What with the heavy snowfalls this winter in the UK (nice going, Al Gore) and rehearsals, new carpets etc recent blogging from the depths of the Sussex Weald has been a bit like the “Executive/Management/Team Leading” section on President Obama’s CV – about as slim as a burglar’s picklock. But a flurry of tweets about new CNN Larry King replacement Piers Morgan suddenly caught my eye, partly because they included two fellow conspirators from the Palin Underground, Cubachi and ginthegin, and also because Morgan (universally known as “Piers Moron” here in the UK) has always appeared to me to be, in my nuanced opinion, a self publicising, amoral, two faced weasel who is about as trustworthy as a Chicago Democrat operative helping to count the votes in a Nevada senatorial election.

If you want something less nuanced and more robust then read this – it sums up Piers Morgan to a T.

However Piers is like Bill Clinton-you know he’s a weasel but you have to watch him and, despite his champagne socialist lifestyle, as with Bill, you cannot fail to admire the Houdini like skill with which he so often extricates himself from a vast pile of steaming manure and manages to come up smelling of roses.

The key to his survival is an unerring ability to sniff the wind and anticipate the change of direction that vital millisecond before any other player. He also has, as befits a former tabloid editor and a talent show judge in both the UK and US, a healthy suspicion of the academic and media elite which is why I see his remarks about Governor Palin on John King USA as of more significance than just casting his net to get her on his own CNN programme sometime next year.

She’s a mesmerising character on television…she tweets all the time. She is leading from the front…she is using those platforms in a highly effective way. She is driving a movement through the prism of social networking, and recognizing that if she can talk and communicate to people in a simple, effective manner, through these social networking sites, she’s going to get votes

A few months ago he would have parroted the HuffPo/AP/Frum line (we know it off by heart, don’t we?) but he, like a handful of others, has detected a sea change and he wants to get on board. Moreover, despite my previous remark about “trust” I think Morgan would see it as being in his own interest to treat The ‘Cuda with respect – and it might just be worth a gamble for her to offer an interview. His interviewing style is fascinating and always succeeds in making famous people more three dimensional without robbing them of their own self respect.

Morgan and Palin – might just be worth a punt….

Cross posted at Conservatives4Palin

The FIFA fiasco, I hope, will have at least one good outcome – it must provide the final piece of evidence to even the most internationalist of Brits that, as far as elites of the rest of the world is concerned the UK is almost as unpopular as the USA.

The political/media complex, of course (otherwise known as our “ruling class”) has always been in denial about this. Listen to the BBC, read the “quality” dead tree press, listen to most MPs, Government ministers and all civil servants and they act and articulate as if we are beloved on every continent. They do this, of course, because they gush over all other non English speaking countries so much they assume it must be a passion reciprocated.

But it’s not – it is an unrequited love. They hate and despise us and, whenever they have the chance to give us a poke in the eye (UN,EU,FIFA, Eurovision, the Iraq war etc etc) they do it with a gleeful malevolence so openly displayed that only the most obtuse BBC/Guardian hack would fail to detect the stench of withering contempt.

Why do they hate us so much?

Partly, I wager, it is a reaction to the grovelling subservience often displayed by our ruling class when engaged in some form of international negotiation. Other countries are quite happy to make airy promises about future actions in areas such as immigration, environmental legislation, health and safety regulations, military commitments, fiscal discipline etc fully aware that even as the ink dries on the agreement there is no intention of implementation whereas they all know that our zealous, relatively incorruptible will enforce everything in that agreement down to the final dot and comma – and they despise us for it.

But, I suspect, there is also something deeper. Drill down into individual manifestations of hatred and so very often it springs from those most corrosive of human attributes envy and jealousy…

Envy of our thousand year culture of civil law and political continuity

Envy of our long established tradition – from Magna Carta onwards – that even kings are not above the law..indeed in 1649 we cut off one royal head just to reinforce that notion and invited the son to return in 1660 on condition that he remembered to keep within those boundaries

Envy of our golden gift to the world – the English language, so expressive, so adaptable that it has become the globe’s universal language.

Envy of the literary genius that has flowered from the language – Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Dickens and so many other giants of the written word..

Note well, America – it’s not your military and economic power that provokes an even greater wave of hatred, it’s because of your shared collective inheritance of those concepts enumerated above.

We are not perfect and sometimes things have been done in our name that have not been right. But part of our strength is that we have the courage to acknowledge our failings. However willingly grovelling in subservience to a native tyrant, a political or religious creed or remaining quiescent under the heel of an alien invader is not of our nature – unlike most other peoples outside the English speaking world.

So maybe it’s time for us to stop turning the other cheek and trying our best to appease the haters – however much we try to please them they will only despise us more. Let’s play a straight bat, look them in the eye and tell them enough is enough. If you don’t like us we don’t give a damn…

So, Johnny Foreigner, take your bribes and your corruption and your religious/political/tribal fanaticism and put ‘em where the sun doesn’t shine because, believe me, without us, the world would be a poorer place…

In 1975 an official in the US Embassy had the wit to work out that there was something special about the unknown Margaret Thatcher long before she became Prime Minister in 1979.

By the beginning of 1975 there was a degree of unrest in the UK Conservative Party with the leadership of Edward Heath.  The Tories had just lost a General Election but, as usual, very few were willing to stick their necks out and challenge Heath for the position of leader. Margaret Thatcher, however, who had been a minor figure in Heath’s cabinet had no such doubts. She felt that Heath has led the party away from conservative first principles and it was time to redress the balance so she through down the gauntlet and defeated Heath in a leadership ballot.

It was then assumed that one of the big beasts from the higher echelons of the party would  step in to take over the leadership now that Thatcher had done the heavy lifting. But when Heath’s anointed successor, Willie Whitelaw, put in his bid Thatcher refused to give way and she defeated him in a second ballot.

The American government was puzzled by all this. They knew nothing about this woman so the US embassy in London was asked to provide some information. The result was this confidential cable now published in the UK Spectator’s Coffee House Blog.

2. Margaret Thatcher has blazed into national prominence almost literally from out of nowhere. When she first indicated that she intended to stand against Ted Heath for leadership of the Conservative Party, few took her challenge seriously and fewer still believed it would succeed. She had never been a member of the inner circle of Tory power brokers, and no politician in modern times has come to the leadership of either major party with such a narrow range of prior experience. Now suddenly, after what has been described as her “daringly successful commando raid on the heights of the Tory Party,” she has become the focus of unusually intensive media and popular interest.

3. There is a general agreement among friends and critics alike that she is an effective and forceful parliamentary performer. She has a quick, if not profound, mind, and works hard to master the most complicated brief. She fights her corner with skill and toughness, but can be flexible when pressed. In dealing with the media or with subordinates, she tends to be crisp and a trifle patronizing. With colleagues, she is honest and straight-forward, if not excessively considerate of their vanities. Civil servants at the Ministry of Education found her autocratic. She has the courage of her convictions, and once she has reached a decision to act, is unlikely to be deflected by any but the most persuasive arguments. Self-confident and self-disciplined, she gives every promise of being a strong leader.

4. Even before her great leap upward, Mrs. Thatcher had been the personification of a British middle class dream come true. Born the daughter of a grocer, she had by dint of her own abilities and application won through, securing scholarships to good schools, making a success of her chosen career, and marrying advantageously. It is not surprising then that she espouses middle class values of thrift, hard work, and law and order, that she believes in individual choice, maximum freedom for market forces, and minimal power for the state. Hers is the genuine voice of a beleaguered bourgeoisie, anxious about its eroding economic power and determined to arrest society’s seemingly inexorable trend towards collectivism. Somewhat unchivalrously, Denis Healey has dubbed her “La Pasionaria of the middle class privilege.”

Read the rest here – it will certainly provide food for thought for those who are reading comments from pundits pontificating on the 2012 race…

Apologies in advance for this word processed missive but my handwriting, never a thing of beauty at the best of times, has now descended to the level of prescription scribble so, thankfully, with the help of my trusty 17” Inspiron laptop (no wimpish, undersized netbook/Ipad pour moi) I can express my appreciation and heartfelt thanks to all our family and friends who helped me celebrate my rite of passage across  the threshold from the naive and untutored adolescence of 69 into the well rounded intellectual and emotional maturity of 70 – the transformation from soft and shapeless camembert to the sturdy ripe firmness of mellow cheddar.

To say the event was a surprise would really be an understatement. When that door opened I expected to see nothing but a redecorated, refurnished room – certainly not a crowd of well wishers waiting silently for my entrance. But it was good to meet up again with old friends and revisit those mist shrouded islands and atolls of the past and, more importantly, catch up with the swirls and eddies of the present over the clink of glasses and the satisfying aroma of good food.

Thanks to everyone for the cards (funny to see that at seventy those numbered cards that disappeared after my birthday in 1950 return to the scene) and presents (predominantly alcohol, books and drinking receptacles plus a selection of cheeses and a magnifying glass) that indicate an almost Holmesian familiarity with my weaknesses and foibles. Unfortunately all of them in their boxes became lost in the temporary black hole that consumed our house over the last week or so with the entry of the carpet fitters – hence the lateness of this response. But now, with the restoration of good order everything is in its place and there is a place for everything.

Hopefully it will be many years before I have to declare “acta est fabula plaudit” so I look forward to 2020 when I trust, as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers would say

You and I will meet again
When we’re least expecting it
One day in some far off place
I will recognize your face
I won’t say good-bye my friend
For you and I will meet again

Best wishes

David

Posted on Blogger because WordPress server having a little tantrum re uploading pics…..could it be the curse of Assange?

Dear Stacy

Re your recent blogpost about how we Brits are going to hell in a handcart…..where to begin? Well, as many Brits do with the USA you select an admittedly horrendous case and then mischaracterise it as a general rule. We do the same over here about American society where newspaper reports of gang rape, serial murderers, drug wars and high school killing sprees are then used to imply that that the majority of US citizens live in a Mad Max world where only a few can live decent lives.

It’s not true about America and certainly not true about the UK.

What is irritating about this particular post is that you, the great advocate of shoeleather journalism, make a whole series of assumptions about the society I live in without bothering to come here and mix with the natives – which is the accusation you rightly hurled against the NYT and WaPo weasels who decided, without a shred of evidence, that a census official had been murdered by drug crazed incestuous hillbillies who believed him to be an agent of Obama.

I live in a town with a substantial muslim minority. Until I recently retired I spent nearly 40 years teaching adolescents who came from the “estates”. I simply do not recognise the picture of universal depravity and rampant islamic fascism that you portray from the seat of your deer damaged Kia 4000 miles from the scene of the action – and, before I am accused of being a dhimmified helot, my heroes are Maggie Thatcher, Enoch Powell and Oliver Cromwell, my heart bursts with pride when I see the union flag and I thoroughly approve of SAS hit squads wiping out Taliban/AQ cadres with bombs,bullets and knives. But I also never assume that the behaviour of a few slimeballs gives adequate evidence for condemning a whole cultural group.

I always come here to read your take on the US scene – just do me a favour and count to ten before pontificating about events further away that you only hear about at third or fourth hand – after all you will never catch me passing any opinions on American politics….

PS – our royals and the aristocracy in general have always been as randy as Democratic Presidents, Hollywood stars and Newt Gingrich.

PPS – if you do decide to wear out some shoeleather by coming over here, e mail me and I’ll buy you a beer or two at the pub.

Yours sincerely

The Aged P

Remember the man holding his child at a rally in Chicago in April 2009? Remember CNN reporter Susan Roesgen disdainfully brushing aside his comments about taxes? Remember at the time Roesgen and her fellow Obama devotees in the media  were reigning supreme having carried him on their shoulders to the summit of mount Olympus to crown him with the garland of Zeus? Her contempt for the man became the official narrative about the Tea Party movement not just from the Obama administration and its mouthpieces in the liberal/left US media but also from the GOP establishment and many of the so called conservative hacks scribbling away in their east coast niches. Naturally this became the prism through which the rest of the world (especially the BBC) perceived the movement – what could be described as Roesgen’s Law

“you get the general tenor of this,” tea party. “Anti-government, anti-CNN since this is highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network Fox and since I can’t really hear much more and I think this is not really family viewing. Toss it back to you Kyra,”

Yet less than two years later we discover the astonishing power of the man holding his child and those around him in Chicago and all the other places where the protests were being made

Just about as many Americans want Tea Party-backed members of Congress to take the lead in setting policy during the next year as choose President Obama, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

In a survey taken Friday through Sunday, 28% say Obama should have the most influence on government policy next year while 27% say the Tea Party standard-bearers should. GOP congressional leaders are chosen by 23%, Democratic congressional leaders by 16%.

Not bad for a bunch of right wing bullies and wingnuts. Zeus and his Democrat cohorts have had to descend from Mount Olympus into the real world and many of their acolytes will have to actually work for a living. But, more significantly, to what extent have the Republican leaders in the House and Senate gone cold turkey on their Roesgen? In the past there was some suspicion that they were still not clean and even now there are signs of addiction. They need to tread warily, I wager – I doubt that the volcano is extinct…

Toss it back to you, Kyra…

Allahpundit at HotAir (who else?) has the bare essentials….. naturally the BBC went orgasmic over Sarah Palin’s “gaffe”

Former Alaskan governor and potential 2012 presidential contender Sarah Palin has made a gaffe on a radio show by saying North Korea is a US ally.
Answering questions from host Glenn Beck she said, “Obviously, we’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies.”

Notice the weasel wording. Even though during the rest of the interview she had been talking of the need to support South Korea what was clearly a slip of the tongue has been twisted to give the impression she doesn’t know the difference between North and South Korea.
The Beeb, of course, was, as usual, following the lead of its left/liberal partners in the US media, who as one jumped onto this story with glee. But Palin always fights back – something the media on both sides of the pond find quite shocking because she does it via Facebook and therefore avoids the filters of the media monopolists.

A Thanksgiving Message to All 57 States

My fellow Americans in all 57 states, the time has changed for come. With our country founded more than 20 centuries ago, we have much to celebrate – from the FBI’s 100 days to the reforms that bring greater inefficiencies to our health care system. We know that countries like Europe are willing to stand with us in our fight to halt the rise of privacy, and Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s. And let’s face it, everybody knows that it makes no sense that you send a kid to the emergency room for a treatable illness like asthma and they end up taking up a hospital bed. It costs, when, if you, they just gave, you gave them treatment early, and they got some treatment, and ah, a breathalyzer, or an inhalator. I mean, not a breathalyzer, ah, I don’t know what the term is in Austrian for that…

And the beauty of that rather confusing riposte? It consists entirely of mangled word salad from Barack Obama, each one backed up with Youtube clips…

Read the rest here  and realise how Palin is playing completely out of the box…..

I wish I could have had a similar job to that of Alex Spillius, Washington correspondent of the UK Daily Telegraph. He gets up, shaves, showers, has his breakfast, reads the New York Times and Washington Post, watches MSNBC and CNN, e mails a couple of journolists, pens a few hundred words by rejigging what he has heard and read that morning, sends his piece to the Telegraph and gets paid a three figure salary.

Unfair?

Not if you read this snarky little hit piece. It has the fingerprints of the Beltway GOP Stop Palin cabal all over it – and every buzzword from the Karl Rove lexicon…

Divisive, racial politics, DWTS vote rigging, TV Reality show…..you begin to wonder if Mona Charen is not our Alex in drag.

In leaked extracts of her new book, Mrs Palin delves into the minefield of racial politics, arguing that the first African American US president is among those who regarded the conservative tea party movement as racially prejudiced and who thinks that “America is a fundamentally unjust and unequal country”.
As proof, she dredged up a quote from a 2008 campaign speech in which Mrs Obama said “for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country”.

Naturally our fearless hack uses no shoeleather to find out if there is any justification to the governor’s alleged remarks (Spillius has not read the book, of course, just selective leaks from left wing websites) and I’m afraid that is par for the course for this third rate scribbler. Throughout 2008 he and his Telegraph colleague Toby Harnden made no attempt to investigate Obama’s connections to Rev Jeremiah Wright or the Chicago Machine. They made little or no comment about his lack of any executive experience or the questionable nature of Michelle Obama’s employment and remuneration.

Nor has Spillius brought to the attention of his UK readers any of the controversies about his administration’s suspiciously biased handling of the Black Panthers voter intimidation case. Indeed it is only in recent months that he has begun to report about the growing realisation among the Beltway elite that the man that they all (including Spillius) claimed was Zeus has transformed into Ozymandias. But naturally nothing about the fact that it was Spillius and his fellow hacks who oversold the Obama brand in the first place.

But then what can one expect from the so called right wing Telegraph. Stripped of it’s best writers by the Barclay Brothers and their axemen it has devolved into a bland lifestyle gossip rag with little understanding of the grassroots resurgence of conservatism fired up by the big government agenda of an incompetent and inexperienced machine hack and his blundering henchmen – no wonder it was the left/liberal Guardian which attracted the hip and cool talk radio Palin friendly Tammy Bruce to write a regular column. Alex Spillius and his Beltway chums would regard her with withering disdain – which is why his meaningless musings about Palin should always be filed under F for forgettable…

Or, as the inimitable Dan Riehl has written over a similar put down

If Sarah Palin has a secret weapon, it’s how distasteful and classless are so many of the GOP establishment types lined-up against her. If they were nearly as smart as they fancy themselves to be, they’d probably just shut-up and let the chips fall where they may.

UPDATE
The Spillius pump has just thrown up two more squirts of Palinphobia making it clear that he is the hack of choice for the GOP Beltway suits as their main transatlantic pipeline to feed the “Derail Palin” message onto the marmalade and toast laden breakfast tables of the Telegraph’s Tory middle class readership. As our feisty friend Cubachi points out she gets more respect from Vice President Biden than she does from the Republican establishment.

But hey – she’d be great serving the coffee…..

I have had breakfast, getting ready to pack and then flying out from Chicago back to London later today. The C4p meet up has been everything I expected. It was so good to meet the people behind the usernames – and you know what? They were all just ordinary, everyday folk – Mr, Mrs and Miss America and all of them country class, exactly like the people who would be shopping in my local Tesco supermarket.

Not one person from Deliverance or Elm Street but instead friendly, cheerful and very welcoming to yours truly. However these Palinistas, these ordinary barbarians, Katie Couric’s great unwashed, have got spines of steel and a sleeves rolled up determination to face up to anything once they get The Call.

No doubt others will be reporting back about the meet up and, once I am back home I hope to do a little reflecting myself as an observer form “across the pond” (as the governor so kindly put it when she called in)…an observer, yes, but also, I hope, as a friend.

My thanks to the organisers who worked so hard to put everything in place (and, no doubt, also shed some blood in the process…lol..),the speakers who helped everyone focus on the issues and the attendees. It was a privilege to share the moment with you all and I would love to think fate might bring us all together once again…in January 2013 maybe?

So it’s back to my own beloved land and family (and my next starring role) after just a few days in my second favourite country but, no doubt, we will continue to touch hands in cyberspace…

BTW – as Piper might say – that Tammy Bruce – isn’t she just awesome…..