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More, that is, of high-handed Tory paternalism on display here in the Telegraph. The Tories are not a part of the solution, they are a part of the problem. Oh and by the by, would anyone like to bet that, in the event that the Tories got into power again, their Eurosceptic position would be jettisoned as well? January 7th, 2002 | Comments are closed
 The following is the text of a letter sent to the London Daily Telegraph and published on 5th January 2002
It appears that some people (albeit a few) are starting to get it January 7th, 2002 | Comments are closed
Of all the many consequences of the 9/11 atrocities, I have noticed one that has hitherto gone unheralded and probably unnoticed. Amidst the long periods I have spent reading and scrutinizing the many voices of America that are broadcast over the internet, I have noticed with mounting bemusement a highly prevalent use of the term ‘Britney’ At first, I must confess that I was at a loss to grasp the meaning or significance of this term but, upon examining the context in which it is most frequently used its true meaning soon made istelf abundantly clear; the term ‘Britney’ is, of course, one of affection and endearment for us, the British How could it be anything but, when used with such visceral relish by so many of our American cousins when they say things like: Oh man, I really wanna rock with Britney Or Me and Britney gonna paaarteeeeee Or Wow, I dreamt about Britney last night and woke up with, like, a major woody Hot salty tears of pride and gratitude roll down my cheeks as realise that our ‘special relationship’ has not only been undiminshed by time and circumstance but rather has deepened and solidified. How my heart swells with pride when I think of all those Americans in bars from Boston to Philadelphia and Chicago raising a glass of Pabst Blue Riband to toast the memory of Winston Churchill, a truly great Britney This is nothing short of an inestimable gift, for, while the French are Frogs, the Germans are Krauts, the Canadians are Kanuks and the Russians are still Commies, we British are ‘Britneys’; the donees of a idiomatic expression that carries within its pithy cadence all those qualities that Americans have come to expect from us; steadfast and redoubtable, yet chirpy and easy-going I exhort all my fellow countrymen and women to embrace and celebrate this term and make it our own and I urge our American allies to go forward and conquer their enemies for us ‘Britneys’ are with you January 7th, 2002 | Comments are closed
James Lileks goes some creditable way to restoring my faith in journalism with this cracking piece January 6th, 2002 | Comments are closed
Well, well, well! It appears that all is not quite so rosy in the Garden of EUden after all. Seems that an attack of healthy self-preservation has broken out in Italy Strangely enough though, the situation there appears to be the converse of the situation in the UK. In Italy support for the EU among the grassroots is high and it is the political elite that are growing uneasy. Still, let’s keep our eyes and ears open on this one, people. It could get interesting January 6th, 2002 | Comments are closed
I spent yesterday evening watching a recording of an excellent two-part four-hour TV dramatisation of the exploits of Sir Ernest Shackleton. As World War I was about to tear Europe apart, Shackleton raised the money to lead an expedition to the South Pole. He never reached it. He and his 28 men, by rights, should’ve died from the intolerable cold, exhaustion, hunger, frostbite, gangrene and madness. But they didn’t. Not a single man jack of them died because Shackleton, by dint of his sheer indomitable courage, ingenuity, determination and sheer force of will managed to bring them home to Britain where Shackleton himself was hailed as a national hero God, it was all so British and stirring, damn you!! Well, I say, ‘British’ but that was back when Britain was full to the gunnels with square jaws, stiff upper lips, steely eyes, straight backs, iron resolve and not even the women were in touch with their feminine side. Mountains were there to be climbed, oceans were there to be plumbed and there was not a single square inch of this wild and windswept planet that could not be trampled all over and conquered by stout, horny British feet Would Sir Ernest still be a national hero if he’d lived today? No, I rather think not. I rather think he’d be denounced as irresponsible and an environmental vandal. He’d be reviled in the media as a danger to health and safety, for setting a bad example for our children and for failing to provide diversity training. He’d be sued by his crew for emotional trauma and be forced into bankruptcy as a result. He would lose his home, his wife would dessert him and his kids would be taken into care. On top of that he would be ruthlessly persecuted by the government who would pass laws (retrospectively) to enable them to throw him into prison and ban any further expeditions to anywhere more risky than Hyde Park God, it’s all so British and depressing, isn’t it January 6th, 2002 | Comments are closed
So the Euro is born. Did I say ‘born’? Birth is a natural process. I meant ‘incepted’. From rag-tag bits of body politic it has been sewn together, laid on a slab, given a jolt of electricity and made to walk. Doubtless we shall all watch in fixed horror as it lurches through the verdant European mainland strangling small, helpless economies. I hope they don’t accuse us of not warning them The economic arguments against the Euro have been made both here and other places with accuracy and reason and, whilst not wishing to marginalise any of them, it is worth bearing at the forefront of our minds that there is a deeper and even more sinister threat posed to this country by the European Empire than inflexible interest rates. Liberty is not just about money Full absorption into Euroland means not just the surrender of our currency but also the extinction of our Ango-Saxon Common Law heritage. A system where the laws were passed up not handed down; where liberty was assumed, not requested, where the citizens informed the state not the other way around and the King himself was bound by them. It is not merely through the production of a few well-rigged sailing ships that this under-populated and otherwise insignificant little island became the richest country in Europe, opened up vast tracts of the globe to trade and civilisation, built the biggest empire the world has yet seen and spawned the industrial revolution. It is because of it’s Common Law heritage and organic constitution that allowed it’s citizens the freedom to innovate and the dynamism to practice It is this guttering flame that we libertarians hold in our hands But this will be consigned to the history books (and may not be safe even there) to be replaced by Corpus Juris and the Napoleonic Code; the continental heritage of laws handed down to the people from the princes and potentates; where citizens are granted a mere licence and where the lives and liberty of the common folk are ‘protected’ by a pottage of grandiose-sounding Convention rights, all of which can be countermanded at any time by the stroke of a bureaucrats pen. It is not for nothing that, of all the countries in mainland Europe, it is only Switzerland that has managed to stay the course of the 20th Century without despotic government, invasion or violent revolution The is the precipice on which we teeter. It is winter in Britain and I am not talking about the weather. With our entire political and media class seemingly hell-bent on completing the subsuming of this country into the Euro-Imperium (even the ones who say they are skeptical are probably lying) what can be done to prevent this unique flame of liberty from being extinguished forever on these islands? Across the Atlantic Ocean lies Britain’s birthchild, the fruit of it’s loins and, perhaps, it’s finest monument, the United States of America; a country which owes it’s vast wealth, power and freedom to the those same Common Law Anglo-Saxon values it inherited from it’s parent. Indeed, that America is the now the great repository and shining amplifier of those values is almost certainly why it has earned both the fear and antipathy of the grasping and paranoid European elites In times of peril, a mother cries out for her child and a child clings to her mother. These truths we hold to be self-evident January 4th, 2002 | Comments are closed
“This is the news from the BBC. Today witnesses the launch of the Euro as the official currency of the twelve Eurozone countries. There are reports coming in from all over the Eurozone of joyous celebration and free, happy citizens spontaneously embracing each other in a new spirit of unity and brotherhood. Our leader, Citizen Prodi, has formally announced that the Euro will herald in an everlasting era of unprecendented peace, prosperity and complete fairness for every person. Already, the grain harvesting figures are confidently predicted to reach their highest ever level and tractor production has officially doubled! It is the Great Leap Forward our leaders have promised us. Meanwhile, however, in Britain counter-revolutionaries and extreme right-wingers continue to conspire with American capitalists to keep the Euro from liberating the oppressed British people. That is the end of the news” January 1st, 2002 | Comments are closed
The headline should attract attention if nothing else. After all, who doesn’t want to make money? Still, the internet is nothing if not awash with get-rich-quick scams and I therefore understand your initial skepticism. However, let me assure you that this information is genuine This opportunity comes to us courtesy of the European Empire which, ever mindful of the need to be seen to be doing something, has published a list ‘person and groups considered to be terrorists’. Well, it’s a start I suppose but where do we go from here I wonder? One of the named persons is someone actually called ENEKO GOGEASCOECHEA ARRONATEGUI. Are they serious? How are we supposed to catch him when we can’t even pronounce him??!! The list is also replete with names that all sound like Hamsi Gamsi Up’Ya Bumsi (the EU has confidently identified him as the mastermind behind the Real IRA) and the list of organisations includes the Terrorist Wing of Hamas! Beg pardon, but exactly what other wings do they have? A Catering Wing? (Hummous?) Having published this portentous list and duly finger-wagged about the seriousness of terrorist activities (which they define as including, and I kid you not, ‘compelling the government to do something’) they don’t appear to be doing much else about it. Perhaps they feel they should lead their anti-terrorist crusade by example and feel themselves under no compulsion. But, really, how difficult could it be to get these dudes? After all they got their names and, for a lot of them, identity card numbers. Surely even Inspector Clouseau could wrap this one up? He could start by cross-checking names against welfare cheques. That would probably do the trick But, no. Apparently further proposals are ‘under negotiation’. Don’t expect fireworks. See the boys in Brussels just aren’t cut out for all this terrorist-fighting stuff. It’s not in their nature. If you want 26,000 pages of regulations about the grain of wood to be used in garden furniture than they are the boys you call. For anything marginally more dynamic, contact the FBI or Mossad So, how does all this present a golden earning opportunity? Well, I suggest that you take a large chunk of disposable cash (provided it has not yet been forcibly converted into Euro-roubles) and place a bet that, 12 months from today, Hamsi Gamsi and his chums will be lording it up very publicly in restaurants all over Paris and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad will have established a substantial voting bloc in the European Parliament Failing that, I urge all productive people everywhere to carefully scrutinize the list of terrorist organisations as published and seek to infiltrate them by any and all means available because, in the People’s Republic of Europe, they will be the only places where both freedom and financial security can be guaranteed December 31st, 2001 | Comments are closed
I don’t mind admitting to the whole world (or such proportion of it that reads this blog at any rate) that I love Christmas. And not just any Christmas, mind, but a Traditional English Christmas. The Christmas of a chocolate-box cottages festooned with holly and mistletoe settled in a thick blanket of virgin snow. Inside, the ruddy-faced yeoman of England get ready to carve the succulent goose while their stout jam-making wives bustle in and out of the kitchen with sweet, steaming puddings. Through the window the sight and sound of squealing children building a snowman and playing with their toys (they have to be innocent, wooden toys – tops and hoops and dolls – none of your Nintendo in this folk-fantasy if you don’t mind) and carried on the wind are the melodic harmonies of the Church choir singing carols from vestries unseen After the banquet, the sleep-inducing warmth of the crackling hearth, the brandy and the sherry and the port; the smell of cloves and mulled wine; stories and songs and recitations and in every soul the ghostly tingle of the metaphysical magick of the yuletide This is what Christmas means to me. It is what Christmas will always mean to me. I know it is probably a construct; a quasi-Dickensian fantasy of an England that is no more and, perhaps, never was. But it is a righteous and worthy fantasy all the same; an expression of eternal desire for all the truly important things in life – goodness and bounty and family and home I have no place in my heart for ‘Happy Holidays’ or the ghastly, bureaucratic ‘Winterval’. Christmas is Christmas and for me it will always be that chocolate-box cottage in the snow somewhere in Dickensian England May I take the liberty of wishing a very merry English Christmas upon all my fellow Blogistas December 24th, 2001 | Comments are closed
From the EU Observer Neil Herron and Steve Thoburn, known as the British Metric Martyrs, last night in Brussels received the EV50 award as EU Campaigners of the Year. The prize was given to the Martyrs at a fashionable gala evening in the Palais d’Egmont in the heart of Brussels, hosted by the newspaper the European Voice Next: Mullah Omar receives highest honour from the International League of B’nai Brith December 22nd, 2001 | Comments are closed
Is this the National Review? Free Republic? The Daily Telegraph? The Economist? No, it’s Arab nationalist Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi writing in his book The Nature of Tyranny The year of publication? 1901 Plus ça change…. December 21st, 2001 | Comments are closed
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