The weekend of Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd March 2025, saw the Third Margaret Thatcher Centre Freedom Festival held at the University of Buckingham.
“Why do Conservative governments abandon their principles in office“
The festival consisted of a day and half of keynote addresses, panel discussions and a gala dinner with Lord David Frost speaking.
Many good points were made, and interesting discussions held. Mahyar Tousi also posted a clip about one of the speeches on YouTube. Listed below are some of our slightly random take aways from the weekend:
‘the entire budget of the Foreign Office is a rounding error in the DWP’
The first panel discussion was a favourite with James Price, Giles Dilnot and Reem Ibrahim discussing Free Trade. A discussion where everyone had interesting points, and it was easy to agree with some of what all said.
Lord Young of Acton (Toby Young) gave a keynote address and asked ‘Why do Conservative governments abandon their principles in office’
Why was Margaret Thatcher the exception?
Speaking about the lockdown, Lord Young pointed out that the UK plan was indeed taken up, just not by the UK, but by Sweden.
He went on to also say that the Government Report of April 2020 showed an expected and additional 185,000 deaths due to the NHS moving to emergency care only, when we locked down expecting to save at most 200,000 lives. Toby also said:
‘Lessons aren’t learnt they are abandoned’
‘Sometimes the best path is to do nothing’
Finally Toby talked about his current major concern with the Employment Rights bill which extends the requirement to protect employees from harassment by third parties, including overheard conversations – The Free Speech Union now have a campaign for this to Say No to ‘Banter Bouncers’.
“Sometimes the best path is to do nothing”
Allison Pearson spoke about the investigation by the police into her tweet. She mentioned how the Police Report was leaked to the Guardian. Also, that the ‘NCHI reversed the burden of proof, you are no longer innocent until proven guilty, and that ‘Police who won’t come out for a burglary will come out for this’.
Allison went on to announce that she is instigating legal proceedings against Essex Police and the Polcie Commissioner Robert Hurst.
“Police who won’t come out for a burglary will come out for this”
In a panel discussion on Cheerfulness & The Culture War, Emma Trimble (née Webb) wared against ‘the right falling into a purity spiral’, this became a reasonable often repeated and timely thought. On the same panel Mark Littlewood talked of ‘a conservative movement, whatever your political party is’. Mark also talked about the need to ‘reset Britain to pre-Blair 1997’. Tim Scott also on the panel pointed out that ‘we also have to be honest about the things that are good’. Emma also pointed out that we need to get rid of the Supreme Court.
In a Panel about the rule of law Dr Bryn Harris of the Free Speech Union pointed out that ‘free societies don’t regulate what people say at work’.
In the next panel on Academic Freedom, Professor Eric Kaufmann talked about the need to get funding to support right wing views in universities.
The evening finished with a gala dinner with Lord David Frost in which special awards were given to Allison Pearson and Professor James Tooley.
On the Sunday Catherine McBride OBE pointed out that the ‘UK has coal, oil and gas, and for some reason the government has decided to keep all 3 in the ground’. Also, that ‘Germany has reverted to coal and for some reason we refuse to sell it to them’.
Baroness Claire Fox gave a keynote address and started by noting that given her background it was ‘disconcerting to be speaking at a conference for Margaret Thatcher’. Claire pointed out that at the Battle of Ideas events she organises the left has diminished and that ‘my tribe, the left have disintegrated into snowflakes’. She also raised concerns that whilst the left created a template, the right may be copying it with an increasing ‘victim narrative’ and warned us against it. She also noted that much of the backlash against the Netflix series Adolescent was from those who refused to watch it.
You can find more information about these events at https://thatchercentre.com/the-freedom-festival-2025/.
“UK has coal, oil and gas, and for some reason the government has decided to keep all 3 in the ground”
Gawain Towler spoke about seeing Brexit Party MEPS, Claire Fox and Ann Widdecombe walking towards him and thinking ‘how have we done this?’
The last panel called for people to get involved, pointed out that winning matters, and finally that we need to make the case for capitalism.
“we need to make the case for capitalism”
