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Samizdata quote of the day

The British political firmament as a whole is hardly blessed with a multitude of bold, original thinkers, and such figures certainly aren’t among the fabulous seven, the daring eleven or whatever number of forgettable non-entities currently comprise The Independent Group.

All of which is a great pity. As this blog has noted over and over and over and over and over and over again, Britain has entered a period of political discontinuity – a time when the existing political settlement, with its narrow range of policy options, are no longer adequate to the challenges at hand. Such periods of discontinuity require politicians to think the previously unthinkable in terms of policy solutions, not to flee their former political parties in an outrage that people are actually starting to do so.

Samuel Hooper

4 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • Such periods of discontinuity require politicians to think the previously unthinkable in terms of policy solutions, not to flee their former political parties in an outrage that people are actually starting to do so.

    True in one sense, but since one of the reasons ‘leaders’ dare not think of policies outside the PC guidelines is because those who forbid it will threaten to leave the party if they are ignored, there is perhaps also a slight benefit if they do so anyway.

    The above applies to Tories: the Labour situation is an issue in itself.

  • Philip Scott Thomas

    That reminds me of something Pres Lincoln said to Congress:

    The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise — with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country. (1 Dec 1862)

    Plus ca change, eh what?

  • staghounds

    Knocking out the Overton window got us the Declaration of Independence- and Jews on trains.

    Our Masters- who pretty well represent us, we pick them- are equally terrified of both.

  • Mr Ed

    The splitters remind me of Smart Alecs who’ve lost the debate, and know it, and because they can’t face reality, stick their hands over their ears, repeatedly shouting ‘I can’t hear you!‘ as if that is going to make Marxist thuggery, Anti-Semitism on the one hand and ‘Brexit’ on the other go away, whilst they elide all three in their minds. The Labour Party was always about thuggery, Kipling called an early Labour manifesto ‘Bolshevism without bullets’.

    Now that the BBC have got what they wanted from Soubry and the doctor lady: chances to piss on the Conservative Party (rightly, but for the wrong reasons) from within, and have blown up their egos so far that they have split, they no longer need them, so we shall hear much less of them, and a period of silence on their part is most welcome.