What we’re about
Welcome to the New Culture Forum Edinburgh Meetup!
Since its formation in 2006, the New Culture Forum has stood for the preservation and flourishing of British culture and heritage, challenging left-wing and liberal orthodoxies that have come to dominate Western institutions and public life.
Although not officially aligned with the New Culture Forum team, this meetup serves as a means of gathering those who personally identify with NCF content as reflected by its many videos, reports, books, and events. We aim to regularly discuss and develop the various socio-political insights that have been promulgated by NCF guests and representatives.
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Here is a description of NCF aims, as found on their website:
“Culture, it is said, is upstream from politics. Certainly, we in the New Culture Forum believe that cultural issues are the defining ones of our time.
“More and more people are passionately engaged in these issues, but feel there is no outlet within an atmosphere which is dominated by the existence of a liberal/left groupthink. The triumph of cultural relativism and political correctness in the opinion-forming fields of the media, academia, education and culture has meant that this groupthink has become even more deeply entrenched. The liberal establishment sets the terms of debate.
“At a time of threat from extremism, the West finds itself besieged from within and without. Too often our enemies and our opinion-formers appear to agree that Western culture is indefensible or a source purely of shame.
“We, however, believe that the West is in fact a unique bastion of reasoned freedom and that Britain in particular should be proud of the great role it has played in Western education, art and culture.
“Since it was formed in 2006 the New Culture Forum has been challenging the cultural orthodoxies dominant in the media, academia, education, and wider British culture. We have forged important relationships within the national political, media and cultural spheres and now enjoy a high profile.
“Through our research projects and our events, our highly-praised and influential publications and active media work, we have contributed fresh thinking to the public and political debate on the cultural issues of our time.”
https://www.newcultureforum.org.uk/our-aims
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If you’re new to NCF content, have a look at their YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@NewCultureForum
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Here’s a short video about the Forum featuring the NCF founder and director, Peter Whittle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_bffddidaw
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Should you find a resonance with their work, then please reach out!
We’d love to hear from you, and to join us for lively conversation, camaraderie, consolation, and cheer.
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Terms of Service
By accessing and using Meetup, entering your RSVP, and continuing to attend our events, you agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions.
Disclaimer
In no instance will organisers be held liable to any party for any direct, indirect, consequential, or other damages arising from his or her attendance at one of our events. Attendance is at your own risk. The organiser, co-organiser, host, and Meetup are not responsible for loss, damage, theft, injury to oneself or equipment, allergic reactions, traffic or parking violations, or accidents with your vehicle.
RSVP Etiquette
Some circumstances and venue settings necessitate that we limit the number of attendees. In that case, we’ll create a waiting list for anyone who would like to participate should a space become free.
If you’re unable to attend an event that you’ve registered for, please be courteous in updating your RSVP the night before so as to enable organisers to prepare accordingly, potentially allowing others the opportunity to sign up in your place.
If you mark yourself as attending but fail to turn up, we will record this as a ‘no-show.’ Organisers reserve the right to discontinue membership of anyone accruing two or more ‘no-shows’ for this meetup’s events.
Thank you!
Upcoming events (1)
See all- Human Rights, Human Wrongs: Roger Scruton on Moral RelativismWalter Scott monument, Edinburgh
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Please join us for a discussion of moral relativism and of ‘human rights,’ for which we’ll draw mainly upon a 2012 interview with Roger Scruton, in which he stated the following:
“It is obviously a part of human nature to affirm ourselves through moral judgments, and when people adopt the view that all moral judgments are relative or subjective, they turn that into an objective morality too. So it becomes a kind of sin to be other than a relativist…
“You see this happening especially in things like the European Court of Human Rights, where…you find people with old-fashioned objective systems of values constantly being called before the judges and reproached for the fact that they are discriminating against people who don't share their values…so it becomes ever more difficult to retain those old-fashioned objective views of what morality is without being condemned on moral grounds for having those views…
“[This] kind of subjectivism becomes a moral norm, so it's not that people have really given up on the idea of objective morality. It’s that they're making a certain kind of subjectivity into an objective morality. It’s a kind of paradox.”
Attendees should watch the interview in advance of the meeting and come ready with a few comments and questions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5BXyvMU80Q
As supplement to our discussion, we’ll also consider the following New Culture Forum video, minding the NCF pledge that “the United Kingdom must withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights” (which, in 1959, established the European Court of Human Rights):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER0ZWmr9p-0&t=99s
We look forward to the discussion and hope to see you there!
Christopher and Sonja
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Additional links:
A little background on the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR):
https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/what-is-the-echr-and-why-does-it-matter/
(“The ECHR is a ‘living instrument’, which means that the rights protected in it will develop over time in accordance with changes to social norms etc. For example, a case called Goodwin established the right to change one’s legal gender in the UK. Staying in the ECHR and retaining the [Human Rights Act] means that our human rights protections can also continue to evolve with the times.”)
Sunak and Starmer on the ECHR:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QhF6gUPXlks
Farage on the ECHR:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-ZptS1IjaQ
Rees-Mogg on the ECHR:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIur8TkAB7k
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Please note that this will be a joint event with the Scrutopia Edinburgh Meetup group (https://4142298.xyz/scrutopia-edinburgh/), with an invitation extended to members of the NCF Locals platform as well.
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Illustration: “The Right to Know” (1968) by Norman Rockwell
