London:
Sir Roger Scruton is being ruthlessly scrutinised by Left wing elements for his recent appointment as Chair of the government’s new “Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission”. Labour MPs are misconstruing some previous comments about Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. The Left have a vituperative hostility toward right wing intellectuals and Sir Roger, writer-philosopher and paragon of aestheticism, currently fits the bill. This week, Labour MP Andrew Gwynne brought an “Urgent Question” on Sir Roger’s suitability for this appointment to James Brokenshire, Minister for Communities, in the House of Commons. Brokenshire defended Sir Roger’s credentials and his lifelong championship of freedom of speech/expression and thought; he recommended that Sir Roger’s comments must not be quoted out of context or be distorted. Brokenshire confirmed that Sir Roger has made important contributions to public debate and he was uniquely qualified for this position. Conservative MPs Bob Seely, James Gray and Jacob Rees-Mogg, among others, called the allegations a “smear campaign”; they endorsed Sir Roger’s suitability and said all the allegations were easily refuted. The Spectator, The Telegraph, Conservative Home and the National Review have disproved the vicious commentary spread by the Guardian newspaper.
Sir Roger, never shy of a fierce debate, has decided to collect his “outrageous criminal remarks” and post them in a folder on his website, as the news from Scrutopia says: “This will save Roger’s critics a lot of unnecessary trouble and serve to brighten their lives with a sense of their own righteousness.”
Sir Roger is Britain’s most eminent and distinguished Professor, a national treasure whose intellect is also in demand in Europe and in the USA; the recipient of 11 honours, including the Polish Lech Kaczynski Foundation’s Medal for Courage and Integrity, and in 2016, he was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. He is the most genuinely qualified polymath to head this Commission, the importance he has attached to art and beauty is indivisible from his conservatism and his sense of belonging “Conservatism, for me, is the philosophy and the politics of attachment. Its starting point is a loved way of life, and the institutions and settlements that have grown from it”. Sir Roger believes that a sense of belonging fosters unity in a community and loyalty to the neighbourhood; his 2009 BBC series “Why Beauty Matters” is a valuable introduction to the way he sees life.
Sir Roger told this reporter that his task is threefold—“First, to establish what part good design plays in building new houses? Second, what is good design anyway? And how can a government create a system that reliably delivers good design?” He explains that England has an effective system for protecting the countryside, with a quick reference to Belgium and Holland who have lesser populations and have not preserved their paysage, but England has not been successful in planning an appealing built environment. Folks are using the planning process to resist and reject new urban development as it is “so ugly”. Sir Roger aims to come up with ideas “that will build an environment that has a proper conception of aesthetic values, will provide reassurances that new development will not be a devastation of the sense of belonging and will lessen the mass resistance to new developments.”
One feature Sir Roger is sure will deliver this desirable habitat and social community are streets, with houses with interesting facades, side-by-side and facing the street, with various shapes and sizes of windows and pitched rooves, for interesting skylines are equally important as interesting streets. Another important aspect is the use of friendly materials such as carved stone and brickwork as opposed to “curtains of glass”. Sir Roger believes “today’s modern style of architecture requires more expensive maintenance and is less enduring than traditional builds”; he quotes London’s iconic St Pancras station built in 1968 as being completely adaptable to C21st requirements. He explains that a desirable place to live cannot consist of a series of boxes, to foster a community spirit and ethos variety is necessary, shops, places of worship, entertainment, sports facilities, homes, village/community halls, workplaces and petrol stations all have a part to play in creating this sense of belonging he is seeking to create. The Commission’s report is due is a year; communities, classicists and conservatives alike are looking forward to his vision for a more beautiful Britain.