James O'Brien baffled by Oliver Dowden's 'painful woke psychodrama' speech

15 February 2022, 14:01

By Seán Hickey

James O'Brien couldn't work out the purpose of the Tory party chair's calls to 'defend our values' against a 'painful woke psychodrama'.

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"We cannot be complacent about defending our values against this painful woke psychodrama. It will take courage to resist it", James O'Brien read from a speech made by Conservative Party Chair Oliver Dowden.

Mr Dowden was speaking at an event put on by the Heritage Foundation, an American think-tank which claims to be "building an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity, and civil society flourish".

James read on from Mr Dowden's speech: "Too many have fallen for the idea that it is kind or virtuous to submit to these self-righteous dogmas, it is not."

He couldn't make heads or tails of the purpose of Mr Dowden's comments: "12 years in power, an 80 seat majority, a bare-faced liar in Downing Street, parties being thrown while the rest of us can't go to funerals, and Oliver Dowden wants us to be most concerned at this moment in our island history about 'the painful woke psychodrama', I don't know what he means."

"When you pause for a moment, it is incredible that Vladimir Putin's troops are massed on the border of Ukraine, and Oliver Dowden, chairman of the Conservative party is arguing that the real threat to the West is 'obsessing over pronouns or seeking to decolonise mathematics'."

"What is he talking about?" A discombobulated James asked.

He argued that Mr Dowden was speaking to a specific section of society: "What does he want them to be frightened of?"

"All I've got is that he doesn't want us to be talking, acknowledging or reporting on facts."