Kmflett's Blog

The Roger Scruton Restaurants in Budapest, Orban & Matthew Goodwin.

The defeat of Viktor Orban in the Hungarian Election on 12^th April brings into focus a wider layer of hard and far right political networks

The right-wing philosopher Roger Scruton (1944-2020) is perhaps best known as a wine critic (in the New Statesman). Boris Johnson noted on his death that ‘we have lost the greatest modern Conservative thinker’.

References to Scruton’s favourite foods (clearly matched with wine) are limited but judging by a chain of three Roger Scruton restaurants that have opened in Budapest foie gras may have been one.

The restaurant’s menu changes weekly and Scruton’s name is associated with one dish each week. It is reported that memorabilia from Scruton decorates the walls. The general idea seems to be that as Hungary has a hard right Government then Budapest is the ideal location for Scruton themed restaurants.

Scruton was honoured by Orban before his death in 2019.

Meanwhile Matthew Goodwin, Reform candidate in Gorton and Denton, has been associated with the MMC think tank funded by the Orban Government.

After MCC’s 2024 summer festival, Goodwin tweeted: “I just spent 4 days in Hungary, a conservative country criticised by elites across the West. I saw no crime. No homeless people. No riots. No unrest. No drugs. No mass immigration. No broken borders. No self-loathing. No chaos. And now I’ve just landed back in the UK.”.

Goodwin also manages an apparently made up quote from Scruton in his latest self-published book. Why it was necessary to make one up, when actual Scruton quotes are freely available from his thoughts on the Archers to a dispute with E P Thompson about how much wealth the historian had.

With Orban out of office Goodwin may end up out of pocket on fees for speaking at Orban funded events.