From the Right Side

This is what they really think of us:

We have a citizenry which can be caricatured as being increasingly unwilling to be governed but not yet capable of self-government.

This was said by Matthew Taylor - Tony Blair's chief adviser on political strategy and the former head of the centre left think tank the Institute of Public Policy Research.

The arrogant, patronising, condescending little !**$!!*'s

Envirodoxy: an attitude of mind revealed by an inability to think independently, coupled with an acceptance as scientific fact the worst-imaginings of some client-change scientists and green campaigners.

Usually associated, particularly amongst politicians, with a strong psychological need to pontificate, preach, and regulate, combined with a lack of faith in human adaptability and technological innovation.

The aptness of the term is illustrated by the responses of MPs to a Rough Guide survey on climate change. The following are just a sample, but illustrative of the views of all but a handful of MPs which are published in today's Independent:

Climate change is the most serious threat to human kind ever. Ben Bradshaw (Lab)

The most difficult challenge that Governments have faced since the dinosaurs roamed the earth. David Chaytor (Lab)

We must make the green agenda central to everything we do and, in that agenda, climate change is the issue which overrides all others. It is the biggest threat facing our planet... David Cameron (Con)

My own opinion is that it is more important than any other challenge we face (and that is saying a lot ­ with nuclear proliferation, international terrorism, pension meltdown and other worries being very strong candidates). James Arbuthnot (Tory)

Climate change is a threat greater than any other faced by mankind and is therefore the most important political issue of our time. Norman Baker (Lib)

The position of any who disagree with the new Envirodoxy has been aptly described by George Orwell:

At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas of which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is 'not done' to say it... Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the high-brow periodicals. George Orwell

The House of Lords may be happy with EU accounting procedures, but Marta Andreasen - who was suspended by the European Commission in 2002 (before being sacked in 2004) after going public with worries that its accounting system was open to fraud - is less charitable:

These changes of more than €20 billion that have surfaced in some chapters would certainly cause heads to roll and the prosecution of the directors if they happened in the private sector.

Who do you believe? Difficult choice.

Labels: European Union

Hart Seely of the Los Angeles Times has been lamenting the exit of Donald Rumseld, and the consequent loss of material for American comedy. In passing, he re-presents some of Rumsfeld's...er...thoughts...as a form of existential poetry. For example:

It's amazing.
Once in a while,
I'm standing here, doing
something.
And I think,
"What in the world am I
doing here?"

It's a big surprise.


So, why not try the same with our own politicians? The following 'poems' are lifted directly from the speeches made by Blair and Cameron to their party conferences earlier in the year.

Green Declaration, by David Cameron

I grew up in the countryside.
I've always loved the outdoors.
...I'm quite keen on trees.

In Praise of (Modern) Marriage, by David Cameron

There's something special about marriage.
It's not about religion.
It's not about morality.
It's about commitment.
...It is about we - together,
The two of us,
Through thick and thin.

That really matters.

And by the way,

It means something whether you're
A man and a woman,
A woman and a woman or
A man and another man.

Challenges, by Tony Blair

The future requires restless courage:
To know and act upon the coming reality
However hard the challenge it holds.

And when the two,
Conviction and courage,
Combine their strength...
They beat them

And in time what was a challenge,
Becomes part of the new consensus.

I must admit that I cheered when I heard that Nick Griffin and his colleague had been cleared, unanimously, by the jury at Leeds Crown Court. But depression immediately returned with Gordon Brown's reaction that the law would need to be looked at again. His credo, to paraphrase the quote often attributed to Voltaire, would appear to be:

I disagree with what you say, and I will defend to the death the right of the state to use all the means at its disposal to stop you saying it.

This man must never be allowed to become Prime Minister. There is the frightening possibility that he could be worse than Blair.

Labels: Free Speech

Jon Snow has become very precious and self-important about the wearing (or not-wearing) of the poppy. He claims that his decision is, in part, a reaction against "a rather unpleasant breed of poppy fascism"!

Do news-readers know no bounds to their self-importance?

Preciousness is not only limited to newsreaders, however. Religious think-tanks, too, can have their day. Ekklesia claims that wearing the red-poppy has become 'politically correct'

Jonathan Bartley, the co-director of the think-tank, claims that "There is a political correctness about the red poppy, which often goes unnoticed", and is urging people to wear a white poppy. As Melanie Phillips might say in her column, "Oh, purlease!"

So, when you wear your poppy (as I hope you will), make up your mind whether you're a 'fascist' or a PC-freak.

For my part, I shall wear it in remembrance of the men and women who gave, and are prepared to give, the ultimate sacrifice. We owe them everything.

Labels: Journalists

Nick Clegg is being too restrained in his criticism of Labour over the lop-sided extradition treaty with America. His remarks follow John Reid's astonishing admission that government ministers had not held a single negotiating meeting with their American counterparts before signing the treaty.

Nick Clegg quite rightly criticised the government for showing "real contempt of Parliament" by acting in such a "cavalier fashion". Even worse, though, is the contempt they have shown for the British people in signing this treaty. By accepting such an unequal treaty they have demonstrated that they are prepared to privilege the interests of the US government over those of our own people.

What is doubly sad about this whole episode is the Conservative climbdown in the House of Lords earlier this week, which the Liberal Democrats rightly characterised as a "feeble and positively shameful" surrender.

Labels: Home Office