Yesterday Rats in a Sack reported on how Matt Goodwin – the former academic turned hard right rabbler-rouser – was set to speak on Monday night at an event in Budapest, awkwardly barely 24 hours after his hero Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz Party were kicked out of power in Hungary in a landslide.
Yet bravely Goodwin, a vocal cheerleader for the autocrat’s rule, still turned out to the event – “What’s Next for Europe? A Series with Matthew Goodwin – How Mass Migration is Reshaping the UK and Implications for Europe” – organised by MCC, an Orbán-aligned pressure group based in the country. It has been accused of paying the Gorton & Denton loser up to £10,000 a month.
Of the group of around 18 people who turned up to hear the failed Reform candidate and GB News host speak was a Bluesky user, Jon Worth, who performed the public service of providing a live thread on the platform throughout. And what a bravura performance Goodwin gave!
Speaking at Mathias Corvinus Collegium – a private educational institution described as a “breeding ground for future Fidesz-friendly elites” – the perky populist told his rapt audience how everything was in place for civil war in the UK and France, that Muslims were using the Green Party as a Trojan Horse and admitted “I do support the Reform Party”. Which will please them, as he ran for Parliament for them, at no little cost, just 48 days ago.
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Goodwin also claimed that Britain spends £100 million sending condoms to Pakistan, that his by-election loss was something to do with cousin marriage and that the removal of the two-child benefit cap was an attempt to increase migration. Is he ok?
He seemed less comfortable, though, when Worth was granted a question and used it to note that Goodwin appeared to have served as a visiting fellow for the MCC, and that Péter Magyar, the new PM, has said he would end government support to such Orbán lackeys. “How much do you financially stand to lose yourself personally were he to shut down MCC?,” he asked of the former Kent University man.
“Well, I don’t think I will personally lose anything – as you know, it is entirely standard in academia to have research fellowships with universities, with organisations around the world,” said Goodwin, before banging on at length about the left and then demonstrating incredibly how, as a former politics professor, he has no idea of how political party membership works:
Goodwin: “What are your connections to the Green movement?”
Worth: “I’m a member of the German Green Party.”
Goodwin: “Oh, ok – so you receive funding from the Greens.”
Worth: “No I don’t – I pay money to the Greens, actually.”
Goodwin: “OK, so the Green Party has not given you any funding whatsoever?”
Worth: “No, no.”
Goodwin: “Really?”
Worth: “Yeah.”
Goodwin: “I struggle to believe that.”
What a loss to academia he truly is!
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