That’s the title of Bari Weiss’s recent interview with the new leader of Britain’s Conservative Party. Because I have lots of friends and relations in the UK, I follow British politics pretty closely, and I was very impressed by Kemi Badenoch’s maiden speech in the Commons in 2017. I’ve been expecting great things from her ever since, and I’m glad she’s the new Tory leader. I have to say, however, that I found this interview a bit disappointing. I didn’t like the way Badenoch waffled on freedom of speech and free trade, and while she paid lip-service to Britain’s classical liberal traditions and institutions, it was far from the kind of clear and forceful advocacy I would have liked to have heard. Maybe she’s hedging because she doesn’t want to buck the rising tide of illiberal populism that appears to be engulfing the world. Maybe she especially wants to avoid offending the illiberal populists in the Trump administration. Or maybe she’s not the clear-thinking, ideologically committed classical liberal I had taken her to be. If she’s simply hedging, I think it’s a mistake. As she herself acknowledges, people are longing for meaning and moral clarity. Properly expounded, classical liberalism has provided those things in the past and could do so again. That was a big part of why Reagan and Thatcher were so successful. Is Kemi Badenoch the Next Margaret Thatcher? I hope so, but I suspect not.
