Articles

Roger Scruton assesses some of the reasons behind Donald Trump's victory.

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European civilisation has been steadily replacing religion with territory as the source of political unity. The process began in the 17th century, as the call for popular sovereignty and national unity began to be heard above the noise of religious conflict.Following the French Revolution and Napoleon’s failed attempt at a pan-European Empire, Europe emerged as a collection of nation states.

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At the beginning of September Roger addressed a conference on the Future of Higher Education at Buckingham University, his topic being Free Speech and the Universities. The text of this talk can be found here.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the consensus in Western academic and intellectual institutions was very much on the left. Writers like Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu shot to eminence by attacking the civilization they dismissed as “bourgeois.” The critical-theory writings of Jürgen Habermas achieved a dominant place in the curriculum in the social sciences, despite their stupefying tediousness. The rewriting of national history as a tale of “class struggle,” undertaken by Eric Hobsbawm in Britain and Howard Zinn in the United States, became a near-orthodoxy not only in university history departments but also in high schools. For us dissidents, it was a dispiriting time, and there was scarcely a morning when I did not wake up during those years, asking myself whether my teaching at the University of London was the right choice of career. Then came the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, and I allowed myself to hope. 

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Jeremy Corbyn's disregard for Parliament is terrible for his party and for our representative democracy. 

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Earlier this year, Alicja Gescinska spent two days at Scrutopia discreetly filming Roger at home, riding, by the pond and in his library. Broadcast on Dutch television this September, you can watch the film here.

The only way to make a ‘safe space’ for conservatives at universities
Also in Roger Scruton’s diary: the blessings of a broken femur, and a defence of aristocratic titles

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In these special editions of A Point of View, five of Britain's leading thinkers give their own very personal view of "Brexit" - what the vote tells us about the country we are, and are likely to become.

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To listen the Podcast recorded with Jay Nordlinger, listen here.

Friday 8th July

Swedish friends have drawn my attention to the dubious connections of Arktos, the publisher of the Swedish translation of my book How to be a Conservative. In Sweden, where leftist opinion is the norm,

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