Read the full transcript of Kemi Badenoch’s talk titled “The Problem Isn’t Liberalism, The Problem Is Weakness” at ARC 2025 conference on Feb 18, 2025.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
Western Civilization at a Crossroads
Western civilisation is in crisis. Our ideas and our culture have dominated the world for well over two centuries. This is not a crisis of values, it’s a crisis of confidence that has set in at exactly the same time that we face existential threats. On the left, this self-doubt manifests as an embarrassment of the West’s legacy and in extremis, a hatred of Western history and even its culture. But what about the right? We know that the West has given the world amazing ideas and values, from democracy and free markets to our banking systems. Yet around us, we see so much cultural and economic decline, we doubt ourselves. We doubt our ability to build like our predecessors did. We doubt liberal values of tolerance or free trade, demanding a post-liberal world.
It’s not liberal values that are the problem, it’s weakness.
A Crisis of Faith Among the Young
Last week, two surveys were released that should alarm everyone in this room. Almost half of young Brits think their country is racist. Nearly 60% of them are not proud to be British. Nearly 40% of the fighting-age population wouldn’t fight for our country under any circumstances. More than half of those aged between 13 and 27 said the UK would be a better place if a strong leader was in charge, who does not have to bother with Parliament and elections. A dictator.
We shouldn’t be surprised. Young people see a Parliament obsessed with trivia, presiding over stagnation despite making more and more laws. A Parliament with only a few defending our values and many more too scared to challenge those who attack what we believe in.
I would say to those young people, I understand your anger but be careful what you wish for. I was born in London but grew up in a country with a military dictatorship. And strong leaders who did away with pesky liberal values like democracy because people voted in bad politicians. They stopped free speech because some used it to offend.
In the 1960s, many former British colonies in Africa decided to move on from British values. A lot of people preferred strongman politics and ethnic nationalism to democracy and pluralism. But when they got it, they didn’t like it. Strongmen had lots of words but no plan. They ran everything and delivered nothing. They flogged teachers, shot journalists, people disappeared, dead bodies were found on the streets. Without the ability to speak freely or trade freely, the government controlled everything and wealth became hard to create and easy to destroy.
What We Are Defending
So let’s remember what we are defending here. Not just our wealth but our culture. A culture built on those values we’ve taken for granted. Classic liberal values, not left-wing liberalism but classic liberalism of free markets, free speech, free enterprise, freedom of religion, the presumption of innocence, the rule of law and equality under it. No matter who you are or where you come from.
As the world becomes more complicated, we need to bravely fight for these values now. Instead, we are distracted. Too busy critiquing and deconstructing what previous generations built rather than making sure that the very best of our inheritance is left intact for the next generation.
This is the real poison of left-wing progressivism. Whether it’s pronouns or DEI or climate activism, these issues aren’t about kindness. They are about control. We have limited time and every second spent debating what a woman is, is a second lost from dealing with these challenges.
How Liberalism Has Been Hacked
In order to fix things, we need to know what went wrong. I believe that loopholes in liberalism have been found and easily exploited. We have been hacked. Rule of law is what built so much of the West. It is in the corruption of the rule of law itself that we see where the problems begin.
The most extraordinary example is how the European Convention on Human Rights, designed to stop the persecution of individuals by the state, is now weaponised by those who wish to erode our national identity and border security. The current system is being exploited. The public are enraged at the perception that the UK has become a haven for foreign criminals.
One case involved a man who was allowed to stay. It was claimed that his son disliked foreign chicken nuggets. In another, a drug dealer reportedly avoids deportation because of his daughter’s gender identity issues. We were members of this convention for half a century without this madness. What has changed? It is not the values, it is the people. They are afraid of creating any kind of conflict. They use the most novel and expansive interpretations of human rights law to avoid it.
We see that lack of confidence now in everything from law and order to national defence. A fear of sticking up for young girls being abused by rape gangs for over so many decades so as not to upset community relations. Totalitarian states like Russia, Iran and North Korea are coordinated in their efforts. Failing to spend more on defence is not peacemaking, it is weakness and it only emboldens their threats to democracy and global stability.
Defending Western Values: A Case Study
So how do we defend? Conservatives are the guardians of Western civilisation. We do need to defend what we have but many have forgotten how to do so. It requires bravery and not endless compliance at the threat of legal challenge.
So I am going to give you a brilliant example of a woman who has done this. She is known as Britain’s strictest headmistress and runs the Michaela School, the best school in our country. Her name is Katherine Birbal-Singh.
The Michaela School is secular, however religious tolerance was being exploited to harass and bully others.