Lord Monckton: Right-wing extremist poster boy

Lord Christopher Monckton upped his radical fringe credentials this week with his full-throated endorsement of the Rise Up Australia party. /Image via abc.net.au


What do global warming deniers, Obama birthers and Australian racists all have in common? Lord Christopher Monckton, third viscount of Brenchley.

This week, Monckton became the most prominent supporter of Rise Up Australia, a new national political party Down Under devoted to opposing Muslim immigration in Australia and rolling back the country's multicultural policies. At an event launching Rise Up Australia, Monckton said, "It is not for me as a Brit to endorse any Australian political party, ... but I'm going to anyway."

In December 2012, the ex-journalist and adviser to former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was thrown out of the United Nations-sponsored climate change conference in Doha, Qatar, after he impersonated a member of the Burmese delegation. Drawing heckling from the other delegates, Monckton told the assembly: "In the 16 years we have been coming to these conferences, there has been no global warming at all. If we were to take action, the cost of that would be many times greater than the cost of taking adaptation measures later. So my recommendation is that we should initiate a review of the science to make sure we are all on the right track."

The viscount of Brenchley was not only expelled from the Doha conference but also banned for life from attending future U.N. climate change talks.

And here's what Monckton had to say in March 2012 about the authenticity of Barack Obama's birth certificate posted on the White House website: "It appears in layers on the screen in such a way you can remove quite separately each of the individual dates. You use Adobe Illustrator and each of the individual dates is in its own separate layer. This thing has been fabricated. Sheriff (Joe) Arpaio of Arizona has had a team on this for six months. And he has now gone public and said there’s something very desperately wrong with this and of course nobody is saying anything because the entire electorate has been fooled."

Here are some historical facts to consider: racism is a scourge on humanity that has fueled the slaughter of millions, the vast majority of the world's scientists have concluded not only that the Earth's atmosphere is warming but also that carbon dioxide from human activity is to blame, and Donald Trump is the only other prominent person on the planet who believes Obama was born in Kenya.

Political party preaches racism Down Under-style

Conservative Christian Danny Nalliah launched the Rise Up Australia party this week in Australia. /Image via heraldsun.com.au


This week, an Australian pastor of Sri Lankan decent launched the Rise Up Australia party to run candidates in upcoming national elections. Planks of the party's platform include limiting Muslim immigration in Australia and turning back the clock on the country's multicultural policies.

Here's some quotes from Rise Up Australia's leader, Danny Nalliah, a supposed man of God:

"Tolerance has gone too much and the Rise Up Australia party is committed to keeping Australia Australian.”

Rise Up Australia ''cannot be tarnished with the racist brush because I'm a black fellow.''

“I think God created Chinese fried rice, and I love pizza … but please do not come and tell me that Sharia law should be introduced in Australia. You go back to where you came from.”

“One of the greatest pushes for multiculturalism comes from Muslim people. David Cameron is the perfect example of someone who has said ‘multiculturalism has failed.’ There are Sharia courts starting all over the U.K. If multiculturalism has been ineffective in Europe, why implement a failure in Australia?”

“I remember I read a speech by John F. Kennedy where he said, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’ I asked myself how and what I can do for my adopted country of Australia. The whole country is losing rights at the cost of tolerance. There is only so much you can tolerate.”

As a devoted student of history, I'm familiar with many of JFK's speeches. Here's a couple excerpts from one of my favorites, a nationally televised speech Kennedy delivered in 1963:

"I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.

"Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. And when Americans are sent to Vietnam or West Berlin, we do not ask for whites only. It ought to be possible, therefore, for American students of any color to attend any public institution they select without having to be backed up by troops.

"It ought to be possible for American consumers of any color to receive equal service in places of public accomodations, such as hotels and restaurants and theaters and retail stores, without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the street, and it ought to be possible for American citizens of any color to register to vote in a free election without interference or fear of reprisal.

"It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color. In short, every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. But this is not the case.

"The Negro baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the Nation in which he is born, has about one-half as much chance of completing a high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day, one-third as much chance of completing college, one-third as much chance of becoming a professional man, twice as much chance of becoming unemployed. ...

"We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.

"The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated. If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he cannot send his children to the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who will represent him, if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay?

"One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free."