You would have to be deaf, dumb and blind (or read nothing but the Guardian) to have failed to notice that there is rather a large constituency in Britain whose feelings regarding the European Union lie somewhere between dislike and loathing.
As a consequence this would presumably lead the leader of the opposition Tory Party to firmly align his troops with the Euro-sceptics, correct? I mean, there is no way in hell that he would sign up the Tory Party to be a member of a group within the European ‘parliament’ who had a charter objective that included “the realisation of a United States of Europe”, right?
Anyone who sees the Tory Party the solution to Labour marching Britain into a bureaucratised regulatory pan-European dystopia is deluding themselves. There is opposition to the EU within the Tory Party but they are not the people in charge, and the LibDems are even worse than Labour.
But of course the Tory Party can talk a fine Euro-sceptic game when it suits them, but then they can also talk a fine ‘we are the party of low taxation’ game when it suits them. It is a delight to hear someone making the moral case against high taxation.
Except of course, ‘white man speak with forked tongue’…he does not actually mean it. The Tories talk about the importance of civil society and yet you will look in vain for a list of state functions that the Tory party intends to amputate to actually stop the regulatory gangrene killing off civil society.
Don’t support the Tory Party… you will only be encouraging more of the same. And of course if you like the state of civil liberties under ‘Big Blunkett’, you will just love them under Michael ‘a touch of the night’ Howard.
Until there is a meaningful choice, do not vote for anyone or you will be deluding yourself that you are making any significant difference.
Perry, I know it’s an old argument, but not voting allows the more aggressive people on a mission, who do vote, to get their party into power. Given that the UK is going to be governed by someone, I’d prefer to see it be the Tories, and lobby them from within. They are more open to reason, if only out of self-interest, than socialist/Trotsky missionaries. The thought of Blair having four more years to careen frenziedly around a la Jack Nicholson destroying civil liberties, the economy and our constitution with a fire axe is just too depressing to contemplate.
And that differs from Michael Howard in what way?
Perry has a valid point, the the realistic choices just do not seem to exist. I wrote to my Tory MEP yesterday and posted the letter on the linked blog Teetering Tories I pointed out that the Tories will now apparently fight the Euro elections in June under a manifesto separating Britain from Nato and other supposedly very non-Conservative commitments. I will also post his reply there when it is received.
The graphics at the bottom of your post – and your post on Mugabe – suggest that the Armalite has finally succeded the ballot box (and civil protest/disobedience) in your philosophy, Perry. Shame, because I had entertained hopes that you and the IRA differed in more ways than that they were more peaceful and reasonable than you.
Sure, Mugabe is a thug and if he were dead, Zimbabwe would be marginally better off. However, your very post suggests that there are plenty of like-minded thugs to take over from him. Deposing them by a “white facist colonialist”-sponsored force (as many in that country would see it) is just a recipe for more thuggery and probably civil war. Let his regime implode under the weight of it’s own corruption and incompetence, and let the people of Zimbabwe chose a successor regime freely – not have one imposed upon them by your rebels, newly equipped with your shiny assault rifles and might-is-right philosophy…
The Mugabe regime (and many others) have shown that in a tribal society, the ballot box is no safe route to liberty and is usually just reliable path to a tyranny of one tribe over another… and civil protest/disobedience just gets you beaten up, raped or killed if the state feels unconstrained by norms of civil behaviour, such as is the case in Zimbabwe. Such things only work after the state has become too weak to resist. Ask the civil protesters in Tiananmen Square if you doubt that.
And do tell me, how is giving 6000 black people (many who were former ‘land invaders’ themselves before they saw the economic madness of a begger-thy-neighbour policy), i.e. arming the victims of repression, somehow a white fascist colonialist plot? Sure, what follows may not be a paragon of human rights respecting virtues if African history is anything to go by, but given the violence used every day by the Mugabe regime, overthrowing them could hardly be a step in the wrong direction.
But if you think any form of using force against people whom use force to repress other make you less reasonable than the tribal marxists of the IRA, well, all those years of reading the moral relativist dreck in the Guardian really have done something to you. If just waiting until Mugabe dies of old age or syphilis is your idea of ‘reasonable’, then I am glad I am not reasonable.
there is a simple soolution to this problem – vote for the UK Independence Party!
there is a simple solution to this problem – vote for the UK Independence Party!
john you dick, its not an armalite, it is an ak-74. and your post is pure guardian grimace while other peoples worlds turn to shit. thanks for giving us an example
jas atwal has to visit UKIP Uncovered to discover just how that party seems to be entering the final stages of self-destruction!
Why not vote for the real thing, which appears to mean the BNP!
I’m inclined to agree with Verity. One question that I think should be asked; how hard would it be for a reasonably dedicated clique to take over the operations of a local chapter? Do that on a large enough scale across Britain and it might not be that hard to push the Conservative Party in the direction you wish them to go.
I understand that the Tory party has put up one hell of fight in favor of the continuation of fox hunting. SO your critique may be a little harsh.
An interesting parallel to America where the Republican party has spent the last 5 years trying to prove that the Democrats are the party of BAD Big government but they are the party of GOOD Big Government. The legacy of Goldwater and Reagan is dead. If we didn’t live in a dangerous world with which John Kerry has absolutely no clue how to deal with, I would cast a protest vote, or no vote at all. Unfortunately I will probably hold my nose and hope.
I understand that the Tory party has put up one hell of fight in favor of the continuation of fox hunting.
No. That was a free vote, not a party issue. There were prominent Tory and Labour members on both sides.