Life

Tory party chair Oliver Dowden says we should stop “obsessing over pronouns” in “vacuous” speech

By Conor Clark

15th February 2022

UK Government

Tory MP and party co-chair Oliver Dowden called out what he referred to as “woke” ideology for weakening the West.

In a speech to the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing US think tank, this week, the former culture secretary said we should stop “obsessing over pronouns”.

He added that being “woke” was a “dangerous form of decadence” hurting us at a time when “our attention should be focused on external foes”.

“Rogue states are seeking to challenge the international order. And at the precise point when our resolve ought to be strongest, a pernicious new ideology is sweeping our societies,” Dowden stated.

“It goes by many names. In Britain, its adherents sometimes describe themselves as ‘social justice warriors’. They claim to be ‘woke’, awakened to the so-called truths of our societies. But wherever they are found, they pursue a common policy inimical to freedom.”

Dowden, a Member of Parliament for Hertsmere since 2015, went on to state that the ‘wokeness’ he spoke of is “in our universities but also in our schools. In government bodies, but also in corporations. In social science faculties, but also in the hard sciences.”

He also claimed that the West is “obsessed by what divides us rather than what unites us”.

The think tank Dowden was speaking to is considered one of the most influential in Washington and backed Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

The 43-year-old continued: “Neither of us can afford the luxury of indulging in this painful woke psychodrama… Too many people have already fallen for the dismal argument that standing up for freedom is reactionary or that somehow it’s kind or virtuous to submit to these self-righteous dogmas. Well, it plainly is not.”

Dowden’s comments were met with a mostly negative response online, particularly by left-wing government officials.

Labour MP Nadia Whittome said: “Oliver Dowden gave a speech to a US think-thank that peddles voter suppression, climate denial, anti-LGBT and anti-abortion views.

“He has some cheek to claim it’s the left trying to divide society and limit people’s freedom.”

Siobhan Benita, a former civil servant and candidate for Mayor of London, questioned where the funding for this trip to America came from.

“Why on earth is Oliver Dowden in Washington giving a speech to an organistion that – on its own website – denies the climate emergency, opposes abortion, attacks LGBTQ rights, opposes health care reforms,” she wrote on Twitter.

“Who is paying for this trip?”

Sue Perkins, broadcaster and former host of The Great British Bake Off, added: “Hi Oliver. Seeing as the term ‘woke’ is a manufactured construct of the right, could you please explain it?

“Also, your party is a sewer.”

Chris Bryant, Labour MP for the Rhondda, said the “speech is about as vacuous as can be.”

He added: “But it’s also dangerous. It implies we should all just tug the forelock to authoritarian views of the world. Liberty comes in many dimensions.”