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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Samizdata quote of the day – Does Rory Stewart want you to be ignorant? If we had fewer false assumptions, because we were able to connect discrete pieces of information up with their intellectual hinterlands and explain to ourselves coherently why they are likely to be true, the world would become much less “interesting “in this sense — you can’t be surprised by what you already know — but it would become more fascinating in quite another.
But perhaps a would-be technocrat like [Rory] Stewart doesn’t want you to do too much of that sort of thing — you might end up seeing through the soundbites. For all that he frequently says he wants a more intelligent kind of government, in practice he often seems uneasy with treating audiences as intellectual equals.
– Kathleen Stock
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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He also has a face like a witch-doctor’s rattle. Ok, I know it’s mean, but he’s always struck me as odd. Yet he seems to be loved by the “centrist Dad” types.
Vaguely interested Californian across the pond here. I just finished listening to the TRIGGERnometry podcast featuring him. Now I had no idea who this bloke (token UK English there) was, his position, history, etc. I listened during my commute and his slow cadence, managerial proclamations, and similar generated a terseness I have not heard from Konstantin Kisin in a long while. Konstantin saves his passion for his monologues. I could sense that the interviewers were trying to pin this Slick Willie (California argot there) and getting frustrated with him. Rory Stewart had vague criticisms and no ideas of substance or action.
One of his ideas: “Reform the NHS”? What does that actually MEAN in practice? 40% of the UK budget goes to it; how do you “reform” it? Rory did talk about creating more home grown medical personnel, “but it takes 20 years”. Typical of a manager who is loathe to spend anything on training or career development for their employees. To people like him you and I are a widget, either functional for the task (hired at lowest possible wage/salary) or not (not hired). What utter weak and feeble character and intellect for a politician. It was weak and feeble for a bureaucrat and manager! At least those people are driven mostly by CYA and “Policy, Procedure, and my Paycheck”. I’m sure his “reform” for the NHS would be “it would work if we had less sick people”, the inevitable accountant’s decision that leads into rationing, euthanasia, and a tier-based access to services.
I didn’t even KNOW of this guy until this morning, and already I am on the road to despising him.
I have searched in vain for how many listeners or downloads “the rest is politics” actually achieves.
I wonder if it is the high brow equivalent of z-list celebs famous for appearing on some excruciating reality show and then, to their credit at least, forging a profitable media career on that flimsy basis. Is it a case of the soft centre-leftist bubble reassuring itself that the thoughts of messrs Campbell and Stewart are reaching and resonating with a wide audience when in truth they fall a country mile short of that level.
“But darling, everyone I know listens and absolutely loves it. They make so much sense”.
The villagers that gave Mr Stewart hospitality probably had (not had not) heard of Alexander the Great – he is a well known figure in the Middle East, with many stories told of him as far away as Afghanistan and India.
Yet Mr Stewart assumes that the people who gave him hospitality had never heard of Alexander the Great – but he grants that they are “human”, well that is good of him (sarcasm alert). However, I have not read his book – so perhaps he really did encounter some people who had not heard of Alexander the Great.
Mr Stewart also just assumes that John Rawls (the “Christian Socialist” and Harvard Philosopher) was correct in thinking that justice was about “how we distribute fairly in society”.
Justice has got nothing to do with that – justice is to each their own, it is not about some “distribution” (“fair” or otherwise). As Michael Oakeshott pointed out – to “distribute” implies that someone else (the person or persons doing the “distributing”) is the rightful owner of your stuff – or as Tolkien put it in the Lord of the Rings “they took our stuff for fair distribution – which meant that they got it and we did not”.
Mr Stewart regards himself as superior to other people – when he is really deeply ignorant, ignorant about basic matters of public importance (such as what justice is), this makes him unfit to hold public office.
Yet Central Office trotted him out as Conservative Member of Parliament – on the “Candidates List”, if there is any good reason for such a list (full disclosure I have always been against it) it should be to prevent people such as Mr Stewart, who are ignorant of basic political concepts, becoming candidates.
As for his friendship with (the despicable) Alastair Campbell – well no surprise there.
Meanwhile, Steve Baker has backed Tom Tugendhat for the next leader of the “Conservative” party.
Thoughts?
Simon
“Damien Green and Steve Baker back Tugendhat etc etc”
To quote a commentator on Guido, that’s a daisy chain wetter than an otters pocket.
To think that Steve Baker was once one of the good guys. For shame Sir, has your recent defenestration by the voters of Wycombe taught you nothing?
SJ: My immediate thought was.to be wrenched back to a memory from fifty years ago. I was in my final year of primary school and the newspaper of one of the teachers had photographs of the potential next Conservative Party leader of the front page. There, nestled beneath Whitelaw, Thatcher (and alongside, remember him, John Peyton), was Jim Prior with 19 pledges.
Simon and John.
It is astonishing – even to someone as cynical as me.
The worst election defeat in 200 years – a defeat caused by BROKEN PROMISES on ending mass immigration, controlling government spending, reducing taxation, getting rid of Red Tape and Quangos (elected people should make decisions – NOT unelected officials), and ending “Woke” censorship and persecution. And yet Steve Baker still does not understand.
Damian Green represents the policy of breaking all those key promises – he was the leader of the “One Nation” group, to be a member of that group you have to sign up to be a “Global Citizen” – and Mr Green was the leader of that group.
Millions of people either voted Reform or stayed at home in disgust – and associating with Mr Green, spits on those people.
Steve Baker is a fellow libertarian, and a morally good man (he spent most of his time as a Member of Parliament on “Case Work” trying to help ordinary people – one might question that priority, but certainly his intentions were morally good) – I do not understand why he does not understand, even after (again) the worst election defeat in 200 years.
A political party, according to Edmund Burke (and he was correct) should be a group of people united by common principles – not a “broad coalition” out for personal gain, the pay and perks of office.
The irony of the “let us do anything to win the election, even ally with Damian Green and the One Nation Group” position is that this is precisely the way one LOOSES an election – yet again this was the worst election defeat in 200 years.
It is corrupt to ally with people whose aim is a bigger and more interventionist government – and it is also stupid, because it does not lead to victory, it has led to terrible defeat.
No amount of waffle about “freedom under the law” (and other platitudes – for platitudes they have become ever since Sir William Blackstone declared that “the law” is whatever insane whim Parliament rubber stamps) can cover up basic promises that were broken – ending mass immigration, reducing wild government spending, getting rid of the endless regulations and the Quangos, and ending “Woke” censorship and persecution.
Jim Prior – yes I remember him.
Jim Prior was the Employment Secretary who did NOTHING to repeal the laws that had given unions massive power – and (as W.H. Hutt predicted in “The Strike Threat System”) created MASS UNEMPLOYMENT.
Mr Prior claimed to care about the unemployed – but did nothing to roll back the union power (the Collective Bargaining- created by a series of terrible Acts of Parliament which he did not repeal) that had created the Mass Unemployment.
I am equally baffled by Steve Baker circa 2024, he does not seem to be the same Steve Baker circa 2016 🙁
Perry – I tried to communicate with the Gentleman a couple of years ago about BLM, pointing out they were a Marxist organisation and that their campaign (about the late Mr Floyd and other cases) was a pack of lies – but he did not understand what I was saying.
I have also tried to communicate with the Gentleman about the election – with much the same words that I have used above, and I know he has read what I have written, because he sometimes replies to my communications on Social Media – but he still seems to NOT understand the basic facts that have tried to present to him.
Perhaps the fault is mine – perhaps someone else could explain these matters to the Gentleman better than I have.
There was also his campaign against Alexander Boris Johnson.
Prime Minister Johnson did many bad things, he gave in on HS2, he gave in on Northern Ireland, he let down the fishermen, he gave in on the (utterly insane) lockdowns (although the opposition wanted even more insane lockdowns), he went along with the Covid “vaccines” (although back when Mr Johnson was Prime Minister it was not so clear that these injections were dangerous as it now is) – and-so-on.
But Mr Baker’s campaign against Prime Minister Johnson was about NONE of these things – the campaign against Prime Minister Johnson was about Mr Johnson socialising with people he had been at work with all day – as if Covid did not come out during work hours, and only came out after work.
Mr Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer did exactly-the-same-thing – they also socialised after work with people they had been working with all day.
But Mr Baker did not demand that Mr Sunak or Sir Keir Starmer resign – only Mr Johnson.
As for lying to the House of Commons – Prime Minister Sunak said, in the House of Commons (only a few months ago) “I can categorically state that the Covid vaccines are safe”.
Prime Minister Sunak lied, in the House of Commons, about a matter of life and death – and these injections are still being pushed.
And Mr Baker said nothing – nothing at all.
Prime Minister Sunak lied, in the House of Commons, about a matter of life and death – and these injections are still being pushed.
And Mr Baker said nothing – nothing at all.
And you, Paul, still voted for Mr Sunak’s party.
John – I voted for Philip Hollobone.
There is nothing wrong with Britain that Rosie Writing, the new Labour M.P. for Kettering, is going to fix – Labour is just going to make things worse, much worse, they AGREE with the officials – they share all the same collectivist doctrines.
As for healing the split “on the right” (for want of a better term) – that is what I hoped that people such as Steve Baker would help do.
But instead of reaching out to pro liberty voters (the millions of people who voted Reform, or stayed home, or “held their noses and voted Conservative”) – Mr Baker decided to reach out to Damian Green.
That was such a wrong headed response to the worst election defeat in 200 years that it is hard to know where to start.
“But what will you do personally Paul?”.
It does not really matter what I do – I am local councillor, not a Member of Parliament, and I am as poor as a church mouse (so I may well have to self terminate – no great loss as I certainly do not enjoy life, I have no real function, no purpose).
But what the remaining real Conservative M.P.s do is important, what do people such as Suella Braverman do?
What do they do? Would joining Reform achieve anything? Would staying in the party of “Central Office” achieve anything?
Perhaps no course of action will achieve anything – perhaps it is all too late, years too late.
We have free will, moral agency, we can (with real effort) make real choices – but, perhaps, whatever we choose to do is, at this point, doomed to destruction, perhaps there is no hope – regardless of what we choose to do.
I do not know.
The likes of Steve Baker prove that even the ‘good’ Tories will betray you. When I hear him in recent interviews he comes across as having a strange mix of arrogance while also being somewhat of a broken man.
Martin – “broken man” – that has got me thinking.
If Mr Baker believes as I do that the Credit Money economy is going to collapse, that there is going to be terrible (truly terrible) poverty and suffering, that would be enough to “break” the spirit of most people.
A terrible thing is going to happen, and there is nothing (nothing) you can do to stop it happening – vast suffering.
“I must make alliances with all sides of the political divide – I must keep on civil terms with Mr Green and with Labour and with….” in order to prevent the economic collapse turning into Civil War or terrible tyranny.
Although we have never met face-to-face (although we did once see each other via computer – although Mr Baker may forgotten that) – I think, on reflection, that I can understand where Mr Baker is “coming from”.
I do NOT agree with his policy of making alliances with Mr Green and co – but I can understand why he feels he needs to do these things.
Even to stay silent when Mr Sunak said what he said in the House of Commons.
“The dead are dead, the injured are injured – there is nothing I can do for them now, I must hold things together in order to try and mitigate The Collapse (TM) and prevent even WORSE suffering”.
That may be the thinking.
By the way….. quite a few ordinary people are preparing for The Collapse (TM) – even some of my own neighbours and near neighbours and NO it is not because of me ranting at them, they came to these conclusions quite independently of me.
Many people know there is something wrong, horribly wrong, and that the present system is going to collapse in crises – and they are doing what they can to reduce the potential suffering of their families.
For example, growing food in their gardens – and keeping chickens. And relearning old skills – with the help of others.
I would guess it is much the same in other countries – such as the United States, many people know (know “in their gut”) that the present system is insane and can not last, and they are doing what they can to prepare for its collapse.