Read all the latest from Scrutopia HERE.

Roger Scruton is the heretic we need
The secret radical had no time for lying fools
BY DOUGLAS MURRAY

After the demise of great men and women, their reputations often dip. Fulsome obituaries are usually followed by a fall-off in interest. It takes time for the new generation to discover the greats afresh and for their reputations to regenerate. But I doubt this rule would ever have applied to Roger Scruton.

The philosopher’s standing was at its height when he died last year at the age of 75. The second of his three great books on Wagner had recently come out; his advice was sought by the British Government; conservative intellectuals and politicians across Europe were eager to seek his approval. His life ended just as his reputation reached the stage it ought to have been at for decades: though by the time he died he had become Sir Roger Scruton, he had spent many years in a type of intellectual isolation, if not wilderness.                                                                                                                                             

Confessions of a Heretic is a selection of otherwise uncollected essays which deal with some subjects of Scruton’s ire. They also tackle the timeless issues to which he dedicated a lifetime of energy. Although Scruton is generally referred to as a “conservative philosopher,” he ought simply to be referred to as a “philosopher”. The deepest works in this book — his “Effing the Ineffable” and his “Reflection on Strauss’s Metamorphosen,” for example — go far deeper than mere politics.

Read the full article HERE.

This week we have successfully completed our Alumni meeting and we were able to enjoy terrific lectures with Samuel Hughes, Mark Almond and Anthony O’Hear among others. Visits to local places of interest and glorious weather helped us to rekindle friendships in a thought provoking and stimulating environment. 

Scrutopia Summer School 2021 Gala dinner. A wonderful week of studying and socialising with friends old and new. Thank you to everyone involved, we hope to see you again soon.

Don't miss the presentation Ed Husain at the Summer University organized by Civismo and European Reform

"Remembering Sir Roger Scruton"

See here: https://youtu.be/6_BpxLqZ5nI

Read all the latest news from Scrutopia HERE.

When the philosopher Sir Roger Scruton died last year Boris Johnson called him “the greatest modern conservative thinker”.

It seems that he had an even greater admirer in Viktor Orban, the right-wing prime minister of Hungary, whose allies have poured £1.5 million into a chain of coffee shops in Scruton’s memory. The first opened in November in Budapest and is filled with Scruton memorabilia donated by his widow, Sophie.

More cafés will follow, says John O’Sullivan, a former speechwriter for Margaret Thatcher who now chairs a Hungarian think tank. The £1.5 million investment comes from the state-sponsored Batthyany foundation, which also paid for the historian Norman Stone to write a history of Hungary that praised Orban’s leadership

The full article can be read online at The Times here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hungarian-coffee-shop-idolises-uk-philosopher-sir-roger-scruton-657x2npl5

I’m drinking my morning coffee at home from a paper cup I swiped from Scruton, the Budapest coffeeshop dedicated to the memory of Sir Roger. Scruton is a great space, and I can hardly wait for it to open up fully (for now, you can only get take-out coffee from there, because of Covid). Wouldn’t it be great if American university towns had a Scruton, as a hangout for conservatives, and a place to debate and discuss? Read the full article HERE.

The secret university. Roger Scruton’s work with dissident intellectuals in the Eastern Bloc was risky but crucial. The full feature by Jessica Douglas-Home is taken from May 2021 issue of The Critic, it is available to read here.