Theresa May unveiled the memorial”
“Boris Johnson was campaigning in Devon and visited the statue with local Conservative candidate Rebecca Smith” [to have their picture taken with it]
Gosh yes, the Conservatives have nothing to do with it! Why, they’re downright desperate to distance themselves from it and Astor! /s
It’s true, the writer shouldn’t be so shy. We should be talking about the overt homophobia, misogyny, racism and anti-Semitism being expressed by the current conservatives like Boris Johnson.
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Apparently the local Labour MP did support it - purely as a way of gaining attention/tourism for Plymouth. But the Conservatives were the ones literally doing the unveiling.
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Well, you know how it is, if you support an effort it’s the equivalent to leading it. /s
I suppose that lying and BSing is a habit that Tories can’t break, even after the election is over.
Like Theresa May, who unveiled it? Or de Pfeffel and the local Tory candidate, who skulked by to admire it when the crowds had left?
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I don’t think that’s uncommon either, for whoever the local politician is to support something like this, in part because it does promote tourism.
I looked, too, and I only found the Plymouth’s Women in Business that @gracchus pointed out… I did find a video in the campaign by a conservative MP, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who represents Berwick upon Tweed, and is the parliamentary undersecretary for defense…
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Apparently local Labour MP Luke Pollard campaigned for it. But it’s not like he got it funded, unveiled it or associated himself with Astor… so his big role seems to have been saying, “Hey, let’s set aside a spot in the public space for this, as a way of drawing attention to the city.”
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As has been pointed out… Supported by local Labour MP. I note that without producing evidence he has been accused of doing this for tourism purposes. As if the masses are going to descend on Plymouth with their fascist haircuts to venerate Nancy Astor.
She held views which no one should support but she did things we all should support. Kind of like a human?
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Cognitive dissonance monitor has maxed out.
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You mean, not again?
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Ok, fine, the Conservative party didn’t “put up a statue” to Nancy Astor. All they did was campaign for it, pay for it, unveil it, take credit for it and associate themselves with it. It was actually entirely the work of a Labour MP who… also campaigned for it.
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Pointed out in response to the false claim that it was led by the local Labour MP. Funny how you didn’t jump in to correct that comment.
I don’t know about the tourism angle, but Luke Pollard basically celebrates Astor as a local feminist pioneer, while joining the members of Astor’s party in avoiding discussion of her less pleasant views. Unfortunate, given that he’s a gay man who wouldn’t have survived a regime run by Nancy’s pal Oswald Mosely.
You never know. British fascists these days have so few monuments for their pilgrimages.
Enabling Nazis and being bigoted against Jews and Catholics: just normal human behaviour that’s more than counterbalanced by one’s being a feminist (at least for the “right sort” of women). Good to know.
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But there’s no problem with the statues of known anti-semite Winston Churchill? OK
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By any normal definition, he’s not fascist. Horrible, yes. Stop kicking yourself in the fork.
True. Given his associations with the Brexiteers, he’s more of an enabler of fascists. No wonder he admires Astor.
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There’s a substantive difference between Churchill and Astor when it comes to anti-Semitism. From Sir Martin Gilbert, one of the foremost Churchill experts and a British Jew himself:
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The UK’s Conservative Party didn’t campaign for it, nor did they raise any money for it. It looks like Plymouth women in business and the Plymouth Astor Trust were the driving forces behind it. This is all pretty clear on the linked website.
