The UK-based Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) will be holding a three-day conference in London, starting on 23 June. Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen is expected to be one of the attendees. So, what is ARC, and what company will Lord Houchen be keeping?
The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship
The alliance is an international network for right-wing activists and thinkers that aims to “re-lay the foundations of our civilisation”. The civilisation under discussion is the white ‘Judeo-Christian’ type of civilisation.
Worst Christmas Card list ever
The speaker roster for this year’s ARC reads like a D-List of Brexit and Trump villains from the past decade, including ‘MAGA’ Mike Johnson, speaker of the US House of Representatives, and his British namesake Boris Johnson.
European delegation
ARC Conference attendees will include representatives from Alternative for Germany (AfD) – which is designated as a “suspected extremist” organisation by German intelligence services. AfD will be joined by the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, Vlaams Belang from Belgium, Spain’s VOX, and the Netherlands’ Party for Freedom.
An unsavoury bunch
Well, that group doesn’t sound like appropriate company for Lord Houchen, who likes to style himself as a bipartisan interventionist. Perhaps Houchen says one thing in Teesside, but says another when he’s mixing with ARC down in London. For example, when in Teesside, he’s a champion of Net Zero, leading a ‘Green Revolution’. This wouldn’t go down well with the climate-deniers at the London conference hall.
Everything is fine
Those climate-deniers include Chris Wright, the US Secretary of Energy, an enthusiast for the ‘pluses’ of global heating. Wright is a Donald Trump appointee. He keeps himself busy by blocking new offshore wind farms on the spurious premise of national security, while using wartime powers to funnel $700mn into the dying coal industry.
Mingling with culture warriors
Will Ben Houchen be happy making small talk with another of Trump’s minions, Sarah Rogers? Rogers is a senior State Department official who has led its attempts to promote radical right-wing parties abroad. Houchen could dodge Rogers by heading for the buffet table, only to find himself next to Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation think tank. Perhaps Samuel Samson will be topping up on sausage rolls. According to the New York Times, Samson “has been at the forefront” of the Trump administration’s “effort to reshape America’s relationship with Europe”, cultivating ties with far-right leaders across the continent. Samson reportedly had a secret breakfast meeting with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage where they discussed “buffer zones” around abortion facilities, online safety laws and censorship cases.
Anti-abortion obsession
Samson’s meeting with Farage was reportedly brokered by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an influential American anti-abortion group. ADF helped to overturn Roe v. Wade. But, as Reform UK’s hapless Makerfield by election candidate Rob Kenyon discovered, the anti-abortion schtick doesn’t play as well on this side of the Atlantic.
Have we reached peak Farage?
Nigel Farage will be at the ARC Convention. Two thirds of Reform UK’s donations come from the fossil fuel lobby. Will Ben Houchen take the opportunity to lunch with him again? Probably not. Considering the drubbing that Reform got in Makerfield, Houchen may figure that Farage has passed his peak. Better for Ben to have a cheeky canapé with his party leader Kemi Badenoch. And what better place to do this than at the ARC Convention? Yes, serial bandwagon-jumper Kemi Badenoch will be there. Badenoch has joined the climate deniers, and wants to repeal the 2008 Climate Change Act.
Time out
Away from the main conference arena, there’ll be an opportunity to take a break from the culture wars for a few hours on Tuesday evening. England will be taking on Ghana in the World Cup. This probably won’t be the ideal time for Ben Houchen to run into fellow conference attendee, Reform MP Sarah Pochin. The match will be shown on BBC1, so she won’t be too distracted by any adverts not featuring white people. But beating Ghana won’t be enough for Pochin. According to her logic, England will need to win the World Cup itself if we are to prevent another outbreak of violence against women this summer.
Going back home
It’ll be back to the day job for Ben Houchen on Friday 26 June. He’ll be chairing the Annual General Meeting of the Tees Valley Combined Authority Cabinet. A bit of a comedown after the ARC Conference, some might say. But after three days of listening to the likes of Michael Gove, Kate Hoey and Melanie Phillips, it will probably come as a merciful relief.
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