Chris Johnson is a former constituency caseworker.
From 2021 to 2023, the Sheldonian Theatre hosted a series of lectures in memory of the late Sir Roger Scruton.
The calibre of speakers was extremely high from the outset. The right of politics lost its greatest philosopher when Scruton died, and a new responsibility fell on other thinkers of the right to make the case for Conservatism and conservative approaches. All of the lectures are worthy of high praise, but among the outstanding have been Peter Hitchen’s lecture ‘After Conservatism’, Katherine Birbalsingh’s lecture on ‘Education, Race and Conservatism’, and Douglas Murray’s ‘Life and Legacy of Roger Scruton. But I would encourage all Conservative Home readers to listen to them all if they have not done so already.
As Scruton said, “Conservatism starts from a sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created”. Therefore, It is regrettable that the Scruton lectures have been destroyed; at least, they have metamorphised into the Oakeshott Lectures. I have nothing against Michael Oakeshott, but there is a sad irony in memorial lectures, or indeed any kind of memorial, being renamed. It is an act of forgetting.
More curious still is the total lack of any explanation for the change. With no public statement from the organizing committee, the lectures have been renamed and their social media rebranded. In response to an inquiry sent to the Oakeshott Lectures Facebook page, I received the following elusive response:
It was changed for reasons having nothing to do with Scruton. We remain great admirers of him.
A trawl through discussions on X brought up a handful of posts from other concerned citizens. Katherine Birbalsingh, who as noted above, gave one of the Scruton lectures in 2022, responded to one X thread to see if the original author had found out what had happened; they had not.
A follower of the Scruton Lecture Facebook page had similarly asked why the name of the lecture series had changed and received a slightly more detailed explanation. It similarly reassured the questioner that the organisers “have been and always will be tremendous fans of Roger Scruton”, but that they had received a request from the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation to change the name of the lectures.
However, this was subsequently deleted by the Oakeshott Lectures’ Facebook admin, and it is thus likely to have offended, or been liable to offend, the Foundation. I have not received a response from the Foundation at the time of writing, but their website still shows the listings for the last three years which implies a direct organising role on the part of the Foundation before 2024. One can only suppose they are maintaining a dignified silence on the matter.
It may be reasonable to conclude then, that some falling out has occurred between the Foundation and the organising committee of the lecture series, bringing about this abrupt change. Even this year’s lecturers seemed not to know what had happened. Ayaan Hirsi Ali in her lecture this year tactfully noted that she had agreed to do the lecture under the banner of the Scruton Lectures. David Starkey, in his lecture ‘The Strange Death of Conservative England’, expressed his fear that the name change may have been a “terrible mistake”.
This was based on Michael Oakeshott’s view of Conservatism as aiming “to inject into the activities of already too passionate men an ingredient of moderation”, with which Starkey disagreed. Starkey alluded to the previous name of the lectures several times, but was either unable or unwilling to offer any explanation as to the rationale behind the rebrand.
Whatever strange shenanigans have contrived to remove Scruton’s name from the Memorial Lectures, I would encourage involved parties to find a resolution. Perhaps the organising committee of the ‘Oakeshott Lectures’ could turn over their control of responsibility to the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation. A new committee could then be formed from the Foundation’s trustees and advisors.
Scruton and his work were too often forgotten in the pursuit and exercise of power by Conservatives in past decades. As far as I’m aware, his only formal involvement with the Government was a brief spell on the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission, from which he was unceremoniously removed by Conservative MPs who ought to have known better.
We should be heartened that Kemi Badenoch is an avowed admirer of his work. In a recent interview with Tom McTague of UnHerd, she cited ‘How to be a Conservative’ as one of the key four texts that have shaped her political thinking.
It is to be hoped that Sir Roger will continue to be remembered not just through her work and that of the Conservative Party, but also by the return of the Scruton Memorial Lectures to the Sheldonian Theatre in 2025.
Chris Johnson is a former constituency caseworker.
From 2021 to 2023, the Sheldonian Theatre hosted a series of lectures in memory of the late Sir Roger Scruton.
The calibre of speakers was extremely high from the outset. The right of politics lost its greatest philosopher when Scruton died, and a new responsibility fell on other thinkers of the right to make the case for Conservatism and conservative approaches. All of the lectures are worthy of high praise, but among the outstanding have been Peter Hitchen’s lecture ‘After Conservatism’, Katherine Birbalsingh’s lecture on ‘Education, Race and Conservatism’, and Douglas Murray’s ‘Life and Legacy of Roger Scruton. But I would encourage all Conservative Home readers to listen to them all if they have not done so already.
As Scruton said, “Conservatism starts from a sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created”. Therefore, It is regrettable that the Scruton lectures have been destroyed; at least, they have metamorphised into the Oakeshott Lectures. I have nothing against Michael Oakeshott, but there is a sad irony in memorial lectures, or indeed any kind of memorial, being renamed. It is an act of forgetting.
More curious still is the total lack of any explanation for the change. With no public statement from the organizing committee, the lectures have been renamed and their social media rebranded. In response to an inquiry sent to the Oakeshott Lectures Facebook page, I received the following elusive response:
It was changed for reasons having nothing to do with Scruton. We remain great admirers of him.
A trawl through discussions on X brought up a handful of posts from other concerned citizens. Katherine Birbalsingh, who as noted above, gave one of the Scruton lectures in 2022, responded to one X thread to see if the original author had found out what had happened; they had not.
A follower of the Scruton Lecture Facebook page had similarly asked why the name of the lecture series had changed and received a slightly more detailed explanation. It similarly reassured the questioner that the organisers “have been and always will be tremendous fans of Roger Scruton”, but that they had received a request from the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation to change the name of the lectures.
However, this was subsequently deleted by the Oakeshott Lectures’ Facebook admin, and it is thus likely to have offended, or been liable to offend, the Foundation. I have not received a response from the Foundation at the time of writing, but their website still shows the listings for the last three years which implies a direct organising role on the part of the Foundation before 2024. One can only suppose they are maintaining a dignified silence on the matter.
It may be reasonable to conclude then, that some falling out has occurred between the Foundation and the organising committee of the lecture series, bringing about this abrupt change. Even this year’s lecturers seemed not to know what had happened. Ayaan Hirsi Ali in her lecture this year tactfully noted that she had agreed to do the lecture under the banner of the Scruton Lectures. David Starkey, in his lecture ‘The Strange Death of Conservative England’, expressed his fear that the name change may have been a “terrible mistake”.
This was based on Michael Oakeshott’s view of Conservatism as aiming “to inject into the activities of already too passionate men an ingredient of moderation”, with which Starkey disagreed. Starkey alluded to the previous name of the lectures several times, but was either unable or unwilling to offer any explanation as to the rationale behind the rebrand.
Whatever strange shenanigans have contrived to remove Scruton’s name from the Memorial Lectures, I would encourage involved parties to find a resolution. Perhaps the organising committee of the ‘Oakeshott Lectures’ could turn over their control of responsibility to the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation. A new committee could then be formed from the Foundation’s trustees and advisors.
Scruton and his work were too often forgotten in the pursuit and exercise of power by Conservatives in past decades. As far as I’m aware, his only formal involvement with the Government was a brief spell on the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission, from which he was unceremoniously removed by Conservative MPs who ought to have known better.
We should be heartened that Kemi Badenoch is an avowed admirer of his work. In a recent interview with Tom McTague of UnHerd, she cited ‘How to be a Conservative’ as one of the key four texts that have shaped her political thinking.
It is to be hoped that Sir Roger will continue to be remembered not just through her work and that of the Conservative Party, but also by the return of the Scruton Memorial Lectures to the Sheldonian Theatre in 2025.