Thoughts ahead of our relaunch

By Robert J Davies
RCM Leader

The Rural Conservative Movement formally relaunches in November 2023 as a campaigning, activist group in the spheres of politics and culture. It will be a soft relaunch with no fanfare, and of course, comes at a time when the state of society has never looked more fragile and the world more dangerous.

I would like first of all, to express my regret to those who got involved with the RCM and were encouraged by our entry into the public sphere, that we fell largely silent and went dormant over the last three years or so.

In 2019, our star was rising and you could tell that because we were drawing increasing amounts of criticism from notable people on our primary social media platform, Twitter. Amid the cacophony of name calling and abuse from left-wing members of the public – a good number of whom hid behind anonymous Twitter handles – were famous, sometimes world-famous names, perhaps most obviously Stephen Fry. He unfairly denounced the RCM as some sort of Fascist initiative. A slightly friendlier label used by others was that of “Church Fete Fascists” and there were plenty more besides.

Others joined in, including well-known authors and political commentators and we even had a Croatian newspaper write an article about us. And although the feedback was generally negative, it was not wholly so.

Attacks by the famous are both damaging and useful. Stephen Fry’s intervention in particular, gained us welcome publicity and numerous extra followers. We had momentum behind us, but as 2019 wore on, that momentum was lost and the buck stops with me on that one.

The unpleasant aspect of Fry’s intervention was the toll it took on me personally. The full force of left-wing Twitter trolls was unleashed in my direction, both towards the RCM and me as an individual. As a former newspaper journalist, I have been working in a freelance capacity over the last few years, work which included running my own small publishing house with accompanying website and writing and self-publishing full-length novels. The trolls discovered all that and did everything they could to damage me – including doxing me online and even harassing my former newspaper employers.

To make matters very much worse, my wife was diagnosed with a life-threatening skin cancer later that year, requiring major surgery. Dealing with that consumed a huge amount of energy and time – it was all the harder on our family as our teenage son is severely autistic and needs a lot of input from his parents. At times it felt like we were drowning in existing commitments and responsibilities. Hard on the heels of the social media firestorm, it was a difficult and stressful time.

Meanwhile, by the end of 2019, Boris Johnson was returned to Downing Street in triumph with a resounding majority to “get Brexit done” and perhaps there was a degree of feeling on our side of politics, that we should ease back and give him and the mainstream Conservative Party the chance to do right by the country.

And then came Covid, which made it all but impossible to launch a new political movement at a time when everyone was confined to their homes. In order to keep money coming in I tentatively recommenced my publishing, editing and writing operations but this time, covertly and without an accompanying website and contact details which I deemed to be too high risk to place in the public domain. I also gave quite a lot of my time for free, using my journalistic skills, to help our village church with comms matters and wrote content for their website and social media. I remain a consultant for them.

The RCM, instead of being given legal status and becoming a monetised, membership organisation, as was the plan, remained just a loose and small circle of like-minded people. Occasional tweets were posted on Twitter and articles written on our website but essentially, the group had ceased to function.

Optimism about the future under Boris proved ill-founded. After the victory of finally leaving the European Union came the anti-climax. It was becoming increasingly apparent that a thumping majority in Parliament was not going to be used to deliver a conservative agenda and the opportunities offered by Brexit were to be squandered. The Tories seemed powerless and rudderless in the face of ever-increasing immigration – both legal and illegal and seemed, in fact, to actually be encouraging more migration with the prospect of trade deals with India. And of course, over the last few years, the issue of invasion by boat across the Channel grew from a minor annoyance into a massive problem.

That the Conservatives failed to use a huge majority and the extra powers bestowed by regaining sovereignty and independence to make a radical impact on society was deeply disappointing. They seemed to have no moral compass; no sense of a desire to be truly conservative; no answer to the ongoing march through the institutions of the radical Left. A culture war was raging on so many fronts and the Tories seemed to have no will to fight back against it.

Many of us on the Right were becoming utterly disenchanted with the Conservative Party in government and by this year, I felt the time had come to relaunch the Rural Conservatives as an activist group. However, a further setback came my way – being chased over the edge of a steep headland while walking the Welsh coastal path by a bull and herd of male cattle. I suffered a serious foot injury which laid me up throughout most of the summer and from which I am still recovering. At least that is something I cannot blame on left-wing tormentors!

As I write, the situation in this country seems to be getting worse by the day. The appalling, criminal stupidity of mass immigration and accompanying ideology of diversity is becoming apparent even to the thickest and most brainwashed among us. Every weekend, the Muslims and Marxists are on the march, ostensibly in condemnation of Israeli action against Hamas but, one suspects, beholden to a more sinister agenda directed against Western Civilisation as a whole. We are seeing the flexing of muscles on the streets of our major cities by groups implacably opposed, not just to Judaism, but Judeo-Christian society. And we are sharing our country with them.

It will become more frightening still in 2024 when the inevitable happens and some form of Labour-led government comes to power, with an increasingly strong Muslim element determined to be the tail that wags the dog.

What a time to step back into the snake pit! But it is time, for the forces of conservatism to rally and fight tooth and nail to save our country and its way of life. Few of us are old enough to remember the Second World War now but we should never forget it. Among my strongest and fondest memories of my time as a staff newspaper journalist was interviewing old soldiers who fought between 1939 and 1945. They risked their lives for King and Country – to retain the decent, civilised, gentle society we had become and to which British citizens felt such loyalty.

I have looked into the eyes of some of those brave old men – the ones who made it home – and listened to their stories. It saddens me more than I can say how we have all but thrown away the inheritance they left us. My pledge to their memory is to play my personal part in saving the country they laid down their lives for. We owe it to their generation – and above all to the generations yet to be born – to ensure that Britain as we know it survives and prospers.

I hope you will help me and the Rural Conservatives – and other forces for good in our country – in stepping back from the abyss and doing what needs to be done to ensure that this happens. Britain is a sick patient now, and the chemotherapy required to save it will be painful and unsettling. There are no easy choices and no easy solutions and time is fast running out in any case. So we must get on with it urgently. Over the coming few days and weeks we will be publishing our programme for action in more detail and we welcome feedback from friends and foes alike on our proposals.