Interesting piece in The UK Telegraph by Nile Gardiner – one of the very few British (and, let’s face it American) journalists who did not fall for the stryrofoam temple in 2008.

I’ve written extensively on how the Obama White House has been the most anti-British presidency since the Suez crisis of 1956, and predicted months before Obama’s election win that his leadership would be damaging for the US-British alliance.

Gardiner has the feeling that the Tea Party could well spearhead a conservative revolution (or, as Governor Palin might say, an American restoration) in 2012, ejecting Obama out of the White House and evicting legions of Democrats from Congress – good news for all my American friends but also, says Gardiner, even better news for we Brits.

At first sight, of course, the Tea Party does not appear to have much interest in Britain. The focus is almost entirely on domestic issues and the symbolism, often expressed in terms of the late 18th century, framed with references to struggles against tyranny in the form of George III and redcoats.

There is no doubting the fact that the Tea Party movement is primarily focused at present upon domestic policy issues. It is largely driven by intense opposition to Obama’s Big Government agenda, and by a belief in low taxation and reduced government spending, greater individual freedom and limited intrusion by the state. But it is also at its heart a movement that cherishes a belief in American exceptionalism and US leadership, worships the concept of national sovereignty, and is suspicious of supranational institutions such as the United Nations or the European Union that seek to impinge upon America’s ability to act independently. In other words, it stands for almost everything the current US administration does not.

When I first started blogging (mainly to an audience of four – my son, his cat and a couple of spiders in my garden shed) I found myself posting the odd piece about Sarah Palin. Out of the blue, I was invited to post on C4P in it’s pioneering days and I felt greatly honoured but also slightly nervous – what would all those so called “foaming at the mouth Palinista wingnuts, clinging bitterly to their guns and religion” think about the meanderings of some old pensioner from the ancient forests of Sussex?

I needn’t have worried. I have been received with tolerance, kindness and warmth (one reason why I shall be in Chicago this November) and I always get the feeling that American conservatives still genuinely wish to stretch their hands across the ocean – unlike Obama and many left/liberal Democrats.

The Obama administration’s sneering view of Britain was perfectly summed up by a senior State Department protocol officer in March last year:
“There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.”

I read that while Micheal Yon was embedded with The Rifles in Afghanistan, reporting on the professionalism and courage of our squaddies and watching their blood soak into the dust of Helmand alongside their US comrades, just as their fathers and grandfathers did in WW2 and Korea – and wondered…..

Of course emotion and history should not direct foreign policy. I am a fierce British patriot who always catches his breath whenever I see the Union Flag snapping in the wind. There are times when UK and US interests do not coincide and we must beg to differ – as we did in 1776 and other moments in history. But the very reverence that Tea Partiers feel for the Founding Fathers and the US Constitution must also recognise that the roots of the American Republic spring from the soil of England, the England of the first half of the seventeenth century when King and Parliament clashed over the issue of sovereignty and the sons and daughters and cousins of those rebels who cut off their king’s head and proclaimed an English republic spread across to the north American colonies – argumentative, independent, industrious and determined like their roundhead siblings…..and eventually the spirit of 1642 became the spirit of 1776.

Hence my political kinship with C4P and the Tea Party – also recognised by Gardiner.

The main heroes of the Tea Party are, of course, America’s Founding Fathers. But its members also look to more recent leaders for inspiration – in the United States, Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater for example, and across the Atlantic, to Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill. In conversations I have had with an array of Tea Party supporters in recent months, almost all have expressed a huge admiration for the Iron Lady and her achievements across the Atlantic. There have also been frequent nods of support for the cost-cutting measures of the new Cameron-led Coalition – and many have asked the question – if they can cut the deficit in London, why can’t we do it in Washington too?

I feel in my bones that if a certain person moved into the White House then Gardiner’s final prediction of a sharp change in the mood music would come to pass

Unlike the Obama administration, the new wave of conservative leaders in the United States recognise Britain as America’s most important ally, are suspicious of EU-style supranationalism, and understand the great sacrifices that the US and UK have made in the defence of liberty and freedom across the world. One thing is certain if President Obama loses the White House in 2012. His successor definitely won’t be throwing a bust of Sir Winston Churchill out of the Oval Office.

God Save America. God Save The Queen.

cross posted at Conservatives4Palin

There was a good heads up for the Tea Party by Toby Harnden of the UK Telegraph. Of course it was slightly patronising in that Victorian gentleman explorer kind of way (“even though the islanders wore face paint and bones through their noses they turned out to be decent chaps…”) and Harnden was late coming to the TP OK club. Like most UK hacks he ignored it for over a year and, don’t forget, be bought into the David Brooks Obama worship shtick throughout the ’08 campaign….never once did he attempt to do wear out any shoe leather by pounding the Chicago streets and sussing out Obama’s seedier connections with the Windy City’s corrupt machine. Nevertheless Toby had his Damascus moment and, for the last few months, has been straying from the Brooks line and checking the cracks in the Styrofoam columns.

Which makes this towards the end of his piece all the more disturbing

The biggest test of the Tea Party’s power will come in 2012. It would be unwise to assume that Palin is the only one who stands to benefit. Some Tea Party groups are very pro-Palin but others are wary of her celebrity and her decision to quit as Alaska governor.
She perhaps didn’t help herself in Iowa on Friday night when she suggested in a speech, ostensibly in honour of Ronald Reagan that she might be “the one” for 2012 – the messianic term used by Oprah Winfrey when she endorsed Obama in 2008.

Whoa, Silver – what was that again? Palin makes a speech in Iowa, saying she’s “The One”….which speech was that, Toby? I didn’t realise she made two speeches in Iowa. I’ve checked through this one and not seen anything about 2012 except a joke about running shoes and the media. Naturally you also watched this speech (you are surely not one of those lazy hacks who rely on reports of a speech to unleash your analytical wisdom, are you?)
I can only assume you are commenting on an Iowa speech of which nobody else in the US or US media is aware – if so, please send us the link.

Or perhaps you were a little confused and mixed it up with this quote from a Fox interview round about the same time

“If the American people were to be ready for someone who is willing to shake it up, and willing to get back to time-tested truths, and help lead our country towards a more prosperous and safe future and if they happen to think I was the one, if it were best for my family and for our country, of course I would give it a shot,” she said.
“But I’m not saying that it’s me. I know I can certainly make a difference without having a title. I’m having a good time doing exactly that right now.”

Sorry, Toby – that’s a far cry from the self anointing image you were attempting to portray in your hit on Palin. It is standard will I/won’t I rentaquote from any political figure teasing the media. Moreover, as far as I am aware, very few, if any, in the US media have adopted your take on that remark – and, as you well know, there are serried ranks of reporters ready and waiting to pounce on any Palin remark and distort it.

I refuse to use the fatal three letter word, preferring to think you were a bit tired, racing for a deadline and rather sloppy in your research. But I do hope you will be man enough to retract – it would be the decent thing to do, old chap….

cross posted at Conservatives4Palin

“Hey Frank – there’s a nut at the top that needs to be tightened….take this spanner….”

h/t Ace of Spades

On last night’s Newsnight Kirsty Wark had obviously been instructed to sex up the “savage cuts will cause the death of millions of women, children and old people” narrative by wheeling in a trio of rent-a-whiners waving shrouds on behalf of defence, the police and, naturally the NHS.

As Kirsty wielded her remote each of these Duracell bunnies leapt into life to squawk about the horrors to come. Former Brown minister Lord West went Cassandra over the possibility of cuts in defence expenditure though oddly enough the Admiral, who has had very close links with the defence industry lobby in the past, clearly forgot to say anything about the financial black hole of procurement.

One tear jerker of note that had been programmed into the Police Federation robot – “Cuts = Christmas for criminals” – obviously caught Kirsty’s fancy because she threw this at the hapless coalition sacrificial goat who was tethered in the studio in front of Wark and her bunnies, Economic Secretary to the Treasury Justine Greening.

Only Justine turned out to be not so hapless after all. She ignored Wark’s Paxman-like attempts to steamroller her into pleading guilty to plunging her knife into the heroes and heroines of the frontline services. Instead she hammered home on one simple fact.

The average taxpayer is paying £1400 not on schools, hospitals or police but debt interest.

Unless we take these immediate steps to reduce the deficit the cost of servicing that debt will increase year on year leaving much smaller slices of the pie for defence, policing and healthcare.

Strangely enough, after Ms Greening made that point in a quiet but assertive manner, the Duracell bunnies sat in their chairs lifeless and silent and Kirsty quickly passed on to the next item.

Watch here from 14.43 onwards..

Game, set and match to Justine Greening…..

Kudos given to RNC Chairman Michael Steele by Governor Palin (and even Allahpundit at Hot Air) for ignoring the GOP establishment’s voices of doom but just think how hard Ben Smith at Politico had to grit his teeth while he was writing this description of her

Michael Steele’s been taking a lot of flack lately, as ever, from the GOP ranks, but got a big vote of confidence from the party’s most powerful voice today.

Sorry, Ben – didn’t quite catch that…could you say it again?

THE PARTY’S MOST POWERFUL VOICE…

Why thank you, Ben – that wasn’t too difficult, was it?

cross posted at Conservatives4Palin

We have had another surfeit of apples so The Lovely Mrs P has made some more SPICED APPLE CHUTNEY……so here is the recipe we published in Sept 2009…

Makes about 2 or 3 250ml/9 fluid oz jars

• 500g/18 oz apples
• 1 medium onion
• 2 birds eye red chillies
• 250g/9oz Demerara sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice (not mixed spice)
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• half teaspoon sea salt
• black pepper
• 1 heaped tablespoon chopped or grated fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 350 ml/12 fluid oz cider vinegar

1. Peel and roughly chop the apples and finely chop the onion.
2. Seed the chillies and chop finely
3. Put all ingredients in a pan and bring to boil
4. Cook over a medium heat for 30/40 minutes until mixture thickens
5. Spoon into jars and, when cool, place in store cupboard

With a cheese sandwich…..Nirvana……

The BBC is certainly maxing out on the evil coalition “cuts” with reverential softballs being thrown to strutting and strident trade union fatcats (all on £100,000+pa) and gut wrenching tales of woe from “randomly selected” families etc.

The mood music is clear, the narrative set in stone with helpful clues to remind of the last bloodthirsty regime which gleefully crushed the poor and the weak into the dust…..”…deepest cuts since the Thatcher years”

Mark Serwotka, leader of the Civil Service penpushers, poured scorn on the need to cut the deficit on BBC1 “Breakfast” this morning. He demanded an increase in government spending and when Simon Jack wondered where the money would come from Serwotka, economic genius, said we should borrow it. Mr Jack, instead of laughing in his face and giving him a pair of clown’s shoes, feebly accepted this cretinous nonsense.

It might seem odd to the average Martian that the Beeb should be helping to feed the egos of these latter day Savonarolas when it is having to face industrial action from it’s own Luddites over downsizing but remember that the BBC, like the Papacy, is always interested in the long term. So soon, just after the first reports of children and old people starving to death because of Osborne’s cuts, expect a full blown crusade, spearheaded by Stephen Fry and assorted Dimblebys and Attenboroughs, showing how the masses are suffering cultural starvation through the freezing of the BBC Poll Tax.

Two slightly different articles on Governor Palin appeared recently. One, by former editor of the Harvard Crimson Steve Chapman at the Chicago Tribune, got an excellent fisking from Stacy Drake at C4P. The other, about her planned visit to Iowa, from the left wing UK Guardian was surprisingly respectful – although it did end up with a caveat from Larry Sabato – who else! – that the Democrats were chafing at the bit for a Palin nomination because even a President on the skids like Obama would win by a landslide when faced by such a polarising figure…

(I must say that if the Democrats are so certain that she would be a walkover why do their media surrogates spend so much time dissing the woman rather than Romney, Huckabee etc…but I digress)

The one figure missing from both articles was our old friend the anonymous GOP Beltway Operative who for so long has been telling Palin to stand aside and let the real men get on with it.

Where has he gone? Maybe he has had to get a real job in which he does something useful – like a bus driver or a refuse collector….who knows? Who cares?

The fact is this rather mysterious woman panders to nobody, doesn’t care who she upsets on the left or the right and follows her own star. She has no influential family network or billionaire patron, no massive staff structure thronged with consultants and advisers, has for two years been ignored and/or despised by most media pundits, insulted and demeaned by third rate scribblers, cold shouldered by her own state party and ignored by her party’s national establishment.  Nevertheless she has become one of the most influential and powerful figures in American politics.

Don’t take my word for it – I’m just an old Englishman living thousands of miles away from the action. But have a word with Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post or Roger Simon, Chief Political Columnist at  Politico. Have a look at Real Clear Politics, or even the Daily Beast. Then read Chapman’s article at the Chicago Tribune once again, work out how much he must have been paid for such garbage – and then pour yourself a generous gin and tonic to steady the nerves…..

“Grandad, Grandma – there’s a rainbow outside”

We rushed onto the street, our daughter with her camera.

“Can we go to the end of it” asked, Harry, age 5

“Not now , dear” said Grandma “but perhaps after tea if it’s still there…”

My wife was a science teacher but she also knows that puncturing a little boy’s sense of wonder with the cold, hard facts of science can wait a little while longer….

And everyone thought that the economic policy of the Democrats was pants because they were clueless about the real world….turns out there might be a perfectly rational explanation – perhaps they’re all stoned…….

A senior aide for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was arrested Tuesday for attempting to bring marijuana into the Hart Senate Office Building, according to U.S. Capitol Police reports

The aide was Marcus Stanley, Boxer’s senior economic adviser….

h/t comment from “Bill” at Dan Riehl