Posted on 05/06/2005 10:01:33 AM PDT by quidnunc
Politics is all local, especially at election time. But the "Little Britain" manner in which Tony Blair's enemies have exploited Iraq before today's election is a real disgrace.
In their extreme zeal to try and prove that "Blair lied," his critics amongst the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats — and all the left-of-center, fashionable bien-pensant writers, actors and intellectuals of London — resolutely turn their face against the realities of Iraq and of the Middle East itself. Listening to the tone of the debate, you would think that there were no Iraqis out there and that "Iraq" was merely a code word for some appalling new kind of politically incorrect abuse. You would think that George Bush and Mr. Blair invented the threat from Saddam.
-snip-
Anyone who pretends — as many of Mr. Blair's opponents do — that Saddam could have been controlled by the principled resilience of the Security Council in 2003, is deliberately ignoring history. Moreover, the sanctions which contained Saddam — and indeed, also profited him — had devastated Iraq's people. Opponents of Western policy toward Iraq used to emphasize that before March 2003. Now they never mention it.
-snip-
I can think of many, many reasons to vote against Mr. Blair's New Labour party today. But it is really depressing that his role in liberating Iraq (and previously Sierra Leone, Kosovo and Afghanistan) is just the subject of vulgar abuse by Little Englanders. To them anti-Americanism is far more important than solidarity with Iraqis trying to build a new society.
-snip-
This extraordinary general election has resulted in the extraordinary self-cancelling outcome of not one lame duck leader but two.
The Prime Ministerial victor is mortally damaged by the personal vote of no confidence expressed by the savage reduction in his majority. He is now in hock to both his head-banging left who will prevent him from getting his pet projects through Parliament, and to Gordon Brown, to whom he will almost certainly yield the premiership much sooner than 'at the end of a full term', whatever that ever meant, and you may rest assured that he will be mercilessly harried by the media every day until he does.
Michael Howard, meanwhile, has defied entreaties and advice to stay on as party leader in order to avoid precisely what will almost certainly now happen as a result of his decision to quit: a return of the fratricidal — and possibly this time, terminal — strife between the fatuously drawn opposing camps of 'traditionalists'and 'modernisers', aka tax-cutters v big spenders, or 'phobes' v fantasists.
Reality check: the only reason Howard was elected leader in the first place was because there was absolutely no-one else who was remotely competent to take on the poisoned chalice, a fact which is no less true today even if the chalice is thought to be finally being detoxified (second big mistake — it's not. The Tories' strong showing was caused in large measure by negative voting against Blair, not support for their, ahem, 'vision' of the future of Britain, for which we are all still eagerly awaiting the first sighting). The new young bloods are just that, brand new and so wet behind the ears that the electorate they are now to be expected to form in order to produce yet another party leader will resemble nothing so much as a school assembly, of which the much-touted older young bloods of David Cameron and George Osborne are merely head prefects.
The Tories' problem could not be more fundamental. It is not that they have the wrong leader. It is that they do not know any longer what conservatism is or what their party is for, except gaining power. That is because they have conspicuously failed to understand what has happened to Britain and the west since the fall of the Berlin Wall. They have not grasped that this is a culture hell-bent on committing social suicide and that it is their historic mission to defend and save it by articulating what it should look like instead. Instead, some of them are queueng up to help shove it off the edge of the cliff themselves.
Mr Blair — poor Mr Blair — thinks he knows what he wants power for, but in the end all it boils down to is to transform society and create utopia on earth simply by being Not The Evil Conservatve Party and therefore the Moral High Ground Which Spreads Harmony Where There Was Dissent Which Will No Longer Be Brooked; and try as he may to seize every available lever of power himself and create more and more enforcers to bypass the Whitehall machine and enforcers to whip the enforcers into line (hello Mr Blunkett), he finds to his utter bewilderment and dismay that everything still goes pear-shaped and people hate him more than ever.
As for the LibDems, what can one say except that they and Brian Sedgemore deserve each other, and the fact that people voted for them in such great numbers merely demonstrates the extent to which this country may already have reached the point of no return in the infantilism stakes. I'm afraid there's a long way down still to go before this society starts to go up again; and maybe we never will.
(Melanie Phillips in 'Melanie Phillips Diary', May 6, 2005)
To Read This Article Click Here
We still tend to view the Brits through the lens of World War II and The Blitz.
But the doughty, phlegmatic Brits of the stiff upper lip evidently are a dinmg breed.
As Wesley Prudin writes in today's Washington Times:
The British — weary of war, tired of resolve and independence, and frustrated by continued rationing of everything — threw Churchill out of office months later in an act of colossal ingratitude that is still difficult to understand from this side of the Atlantic (and a puzzle still to many of his countrymen). But there was no flinching while the bombs and bullets were falling and flying.A majority of our British cousins are weary of the war against them today, but the difference is that they have been reluctant and grudging in defense of their security from the beginning. Like a lot of people here, they prefer to deal with the threats to their safety by insisting that "it ain't so," like children pulling the covers over their heads to shut out the bogeyman.
We Americans need to be clear-eyed in our relations with foreigners.
The appeasers have such great p.r. machines around the world. All Blair would have to do to shut them up is ask, if Saddam was such a peace loving fellow, as a sign of good faith, why didn't he hand over Al-Zarqawi and the dozens of other Al-Qaeda operatives in his country before the war? Why did he give Al-qaeda safe harbor? Why did he train them on the use of chemicql weapons at Salamn Pak? Why according to Russia's Putin, was Saddam planning future attacks against America? British intel confirmed that Saddam was attempting to purchse uranium from Niger and we found enriched uranium in Iraq. Based on the U.N. oil for food fiasco and Saddam's lust to buy off sanctions, today a sworn enemy of freedom would have a nuke.
If the good guys woulkd start engaging the public with the facts their elections wouldn't be so close.
But they didn't just profit Saddamn, did they? Which explains a lot.
Because, according to the liberals, all of that never happened. They continue to screech "where are the WMDs?" at the top of their voices to drown out the truth of what's going on. Just like the peace-nuts of the 60s and 70s, if they got the form of government they keeping hoping we would have, THEY themselves would be the very first thing THAT new government would wipe out. They're the whiners and complainers of society.
My eyes were opened when I was in Britain on business last year. Their attitude toward Americans was beneath contempt. It's as if they know deep down that they have sold their birthright as being on the vanguard of Western Civilization to try to get the continental Europeans to like and accept them. Instead, the French and Germans still look down on them.
In their anger, they lash out at us, because lashing out at the continentals would be both shameful and pointless. To the continentals they pretend camaraderie, with the cooperation of the contintentals, as long as they walk two steps behind the French of course. To us they are intentionally rude, superior, accusatory, and shrill.
At one time, I intended to take a trip through Britain as a vacation. No more.
Well, the state of Maine is indeed a perfect example of socialist utopia. The socialists have all the power and they keep screwing everything up.
I'm sorry that you met some rude and unpleasant British people, but we aren't all like that.
It's as if they know deep down that they have sold their birthright as being on the vanguard of Western Civilization to try to get the continental Europeans to like and accept them. Instead, the French and Germans still look down on them. In their anger, they lash out at us, because lashing out at the continentals would be both shameful and pointless. To the continentals they pretend camaraderie, with the cooperation of the contintentals, as long as they walk two steps behind the French of course. To us they are intentionally rude, superior, accusatory, and shrill.
They sound like Labour or Liberal Democrat voters to me, since no British Conservative cares whether or not the continental Europeans like us!
By the way, I should tell you that the person who posted this thread has a long history of Brit bashing and posting untrue and misleading articles about the UK in order to cause friction between British and US freepers. He has also confessed to another British freeper that he does this to get revenge on British people in general for a disagreement he had with some Brits on another forum.
At one time, I intended to take a trip through Britain as a vacation. No more.
Now I don't know where in Britain you went, but I can assure you that the attitudes of Britons towards Americans varies from place to place. For example, if you were to visit York (Northern England), where I live, you would find that the vast majority of people are friendly and pleasant to Americans. US visitors often tell me how much they enjoyed visiting this city, and the beer is good too!
All the best,
How would the reception be in London, or the Isle of Man? We're planning to visit some day, as somewhat of a personal thank you to your nation.
That's a shame. I've noticed great posts of his many times here on FR. His is one of the FReeper names I always recognize. I hadn't noticed any anti-Brit sentiment though. Too bad.
On many trips to Britain I've occasionally encountered rudeness to Americans. In my experience they are the same angry leftist boors who act the same way about President Bush and conservatives in America. The thing to do about them is ignore the poor benighted souls, certainly not to let them ruin a day or a trip.
How would the reception be in London, or the Isle of Man? We're planning to visit some day, as somewhat of a personal thank you to your nation.
I think that the residents of the Isle of Man would be friendly to American visitors, but I can't really advise you about the best parts of London to visit, as I haven't been there in the last 18 years. However, Ivan lives down in London and so if he is not too busy at the moment, (he has been getting a lot of replies recently - like 500 today already), then he may be able to tell you if there are any areas of London - or specific places in London - which visiting Americans should avoid.
If you were to visit York or Newcastle upon Tyne then I'm confident that you would be well received as I have spent 11 years in those two cities. (Although, be careful walking around the city centre after 8PM on Friday and Saturday nights, since there are always a lot of drunk and rowdy people on the streets during those periods).
Yes, just ignore the leftists, don't get into an argument with them because they will probably burst a blood vessel or something. But above all, please remember that the prejudices of a few miserable leftist bigots are not representative of the British people's views.
I'll just confess I'm an Anglophile.
Largely due to his party's refusal to do anything about the IMMIGRATION problems in Britain! Local papers please copy...!
The socialists have all the power and they keep screwing everything up.
Well that certainly shocking. But then I am so easily shocked
<< quidnunc
My eyes were opened when I was in Britain on business last year. Their attitude toward Americans was beneath contempt. It's as if they know deep down that they have sold their birthright as being on the vanguard of Western Civilization to try to get the continental Europeans to like and accept them. Instead, the French and Germans still look down on them.
In their anger, they lash out at us, because lashing out at the continentals would be both shameful and pointless. To the continentals they pretend camaraderie, with the cooperation of the contintentals, as long as they walk two steps behind the French of course. To us they are intentionally rude, superior, accusatory, and shrill. >>
My very regular experience also. In Britain, which I visit often -- my son lives there -- and especially in in the very many foreign countries in which I continuously travel and among the very many Brits [And every other kind of Euro-peon] I constantly associate with.
I was born a "British Subject," was what they call "Public School" educated -- and when I talk, sound a bit like a cross between John Cleese and Edward Fox and so am never taken for an American by any once-great-British stranger -- and always get the full-on boorish british bastardry before any of them wakes up to my even being an American -- let alone of that most passionate variety -- a convert!
And, in fairness, of course there is a percentage -- although small and getting smaller by the minute -- of Brits who love Americans and everything American -- but the vast majority of them are at best condescending toward US and supercilliously sanctimonious in their imagined superiority which, to a girlyman, including here on FR, they demonstrate in the most inferior manner imaginable!
That's because there wasn't any.
Brian, you're wasting your time telling lies like that to defend quidnunc. Just take a look at what he said to Slipperduke on quidnunc's: "Whites 'Leaving Cities as Migrants Move In' (British white flight)" thread, Post 57:
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To: Slipperduke
Slipperduke wrote: What you have to remember is that we wouldn't sit here and chat away with Americans if we didn't actually like them. We just don't like having our country rubbed in the dirt by a few ill-informed posters.
So now you know how it feels, eh mate?
I know from experience that any American participating on any British forum — liveral or conservative — sooner or later gets a liberal ration of trash talk about our president, our country, our culture and pretrtyt much all things American in general.
I for one am tired of it and I's going to start shoveling one of the bullshit I've taken from n Brits back in your direction.
So my advice to you is quit your whinging and get used to it.
57 posted on 02/10/2005 12:55:27 PM PST by quidnunc (Omnis Gaul delenda est)
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It certainly sounds like quidnunc had the intent to cause flame wars and mutual hatred between British and US posters. Let's also bear in mind that quidnunc had not previously been disrespected by any British posters on FR, in fact he confesses that he carried his vendetta against British people over from another forum! (Another British freeper did some research into this and actually found the forum upon which quidnunc had his falling out with some British posters, perhaps Slipperduke, pau1f0rd, Glyndwr4Cymru or MadIvan remembers the details of that).
I did reply to the post above to try to reason with him, however, he resorted to abuse and his reply (post #80) was deleted, so you can't read it anymore.
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