I
shall raise a glass tonight, in memory of government non-intervention in the
British economy. An idea which died today, by means of the capping of the interest rates on payday loans by the Government that for several years had howled down any suggestion of such a thing.
And
I
shall raise a glass tonight, in honour of Britain in 2013.
The
Conservatives have returned to their old-school realism with isolationist
tendencies. UKIP is fully isolationist. The
Lib Dems are effectively pacifist. The Greens are officially pacifist. And
Labour seeks to balance all of those internally, but it no longer contains
anything else.
Therefore,
except in the extremely unlikely event that anyone invaded Gibraltar or the
Falkland Islands, a century of peace stretches out before us.
Let
joy be unconfined.
You know, you are far too optimistic to be a conservative.
ReplyDeleteOnly the angry Blairite rump in is own party still disagrees with Ed Miliband. On state action in the economy generally and capping pay day loan interest rates especially, the Coalition now agrees with Ed Miliband. It does on a pro-peace approach to the Middle East especially Iran. Ed is setting the agenda for domestic and foreign policy.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 23:35, oh, I'm really not, you know.
ReplyDeleteI am far too pessimistic to be a believer in "free" markets or in interventionist foreign policy, both of which are fundamentally and ultimately incompatible with the doctrine of Original Sin.
But clearly, so is everyone else these days. Everyone who matters, anyway. Their pessimism is my optimism.
So, Anonymous 23:36, yes, indeed.
Who believes in "free markets"? The neocons? Don't be silly.
ReplyDeleteThe saddest thing I ever heard was what my dissertation tutor told me when, as an enthusiastic idealist, I asked him why Burke was not required reading for all of his students.
"Burke was good" he admitted, before adding "but what's the point teaching someone who has had no influence on contemporary life?. His main role was to foresee the death of his own ideas"
I've never been able to get over the truth of that.
Conservatism isn't coming back any time soon.
No, Anonymous 23:36. Both parties share the same dreadful agenda on most important issues-and have done for many years before now. One vote on Syria doesn't change anything. It doesn't restore a single one of our laws and liberties, rebuild a single grammar school or even put the brakes on our accelerating descent into a part-Muslim, part East European nowhere-land.
And, further to my last post.
ReplyDeleteBut you're right about Original Sin.
Who believes in "free markets"?
ReplyDeleteNo one of any importance in British politics, as of recent hours.
One vote on Syria doesn't change anything.
Actually, that one vote on Syria changed the world. It has brought us to where we are now: no war against Iran.
If you are that concerned about a possible Islamic takeover, then you ought to want as many Eastern Europeans as possible.
"then you ought to want as many Eastern Europeans as possible."
ReplyDeleteI'm not specially concerned about one cultural "takeover", as opposed to any other cultural "takeover", East European or Caribbean.
I'm concerned for the deliberately-engineered vanishing of our way of life.
Defined as what, exactly?
ReplyDeleteRemember that black couple a few years ago, perhaps not even that long, who went all the way to the Supreme Court in one of those unsuccessful "Christian conscience" cases?
The overwhelming reaction, across the political-media spectrum, was that serious Christianity was as "immigrant" as Islam, and that they had no more right than Muslims to impose their "alien" ways on self-evidently secular-liberal Britain.
Likewise, Britain has forbidden Overseas Territories in the Caribbean and elsewhere from writing Christianity into their Constitutions, which they had assumed would be uncontroversial.
Ultimately, Ed West's Diversity Illusion will turn out to be an accurate prophecy of 21st century Britain.
ReplyDeleteA land where the people have nothing in common, and do not "love the country" because "the country is lovely" (as Burke put it) but are held together only by increasingly repressive laws and rules, as they are in multicultural states like Singapore.
I suspect, once all the British patriots have left, Britain will increasingly descend into a tribal war between Roma gypsies, racist Poles (and other new arrivals from ex-Communist or ex-fascist European states), and radical Islamists, for increasingly scarce resources.
And the unique culture that sustained British liberty (and, naturally, the liberty it sustained) will be long dead.
Yes, I suspect that you do suspect that.
ReplyDelete