We spoke to Charles Amos, the controversial Conservative Association President at King’s

‘Do I favour a fully privatised NHS? Certainly, absolutely’


The Conservative Associations new President, Charles Amos, has been the talk of student politics in the past week.

As a former UKIP poster boy opposed to the COVID lockdown, and an advocate for “Thatcherism on steroids”, his views have divided opinion.

Since his election as President of the Conservative Association was announced on Twitter, he’s received hundreds of tweets, with many questioning whether he’s a parody due to his past affiliation with UKIP and signature moustache.

Despite the Association announcing his election on the 24th March, it wasn’t until the announcement made it to Twitter more than a month later that the jokes really began.

Charles has received so much attention that someone even pretended to be him, claiming it was all an act they’d put on for a Vice article about infiltrating the Conservative Association.

In response to the chaos, the KCL Conservative Association tweeted a compilation of the “15 spiciest” responses to their committee announcement.

 

The Tab King’s spoke to Charles about his controversial opinions and this is what he had to say:

“My committee and myself have discussed how we capitalise on this situation”

Charles argues that the attention has been “broadly beneficial to the movement”, and has helped them gain a much larger following across their social media.

He did also admit that “although I find these comments amusing, there are a number of students and people who are more sensitive than me and it does put people off politics which I think is rather unfortunate.”

He has described his Conservative views as being a “crusade” against the “evil” of socialism and told us he believes there should be more political division, not less.

“If what divides you is good and evil then I think the division should be even larger because any kind of grey in between is, it’s perverted I suppose. I think it is good to have a confrontational attitude in politics. I’m not talking about being personal, I want to make that very clear.”

“We have got to remember that if somebody infects somebody else with coronavirus, that is most unfortunate, but it does happen to a lesser extent, a far lesser extent, with seasonal flu”

Some of Charles’ most controversial comments have been on the topic of COVID-19. Charles openly opposed the government lockdown and argues it should be up to private businesses to set entry rules.

“I would quite happily see them [people who break entry rules] forcefully taken out of the supermarket and I would consider the possibility of putting them in jail, or at least they should be heavily fined.

“If the fine was large enough, those kinds of infringements could be minimised to a very great degree. We have got to remember that if somebody infects somebody else with coronavirus, that is most unfortunate, but it does happen to a lesser extent, a far lesser extent, with seasonal flu, that has a 0.1 per cent mortality rate and coronavirus has a 0.9 per cent mortality rate.

“Private property is more than capable of ensuring that risk is at an appropriate level for varying groups of the population. Will that result in more death? Yes, I suspect it will. But, if people go out to the pub, or to crowded spaces, they are implicitly agreeing to that risk.”

“Within the Conservative Association at King’s, Nigel Farage is an immensely popular figure”

Charles told us he doesn’t believe his UKIP past has separated him from his Conservative peers, that that he suspects Farage “is a popular figure amongst all student Conservatives.”

“Most student Conservatives that I mix with have no idea that I’ve been a member of UKIP in the past. I don’t think even members of my committee knew I was a member of UKIP in the past until your organisation published its most recent piece.

“I have no issue with the widespread coverage of the comments I’ve made because I believe in the comments that I’ve made. […] I still agree with them today so I’m pleased I made them then. In some small way, I helped the eurosceptic movement that helped this country break free of the shackles of the European Union.”

I am firmly of the belief that third-wave feminism should be bashed”

“I am wholly in support of the 19th-century feminists and their insistence upon women being able to hold property and vote in parliamentary elections, in being able to enter the various professions they were excluded from.

“But feminism today is totally different, it’s about ensuring economic and social equality between men and women and I’m totally opposed to that.

“I do not believe that the state should tax individuals to subside women to go to work, for example through subsidising childcare.

When pushed for a yes or no to whether he believes men and women should be socially and economically equal, Charles said:  “No. It’s not something I’d say we should definitely aim for.

“Men are not suited to certain roles that women currently fulfil and women are not suited to some roles that men currently fulfil.”

“We are ultimately evolved from apes so we do have certain traits that they have”

On his Facebook, Charles previously spoke of an ‘assault’ on the traditional family, including the increasing number of single-parent families.

When The Tab King’s asked him about this issue Charles argued that divorce could put children at more risk of harm, as stepfathers do not have a “biological vested interest in the child’s wellbeing.

“Although you could possibly see a minimisation in violence against children if you did get a divorce, you’ve also got to consider the counterfactual that the mother getting together with a stepfather and that stepfather being even more violent to the child than the original biological father would have been.

“In the case of a child being adopted by two willing parents, it’s fairly clear that the two parents are interested in raising that child, unlike a stepfather getting into a relationship with the biological mother and having the baggage of the child that remains from the previous marriage.”

“Do I favour a fully privatised NHS? Certainly, absolutely”

Charles is a firm advocate of “free market healthcare”, but emphasised that “that’s not the view of my association, or most of its members, who I suspect take a vastly different view, certainly those that live in the UK will.”

“We really want to be at the forefront of political debate and as one of the very few societies on the right of politics at King’s, I’m firmly of the belief that we can achieve that goal”

So what does the Conservative Association’s controversial new President hope to achieve this year?

“So there’s three flagship policies that I’ve put out which I now intend to deliver on. One of the first of those is delivering on formal and black tie dining.

“Then we have the inter-party events that I really, really, want to put on with the Labour party, the Greens, the Liberal Democrats, and possibly even the Marxists because I believe it would be fantastic to get individuals together with vastly opposing views to each other to interact and to debate politics. I think that’d be very interesting to go and have a social afterwards.

“And then there’s the private Facebook group or WhatsApp that I’d like to set up to allow the association members to discuss. […] The best way to reach the association would be via email ([email protected])”.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

UKIP poster boy becomes President of KCL Conservative Society

Meet Emily Hewertson: The KCL young tory going viral on the reg

A guide to what politician you are based on what you study at King’s