Cameron... hammer... nail head

Rod Liddle perfectly sums up the Conservative choice at the next election (emphasis mine):

Of course, we are nearing an election and we can expect a bit of grandstanding. But has there ever been a leader so divorced from even a semblance of principle or ideology? Has a leader ever flip-flopped more cynically? If you vote for Cameron on May 6 will you have the slightest idea of what you are voting for?

The Buttered New Potato* will be no better than Blair or Brown.

* Hat-tip to The New Adventures of Juliette for the Buttered New Potato description.

Brown and Cameron's love child

Following Obo's picking up of the new Crumble phone earlier I followed the link to b3ta and after a few more clicks found this...

As someone noted on the b3ta thread it looks a bit like David Steele.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

BTW - there are some classics on there.

Modern politicians: Defined

From Semper Ratio, we get this:

"The 2008 elections gave liberals the curse of opportunity, and they have used it to reveal themselves ruinously. The protracted health-care debacle has highlighted this fact: Some liberals consider the legislation's unpopularity a reason to redouble their efforts to inflict it on Americans who, such liberals think, are too benighted to understand that their betters know best. The essence of contemporary liberalism is the illiberal conviction that Americans, in their comprehensive incompetence, need minute supervision by government, which liberals believe exists to spare citizens the torture of thinking and choosing."

Substitute 'Britons' for 'Americans' and aside from the misuse of 'liberal' (which I blogged about many moons ago) this is pretty much spot on.

The so-called intellectuals and members of all the major political parties (with a few notable exceptions - Hannan, Carswell) not only think they know better but look down their noses with a thoroughly undeserved moral superiority at those of us who are not part of the clique.

Let's hope there is still something left of this country when they eventually grasp this. I fear not.

Oh to hear this said by a British politician

For those who don't know the gentleman pictured is Scott Brown, the new Senator for Massachusetts in the US.

I've just read the full text of his first speech and several things struck me; the humility, the understanding of who put him in the Senate, their expectations and the sentiment of what he said.

I'll pull just one quote for your consideration, but do go read the whole speech and ask yourself whether you'll hear a British politician say anything remotely as humble and sensible.

I will work in the Senate to put government back on the side of people who create jobs, and the millions of people who need jobs - and as President John F. Kennedy taught us, that starts with an across the board tax cut for individuals and businesses that will create jobs and stimulate the economy. It's that simple!

Congratulations Scott Brown.

H/T to Tim Worstall

Big Brother is watching

Via Guthrum on Old Holborn we find a succinct summary of the Conservative Party criminal justice policies with this little gem.

Allow Police to use surveillance powers in routine cases without need for authorisation

Well I just had to check it out. You can find the Tory's new policy here on their website. View the policy document or download it as an Acrobat file and you'll see find this little gem in section 2.5.

And we will reform the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which regulates police surveillance, so that authorisation is not needed in routine cases.

This beggars belief! Who decides what is a routine case? The police themselves?

The Tories are as intent on creating a police state as the current bunch of incompetents.

Dave should get his agency to redesign the poster - the suggestion below seems to fit the policy:

I'm reminded of Benjamin Franklin's words:

Those who would give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Remember this when you stand in the polling booth and are tempted to tick the box next to the Conservative Party candidate. How much liberty and freedom are you prepared to sacrifice and to whom?

Air brushed Dave

Hat tip to Obo and Trixy. So much fun.

Click the image for the larger version.

Go here to have a play yourself.

From Norm

From Norman Tebbit - a succinct summary of where we need to go (emphasis mine):

There is, however, one other thing that we must consider. That is to be sure that we have in our minds the function of the state as we repair its institutions.

A state must have a territory over which it is sovereign, and a people who owe it allegience. It must have the capacity (and the will) to defend its territorial boundaries and its people from aggressors. It must provide not only external but internal security, allowing its citizens to go about their lawful businees freely, and criminal and civil justice systems as well as a currency and the regulatory and legislative infrastructure needed for agriculture, industry and trade. Nothing else has to be provided only by the state. Health and education provision and physical infrastucture may be provided by or precipitated by the state or others, but they are not core functions of the state.

I will blog more on this later (work beckons) but to my mind, without someone/anyone likely to be elected taking on thinking like this, it is inevitable that there is only one direction in which the country will continue to travel.