Monday, July 23, 2007

This is what we believe

In his book, Thatcher's People: An Insider's Account of the Politics, the Power, and the Personalities, published in 1991, John Ranelagh wrote ...

Another colleague had also prepared a paper arguing that the middle way was the pragmatic path for the Conservative party to take .. Before he had finished speaking to his paper, the new Party Leader [Margaret Thatcher] reached into her briefcase and took out a book. It was Friedrich von Hayek's The Constitution of Liberty. Interrupting [the speaker], she held the book up for all of us to see. 'This', she said sternly, 'is what we believe', and banged Hayek down on the table.

Someone should bang the same book down on David Cameron's head.

Hard.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stan

Panorama, BBC1, 8.30 tonight. Slough features.

http://tinyurl.com/yrdmde

Stan said...

I thought it might in a programme about immigration.

It will be interesting to see how they paint the picture - and what sort of spin they put on it.

Anecdotally, I've heard more than one Asian shopkeeper complain about the "bloody immigrants" coming to Slough and taking "our jobs". I wonder if any of those will get featured?!

Anonymous said...

You'll note that the al Beeb only gets involved on our side of the immigration debate when it can give a kicking to white people.

The main thrust of the program is, I believe, about Slough. However, I get the impression they're not taking a dig at the mass immigration itself, so much as at the government over its funding formulae for councils and methods of measurement for immigrant levels.

I'll have to catch it on al Beeb's website tomorrow as I don't have a television.

I too find it a bit rich to hear a muzbot complain about "bloody immigrants". When I was married, my father-in-law was an immigrant (as was my wife - she was a child when they arrived) and he reckoned the country was going to the dogs because it was letting in too many immigrants. He reserved particular venom for Pakistanis. Culturally he was as British as they come, even if it was a 1930s-40s style cultural British (he had been a major in the British Indian Army, when that animal existed). All four of his daughters married native Brits - two servicemen, a policeman and one civilian. One of his sons and one of his daughters served in the Forces.

Those are the sort of immigrants you can appreciate aren't they.

Henry North London 2.0 said...

Once we've settled here we're not "immigrants" anymore. We're British and we have the same feelings. Dont ever forget that. The son of an immigrant who was born in the British Empire is the same as any other Englishman if he is born here.

Anonymous said...

That'll include my daughter too, I take it? Henry?

And I'm not English.

:)