By Robert J Davies

This is the first of a series of articles exploring the philosophy and ideology underpinning Rural Conservatism as we seek to offer our take on modern Britain and how best we can move forward from the situation in which we now find ourselves.

Some while ago, ahead of the July 2024 General Election, I began to set out an in-depth policy framework for the RCM but struggled to do so. It somehow seemed to be the equivalent of building a house on sand – which I now realise was the case.

All the other political parties and groupings out there did come out with a policy platform ahead of the Election but the RCM does not seek to be like the rest. Firstly, we were not putting forward candidates hoping to win elections and secondly our role is quite different. From the outset, what I came to call Rural Conservatism had a profound philosophical, ideological and spiritual basis – albeit not one set down in writing. Its inspiration came while walking through Snowdonia in North Wales on holiday some years ago. I would stroll along steep mountain paths and the banks of streams and rivers; through deep forests and at the side of hidden lakes buzzing with dragonflies. I remember specifically, picking bilberries from scraggy bushes around Park Lake near Betws-y-Coed, on an upland stretch close to our campsite in the valley below, near the River Conway. It was a blisteringly hot day but I was shaded by the trees above. I felt an overwhelming affinity to the ground beneath my feet and the landscape around me and overwhelming love for the beauty of Nature and a strong desire to protect and nurture it. Subconsciously, I felt the urge to ensure that we human beings – the most powerful creatures on the planet – lived in harmony with the natural environment and added to its qualities rather than detracted from them. Something changed in me that day and I knew, upon my return home, that I wanted to play my part in ensuring that.

I realised then, and ever since, that we can only achieve such harmony by operating on a different wavelength – one synchronised with the natural wavelengths of the planet. A great example of someone who can do that and whose whole being is instilled with the rhythms of the world around her is a remarkable Swedish woman called Jonna Jinton. She lives in the far north of Sweden with her husband and regularly records her experiences for her now hugely-popular YouTube channel. Folk like me watch her videos for solace and escapism – and escape we desperately need to from the miseries of the modern world. I would call Jonna the very essence of what it means to be a Rural Conservative albeit she will never have heard of us and quite possibly would not appreciate labels of any kind being attached to her.

The only hope we have of living contentedly on our overcrowded island in tune with Mother Nature is through maintaining an equilibrium between the people with rightful claim of ownership and the other living creatures we share our territory with. Nothing is more certain to destroy that natural equilibrium than allowing vast numbers of very different human beings, whatever their qualities, to pour into this small space from across the planet, leaving behind their own (often much bigger) lands, to pack into ours. Of course, that equilibrium can be threatened in all areas of biodiversity. In the 19th Century, the immigrant grey squirrel invaded from North America and spread throughout the British Isles, damaging the ecosystem along the way and all but wiping out the smaller, finer and more attractive native red. The banks of rivers, streams and lakes in Snowdonia that I mentioned above are often these days flanked by Himalayan Balsam – a tall, purple-stemmed plant which produces attractive pink and white orchid-like flowers. Yet it is an overseas invader as its name suggests and very destructive of native flora and fauna. It grows so tall that in places, you could walk right next to a river and be unable to see the water. Himalayan Balsam spreads prolifically by bursting its seed pods open so explosively, you can actually hear it happening.

There are countless other examples of non-native species of plants, animals and organisms being introduced and upsetting the natural balance of things – and ultimately, far from adding to diversity – actually diminishing it. Exactly the same logic applies to the importation of non-native humans – but with a key difference: one is not allowed to be truthful about it for fear of causing offence. In contrast, it isn’t offensive to note that the arrival of the American grey has been hugely detrimental to our much-loved Squirrel Nutkins. In places such as the Isle of Anglesey, North Wales, active attempts have been made to exterminate the greys to give the reds which still live on the island a fighting chance of survival.

If such a policy were applied to human beings it would rightly be described as barbaric genocide. Nobody sane would countenance such a thing towards human invaders – but that is precisely why we have to make the effort not to get it wrong in the first place. We can’t easily uproot the hordes who choose to live in Britain. Therefore, if we wish to hold on to the kind of country we once were, we must ensure we don’t create a situation which will not only be unwelcome but also permanent. This is the mortal danger of the social experiment we’re now running through allowing mass immigration combined retrospectively with the ideology of Multiculturalism. Unlike Communism, (the ultimate miserable expression of Equality) which could be overthrown and its deleterious consequences slowly repaired, there is no going back from changing the ethnic make-up of a country, short of succumbing to civil war.

That may happen, of course. The great Canadian philosopher and clinical psychologist Professor Jordan Peterson recently described Britain as “something of a tinderbox.” I never thought I would hear that word used about a supposedly sophisticated, prosperous Western country like our own. It made me shiver. He’s right though. Already, Britain is starting to succumb to civil unrest, as witnessed by the demonstrations and riots seen earlier this summer. And we are also succumbing to a breakdown in trust and in any sense of shared identity and destiny as a people. There is a palpable tension in the air and a feeling that all is not well; that society is not tranquil, that there is no longer a fundamental bedrock of agreement as to the kind of country we are and the things we have in common.

It's my belief that we don’t seem to realise how fragile civilisation is; how long it takes to create one; and yet how quickly that civilisation can be destroyed. Do we not understand that the people who flock to Britain do so precisely because their own countries are terrible places in which it is frightening and unpleasant to live? Most non-Western countries are dreadful by comparison. They represent Tolkien’s Mordor in contrast to Britain, his Shire. The migrants don’t just come here for economic reasons – it’s also quite true that they may well be fleeing lands which are dangerous and unpleasant and in which the social compact barely exists. Of course, that does not mean that the solution lies in them all converging on a tiny dot on the map. It’s certainly not a good outcome for us. But let’s not blame migrants for seeking to come here. They desperately want that which we are seemingly willing to chuck away. Unfortunately, the presence of huge numbers of them brings with it the near certainty of recreating here exactly what they have fled from in the first place. It is a way of ensuring that eventually, everyone will be the loser.

Meanwhile we, the native peoples of Britain, for whom this island is our only home, keep going as best we can in a country which is ever-changing and in ways which make us feel uncomfortable and uneasy. With every passing month and year we look to the future with increased foreboding about what is in store. Without question, Britain in summer 2024, particularly after the “loveless landslide” of Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, which attracted the support of only one in five of the electorate, feels further adrift of its moorings than last summer and the one before that. With the dawn of every new day, comes further attempts by Britain’s enemies: in particular radical neo-Marxists and religious extremists, to undermine the already-weakened foundations of traditional British society which underpin the freedoms and privileges we choose to take for granted. Academics tend to be very left-wing and therefore, the Left can apply more intellectual clout to their vision for Britain than the rest of us. Conservatives are intrinsically more interested in just getting on with things on the basis that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Except of course, Britain is now broken.

But evidently, not broken enough. The Marxist academics are at it again right now. Yesterday afternoon (Saturday, August 31st), a story broke on the Telegraph website that the University of Nottingham had removed the term Anglo-Saxon from module titles in a bid to tackle “nationalist narratives” and “decolonise the curriculum” – a term which, as the Telegraph puts it, denotes a move away from Western-centred material and the dominance of “white voices” in academia. Banishing the term Anglo-Saxon strikes at the heart of what it means to have an English ethnic identity and intentionally so. It seeks to undermine any concept of Britain’s island story and any sense that we are a nation created many, many centuries ago by Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vikings and the then indigenous Britons.

Do you see how the sands are shifting against us, literally day by day? I had intended to write this article yesterday morning but chose not to do so for the rather homespun reason that the sun was shining and I wanted to be outside working on the construction of a new log store. If it had rained and I’d got round to it, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you that “Anglo-Saxon” was now being cancelled and aspects of our history wilfully blurred by sinister minds at a university (of all places). I would have been blissfully ignorant of how, in order to further undermine the apparently far-right idea that Britain has an indigenous population, the Left would seek to distort historical reality and muddy the waters in this way. In short, I wouldn’t have known that another brick was being chipped out of the wall, the better for it to collapse entirely.

But if I had delayed until tomorrow, what fresh new horrors could I have incorporated? I better press the Publish button on this quickly! Yet the only comfort we have in modern Britain is that today is not tomorrow; that this year is not next year and this decade is not next decade. We know in our hearts that things are programmed to get worse. It is the default setting and the easy option for lazy, career politicians who don’t want to put in the effort and take the risks that come with making a serious attempt to do anything about it. Therefore it is in that grim context that we need to have the most profound – and above all – honest conversation with ourselves.

Hence why for the RCM, to bring this article full circle, it currently seems pointless writing a cheap and cheerful manifesto setting out in-depth policies. We have to go much deeper than that if we are to deal with the existential crisis now stalking Britain and the wider Western World. We hope to do so in a series of philosophical articles here on our website, of which this is the introduction. Then, with solid foundations in place, we can set out a meaningful agenda and establish a blueprint for saving this once-great nation.

In the meantime, the bullet points set out in our recent poster still hold true:

• Protect our Rural Heritage

• Ban all development in the Green Belt

• Nurture and encourage spiritual oneness with Nature

• Ensure the primacy of British culture and values

• Cut Third World immigration to near zero

• Defeat Multiculturalism and Woke

• Seek to preserve indigenous population share

• Invoke UN declaration on Rights of Native Peoples