There are two mistakes in the first sentence. The first reference I can find to Irving Kristol saying a conservative is a liberal mugged by reality is in 1979. Except he didn't say a conservative - he famously said a neoconservative - which makes a nonsense of the third line too. - ThreadSky

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philtinline.bsky.social • 3 days ago

There are two mistakes in the first sentence. The first reference I can find to Irving Kristol saying a conservative is a liberal mugged by reality is in 1979. Except he didn't say a conservative - he famously said a neoconservative - which makes a nonsense of the third line too.

Reposted from Stephen Bush

Kemi Badenoch is delivering a speech tomorrow. Here are the pre-briefed extracts in all their incoherent glory.

Comments

davidjair.bsky.social•3 days ago

For what it's worth, "The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol" [1995] says on p176 that the quote was 'attributed in the early 1970s'

philtinline.bsky.social•3 days ago

Thanks - yes I wondered if it was even earlier than 1979.

dorianlynskey.bsky.social•3 days ago

He was almost dead 20 years ago

philtinline.bsky.social•3 days ago

Indeed - died in 2009. And using 'mugged' like that is very Seventies...

dorianlynskey.bsky.social•3 days ago

Why google the famous opening quote in a major foreign policy speech, eh? Just bash it out and hope nobody notices

philtinline.bsky.social•3 days ago

Will be fun to see if it stays in the speech as delivered.

jfb1066.bsky.social•3 days ago

Haha ha you know it will. The only thing these people are more blessed with than incompetence is laziness

philtinline.bsky.social•3 days ago

Haha, quite. Tbf it's quoted so often it's often not dated - I had to look in a newspaper search engine. But yeh, it only took me a few minutes, and I was only writing a post on here...

davidstainer.bsky.social•3 days ago

I have to admit I’d always got this quote wrong in my mind too, and I fancy myself as a political anorak to some extent. But I’d have checked it before quoting it in a speech haha.

dizdastardly.bsky.social•3 days ago

Good analysis, but theres fuck all in there about taxation, cost of living, Brexit, Housing, Water infrastructure, Farming, Fishing, Childcare for parents, Educational attainments, Climate change, blah, blah, blah. I don't care about your cultural belief system, we are dying out here, Kemi!

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