New Culture Forum

Pope Francis's disastrous record includes betraying suppressed Chinese Catholics, failure on sex abuse, and surrounding himself with disreputable characters who are causing immense damage to the Church, claims conservative commentator Charles Coloumbe on this week's #SWYSI. As for his native land, people would be shocked to discover what a controversial figure Francis is today in Argentina, argues Charles -- suggesting this might explain why he has yet to return there. These are a few of the many failings of Pope Francis according to Traditional Catholic Charles Coulombe. For Charles, the basic premise of the Netflix production "The Two Popes", namely that Pope Francis was more saintly than Benedict XVI, reversed reality. Turning to The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Charles argues that Meghan, willingly and knowingly entered a system (the Royal Family) that she neither liked nor believed in -- and proceeded to try to change it and completely transform Prince Harry. "If you don't like it, don't do it!". Charles believes that, for all her many faults, even The Duchess of Windsor (Wallace Simpson) would have made a better job of this than Meghan has. This is because The Duchess of Windsor believed in the institution of Monarchy and understood the role -- a role she craved. As an American Trad Catholic Monarchist from liberal Los Angeles, conservative commentator Charles Coulombe's traditionalism has been forged and tested at the coal face. This -- along with his early career as a stand-up comic -- may explain his successes in public debates and as a columnist and contributing editor for publications such as the National Catholic Register. He frequently contributes to publications including the Catholic Herald, American Thinker and New Oxford Review. Charles is the author of over 15 books primarily on British and European Monarchy & Catholicism but also on the pleasure of alcohol, titles include: "Vicars of Christ: History of the Popes"; "The Star Spangled Crown: A Simple Guide To The American Monarchy"; and "The Legacy of Pope Benedict XVI". Charles Coulombe has his own YouTube podcast, TUMBLAR HOUSE, which may be visited via this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiYNKjd0Xvj5GE5dr-9n65A

Our guest this week on #SWYSI is long-standing BBC Journalist Robin Aitken MBE. Robin is the author of "Can We Trust the BBC?" And "The Noble Liar", in which he examines why and how the BBC is biased against conservatism. Robin was the first guest on #SWYSI in January 2019 and so it is a great pleasure to welcome him back just over a year later to reflect on the scenario we now face: a conservative government with a strong majority unwilling to play the BBC game and a clear desire to shake up the institution.

This week on "So What You're Saying Is...", Peter Whittle interviews Harry Miller, 1 week after his High Court victory against Humberside Police. The High Court ruled that the police response to the ex-officer's allegedly transphobic tweets was unlawful. Harry Miller was visited by Humberside Police at work in January last year after a complaint about his tweets. He was told he had not committed a crime, but it would be recorded as a non-crime "hate incident". The court found the force's actions were a "disproportionate interference" with his right to freedom of expression. Officers visited Mr Miller's workplace and then spoke with him on the phone, and he was left with the impression "that he might be prosecuted if he continued to tweet", according to a judge. Speaking after the ruling, Mr Miller, from Lincolnshire, said: "This is a watershed moment for liberty - the police were wrong to visit my workplace, wrong to 'check my thinking'." His solicitor Paul Conrathe added: "It is a strong warning to local police forces not to interfere with people's free speech rights on matters of significant controversy." Mr Justice Julian Knowles said the effect of police turning up at Mr Miller's place of work "because of his political opinions must not be underestimated". He added: "To do so would be to undervalue a cardinal democratic freedom".

This week's guest on "So What You're Saying Is...", is journalist and education campaigner Toby Young. Toby is one of Britain's best-known journalists. Now writing for The Spectator and Quilette, he founded a magazine called The Modern Review and also wrote for Vanity Fair. His best--selling book, "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People", was later made into a film. He's also a champion for free schools and has founded 4 of them. His latest project is the Free Speech Union, a mass membership organisation dedicated to protecting free speech, which is increasingly under threat. The F.S.U. will be a mass membership organisation that stands up for the speech rights of its members and aims to create a more tolerant atmosphere on social media and other platforms. So if a member is targetted by a social media outrage mob for the inadvertent use of certain language, a taboo word or for dissenting from the prevailing orthodoxy, the FSU will mobilise on social media and its members will come to their defence on social media. If they are accused of something, the member will be put through some form of due process to check the evidence so that they aren't just presumed to be guilty and cast out as Sir Roger Scruton was when George Eaton of The New Statesman passed incorrect information out via social media, which led to a campaign of hate against Scruton, ultimately resulting in Sir Roger losing his position as a Government adviser. The way in which veteran ITN journalist Alistair Stewart was treated & fired is another example -- as was Toby Young's own experience at the hands of a social media mob.

Zuby, the self-styled "Jordan Peterson of rap", is this week's guest on "So What You're Saying Is...". The weight-lifting hip hop artist became an unlikely feminist icon for demonstrating that athletes who are genetically male should not be competing alongside women. In 2019 he was filmed smashing the British women’s deadlift record, in which the weights are raised from the ground to thigh level, while he said he was “identifying as a woman”. The video went viral on the Internet. The Oxford University graduate beat the UK women’s bench press record too, joking that his work was “strong, stunning and brave”.

With free speech increasingly under threat on our university campuses, it is encouraging to note the start of a resistance movement amongst the student populations. James Oliver is a Ph.D. student who co-founded a Free Speech Society at the University of Buckingham in 2019 after learning that conservative writer Peter Hitchens had been "no platformed" at the University of Portsmouth by that university's student union. Given Mr. Hitchens' long commitment to free speech and academic freedom, Mr. Oliver thought the time had come to take a stand in defence of universities' age-old position as the pre-eminent forum for exposure to all manner of ideas and opinions. Peter Hitchens was the keynote speaker at their inaugural event.

The UK's most quoted sociologist, Frank Furedi is emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, and specialises on the sociology of fear, education, therapy culture and paranoid parenting. As explained in his 2018 book, "How Fear Works: The Culture of Fear in the 21st Century", fear has now assumed the commanding moral position in society. Over the past 20 years as society's basic values, beliefs and ideologies have declined or disappeared from public life, so increasingly fear is used to legitimize their arguments and causes. Virtually every moral, political or economic position is justified in terms of scaremongering. And this transcends the ideological divide as both the left and the right put forward a message of fear rather than hope. As our children grow, instead of teaching them about good, positive values like prudence, courage or loyalty we instill fear in them as well as teaching them tricks to avoid dealing with their fears. Children must be constantly validated and cannot be criticised or disciplined. This is leading to a generation who are unable to deal with life and who describe insignificant issues as "stresses" and "challenges". So many normal problems, which were once described as being shy or introverted or awkward, are now regarded as medical conditions, whereas in reality these are due to not being normally socialised, kept protected from confrontation & failure, and taught how to deal with challenges.vThe UK's most quoted sociologist, Frank Furedi is emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, and specialises on the sociology of fear, education, therapy culture and paranoid parenting. As explained in his 2018 book, "How Fear Works: The Culture of Fear in the 21st Century", fear has now assumed the commanding moral position in society. Over the past 20 years as society's basic values, beliefs and ideologies have declined or disappeared from public life, so increasingly fear is used to legitimize their arguments and causes. Virtually every moral, political or economic position is justified in terms of scaremongering. And this transcends the ideological divide as both the left and the right put forward a message of fear rather than hope. As our children grow, instead of teaching them about good, positive values like prudence, courage or loyalty we instill fear in them as well as teaching them tricks to avoid dealing with their fears. Children must be constantly validated and cannot be criticised or disciplined. This is leading to a generation who are unable to deal with life and who describe insignificant issues as "stresses" and "challenges". So many normal problems, which were once described as being shy or introverted or awkward, are now regarded as medical conditions, whereas in reality these are due to not being normally socialised, kept protected from confrontation & failure, and taught how to deal with challenges.

On 9 Dec. 2019, Dr. David Starkey delivered the New Culture Forum's annual Smith Lecture to a sold-out audience in central London. The theme was "Brexit & Our Constitutional Crisis: History's Lesson & Its Historical Patterns"

This week's guest on "So What You're Saying Is..." is actor, singer & songwriter Laurence Fox, who made newspaper headlines several times last month for various comments criticizing "leftisim" at R.A.D.A., identity politics in the arts, and the hypocrisy of "woke" celebrities who support MeToo and ExtinctionRebellion movements whilst wearing revealing dresses and travelling on private jets. Mr. Fox, part of the famous Fox dynasty of actors (which includes his father, James, and uncle, Edward), is perhaps best known for playing the leading role of DS James Hathaway in the Inspector Morse spin-off TV series "Lewis" (2006-2015) and from his roles in films such as Gosford Park and Elizabeth: The Golden Age. More recently, however, (in 2018), Mr. Fox joined the ITV series Victoria, playing the role of Lord Palmerston for its third series, which first aired in 2019. A singer and songwriter, Laurence Fox's latest album includes a song ("Dead in the Eye") that targets politically correct woke culture, which he likens to a new religion.

Simon Heffer is an English historian, journalist, author and political commentator. He has published several biographies and a series of books on the social history of Great Britain from the mid-nineteenth century until the end of the First World War. He was appointed professorial research fellow at the University of Buckingham in 2017. He worked as a columnist for the Daily Mail and since 2015 has had a weekly column in the Sunday Telegraph. As a political commentator, Heffer takes a socially and constitutionally conservative position. Heffer's most recent book is "Staring at God: Britain in the Great War"