Soundbytes (Monday, 8th April 2013)
Soundbytes: Today’s top stories and opinion
- James Delingpole: Taking things a little too literally
- Dan Hannan: The welfare state was a product of wartime rationing
- Gerald Warner: Kim Jong-un’s temper tantrum is a perfect illustration of Marxism
- John Redwood: Why we need to keep the top rate of tax low
- Simon Heffer: The Tories may yet win
- Rod Liddle: It’s for the best that Baroness Ashton will be paid to do nothing
On this day…
- 1904: The UK and France signed the Entente cordiale
Daily Reaganite
- “One legislator accused me of having a nineteenth-century attitude on law and order. That is a totally false charge. I have an eighteenth-century attitude. That is when the Founding Fathers made it clear that the safety of law-abiding citizens should be one of the government’s primary concerns.”
Daily Thatcherite
- “Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve done it”
Soundbytes (Friday, 5th April 2013)
Soundbytes: Today’s top stories and opinion
- Telegraph: Britain’s foreign aid madness
- Douglas Murray: We need a debate about the underclass
- Philip Collins: Labour can’t win if it’s on Mick Philpott’s side
On this day…
- 1955: Winston Churchill resigned as Prime Minister for the final time
Daily Reaganite
- “A leader, once convinced a particular course of action is the right one, must have the determination to stick with it and be undaunted when the going gets rough.”
Daily Thatcherite
- “It’s the Labour Government that have brought us record peace-time taxation. They’ve got the usual Socialist disease — they’ve run out of other people’s money.”
Let’s Break Away From the Confines of the EU – Guest Blog by Thomas Raynor
Across the world, many millions of people celebrated the festival of Easter last weekend. It is a remarkable time of the year, where our attentions turn away from the grey stillness of winter to the new life and energy of spring. The country awakens from its long hibernation, and looks towards the busyness of the months ahead. Next year the transition period will be a little different, with the invention of a new season, Sprinter, which will run from 1 February to 30 April (our thanks go to those in the Office of the Presidency of the Council of Europe who, despite many months of bleak news, managed to maintain their sense of humour for a slightly late April Fools’ Joke). But in this period of new life, warmer weather (hopefully) and fresh beginnings, we must take stock of the developments over those long winter months. Continue reading
Soundbytes (Thursday, 4th April 2013)
Soundbytes: Today’s top stories and opinion
- Spectator: How to out-fox local government Sir Humphreys
- BBC News: Manchester takes “hate crimes” to a new level of nuttiness
- Express: No happy future in EU
- John Redwood: How much should we pay in benefits?
- A N Wilson: A parable for our welfare dependent age
And from the archives….
- Peter Simple: A very modern and relevant Easter play
On this day…
- 1721: Sir Robert Walpole became Britain’s first Prime Minister
Daily Reaganite
- “We in government should learn to look at our country with the eyes of the entrepreneur, seeing possibilities where others see only problems”
Daily Thatcherite
- “If a Tory does not believe that private property is one of the main bulwarks of individual freedom, then he had better become a socialist and have done with it.”
Soundbytes (Wednesday, 3rd April 2013)
Soundbytes: Today’s top stories and opinion
- Spectator: Gove’s curriculum will renew teaching as a vocation
- Telegraph: Sir Gerald Howarth takes the helm at Conservative Way Forward
- Standpoint: The dawn of Obamageddon
- The Commentator: Orwell would be proud of Associated Press’ new lexicon
On this day…
- 1043: Edward the Confessor was crowned King of England
Daily Reaganite
- “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.”
Daily Thatcherite
- “Popular capitalism is nothing less than a crusade to enfranchise the many in the economic life of the nation.”
Soundbytes (Tuesday, 2nd April 2013)
Soundbytes: Today’s top stories and opinion
- Iain Martin: Can the Tories get out of their “modernising” mess?
- Raheem Kassam: Is this really Conservatism?
- Ed West: Welfare reform opponents are blinded by Political Correctness
- Fraser Nelson: Popularity of welfare reform frustrates the left
On this day…
- 1982: Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, precipitating Margaret Thatcher’s finest hour
Daily Reaganite
- “Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders”
Daily Thatcherite
- “I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.”
Soundbytes (Thursday, 28th March 2013)
Soundbytes: Today’s top stories and opinion
- Iain Martin: Who cares about David Miliband?
- Dan Hannan: Britain’s unsackable quangocrats
- Darius Guppy: A defence of Boris
On this day…
- 1979: Jim Callaghan’s Labour government lost a Vote of No Confidence, precipitating the General Election that put Margaret Thatcher in power
Daily Reaganite
- “We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.”
Daily Thatcherite
- “It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake”
“Backbone of the Nation” – Guest Blog by Will Jackson
In 30 years’ time when we are asked to look back and describe the current economic situation, it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say we are up a certain creek without a certain paddle. Of course, the only remedy now seems to “decrease the rate of increase that we are spending money” and despite fierce opposition, we seem to be doing just that. But there is an underrepresented, under discussed area which has been subject to this, and is the only single area that many would argue for an increased rate of spending. Something – one could argue – that is more important than the Welfare state or indeed state education – the backbone of the Nation itself.
Government’s first priority is always national defence, though most just don’t realise it. The continuation of national traditions, upholding our western jurisdiction and indeed ensuring that our values of freedom can live on, are the three pillars of nationhood. Everything else is a subset of these vital criteria for any incoming government. Continue reading
Soundbytes (Wednesday, 27th March 2013)
Soundbytes: Today’s top stories and opinion
- Dan Hodges: The left will eat itself
- Brendan O’Neill: What self-respecting member of the working-class would sign up to the patronising “People’s Assembly”?
- Christopher Booker: More green gimmicks and eco-taxes as Britain freezes
- Douglas Murray: Still little real action on immigration
On this day…
- 1625: King Charles the Martyr becomes king of England, Scotland and Ireland
Daily Reaganite
- “Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.”
Daily Thatcherite
- “It pays to know the enemy – not least because at some time you may have the opportunity to turn him into a friend.”