"You're not laughing now, are you!"

Nigel Farage to the European Parliament:

BREXIT!

In Summary:



Doom, gloom and scare-mongering continue 

The Economist:
CBC:
Globe and Mail: Richard Nesbitt 
National Post: Andrew Coyne, John Ivison 

Realism and optimism

National Post: Rex Murphy, Conrad Black,  Terence Corcoran
PJ Media: Roger L. Simon, Roger Kimball

The small minded battle for (and against) Scottish independance

As someone with Scottish heritage (my middle name is Fyfe) I appreciate John Robson's take:



Jimmy McGinnes, on the other hand, does a great job of playing the stereotypical Scottish numbskull:)



And here are James Delingpole's ten reasons he hopes the Scots vote 'Yes'. Sounds close to the way many of us feel about a Quebec referendum should there be another one.

Great Britain "A Society of Cowards"

Pat Condell:



Michael Coren with Tarek Fatah:

David Cameron orders: "Ditch the green crap"

In yet another sign of a return to climate sanity:

David Cameron has ordered ministers to ditch the ‘green crap’ blamed for driving up energy bills and making business uncompetitive, it is claimed. 

The Prime Minister, who once pledged to lead the ‘greenest government ever’, has publicly promised to ‘roll back’ green taxes, which add more than £110 a year to average fuel bills. 

But a senior Tory source said Mr Cameron’s message in private is far blunter.  The source said: ‘He’s telling everyone, “We’ve got to get rid of all this green crap.” He’s absolutely focused on it.’

Politicians are waking up, one at a time - and none too soon.

[Via]

Update: On the other hand, James Delingpole writes: "On green issues no one talks more 'crap' than David Cameron"

 ... Let us not forget that only last week Cameron was explicitly linking Typhoon Haiyan to "climate change." 

... David Cameron talking about cutting green crap is like King Herod talking about improved babycare for male children in Judaea.

Steyn returns a favour and defends Richard Dawkins' freedom of speech

After Tweeting a truth about Islam, Dawkins is attacked by the UK media:

... in a throwaway Tweet, Professor Dawkins observed that “all the world’s Muslims have fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College, Cambridge. ...” ... Almost every London paper ran at least one story on the “controversy.” 

 ... “How dare you dress your bigotry up as atheism. You are now beyond an embarrassment.”
... “It’s time someone turned Richard Dawkins off and then on again. Something’s gone weird.”
... “Please be quiet, Richard Dawkins, I’m begging.”
... “we must consign Dawkins to this very same pile of the irrational and the dishonest.” 

... Whatever its virtues, Islam is not a culture of inquiry, of innovation. You can coast for a while on the accumulated inheritance of a pre-Muslim past ...but it’s not unreasonable to posit that the more Muslim a society becomes the smaller a role Nobel prizes and translated books will play in its future.  

... Maybe I’m wrong, maybe Dawkins is wrong, maybe the U.N. Human Development chaps are wrong. But the ferocious objections even to raising the subject suggest we’re not. ...

London's Muslim terrorist butchery "A portrayal of Islam"

Ezra's excellent assessment:


... along with Tarek Fatah's:


Brit PM David Cameron's pathetic response:

“This was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life, it was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country. There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act.”

Al-Qaeda begs to differ:

Al-Shabaab To British PM David Cameron: “Not A ‘Betrayal’ Of Islam But Rather A ‘Portrayal’ Of Islam”…

Update [via Blazing Cat Fur]:

Melanie Phillips

Talks about her new autobiography, Guardian Angel, My Story, My Britain



Excerpt.

[Via]

The Woman Who Saved Britain

As Margaret Thatcher is laid to rest today, Peter Foster reviews her legacy, closing with:

For the past two decades, there has been a persistent attempt by the left to parody her motivations, and unseat her from her rightful place in history. But whatever shenanigans the left may dream up for Wednesday, she will always be the Woman Who Saved Britain.

As for those leftist ingrates, Margaret Thatcher's attitude was:

“If you set out to be liked, you will accomplish nothing.”

“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.”

And on the left's obsession with her "divisiveness", she said: 

“Consensus: “The process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values, and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects; the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner: ‘I stand for consensus?”

Mark Steyn:

"... she arrived to address a small group at an English seaside resort to be greeted by enraged lefties chanting “Thatcher Thatcher Thatcher! Fascist fascist fascist!” She turned to her aide and cooed, “Oh, doesn’t it make you feel nostalgic?” She was said to be delighted to hear that a concession stand at last year’s Trades Union Congress was doing a brisk business in “Thatcher Death Party Packs,” almost a quarter-century after her departure from office."

R.I.P. Margaret Thatcher.

On news of Thatcher's death the left spews hatred

Left's chorus of hatred: Champagne in the streets, students union cheers and vile internet taunts

Parties break out to celebrate

The trendy, Left-wing gadflies celebrating Margaret Thatcher's death

The Twitterverse

Lovely.

R.I.P. Margaret Thatcher

BBC News: Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has died "peacefully" at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke while staying at the Ritz hotel in central London.

The Toronto Star: Thatcherism influenced a generation of politicians and leaders all over the world with its brand of unstinting support of free market economies, a distrust of the state and disdain for unions.

The Guardian: "... groundbreaking but divisive leader..." ["divisive", 5 times in this column (left-speak for any conservative).]

How Mark Carney wooed his wife

From a wag in the comments to a Telegraph story on Mark Carney:

... By all accounts she's one of the world's great champagne socialists, so I presume the words "I am a banker and have ambitions to make myself exceedingly rich" were sufficient for her to immedately drop her knickers. ...

Speaking of "champagne socialists", the Telegraph had reported:

Mrs Carney, who is the vice–president of Canada 2020, a Left–wing think-tank, is the sister of Lady Rotherwick, whose estate in Oxfordshire plays host to the Cornbury rock festival, which has been attended by David Cameron at least four times.

Britain's "great wind terror"

James Delingpole:

...[Who's responsible for] the despoliation of our matchless landscape with view-blighting, fuel-poverty-creating, sleep-denying, sick-making, flood-exascerbating, price-inflating, property-value-trashing, greed-stoking, puke-making, bird-slicing, bat-chomping eco crucifixes…[?]

I'm talking about [Ed Miliband, Opposition Labour Leader] the North London Marxist trustafarian ovoid who was, as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, more responsible than any man or weird egg-creature alive for establishing the framework for Britain's disastrous wind policy. ...

[...]

Ed Miliband commits Labour to 2030 decarbonisation target ...

... committing Labour to delivering a virtually carbon-free electricity system by 2030. ...

Brit blacklist a compliment to America

British Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, released a list of 22 people who are banned from the U.K. The blacklist is intended to "name and shame" those accused "... of fomenting hatred, glorifying terrorism or being capable of inciting ethnic violence in the country."

The list includes a half-dozen Muslim radicals, a neo-Nazi German, a Jewish extremist, a couple of murderous Russian skin-heads and four Americans (conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage, former KKK leader Stephen Black and anti-gay hate-mongers Fred and daughter Shirley Phelps).

That so many Americans are on the blacklist should be taken as a compliment by America. Compared to the U.S.A. Britain is a relative economic and social basket case drifting towards fascistic politically correct authoritarianism (a Canadian "human rights" regime on steroids). A much freer, wealthier and more tolerant America suffers far less social turbulence.

No doubt there is good reason to ban those who advocate or have committed violence. If so, as Michael Savage asks, why isn't Kim Jong Il's name on the list; why not Hugo Chavez's or Fidel Castro's or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's or ....?)

Michael Savage is pissed and promises to sue Jacqui Smith for defamation.

Mark Steyn. Jonah Goldberg. John Derbyshire.

The UK scene

Which reminds me of a recent comment by Mark Steyn re. the HRC-Maclean's 'case':
"What's at issue here is the non-jihadists' right to free speech."


[From, and]

The road from serfdom?

The UK Libertarian Party web site cranks up. Via The Devil's Kitchen.

Canadian healthcare - lessons for Britain

In its study of health reform in Britain, the UK’s Institute for the Study of Civil Society (CIVITAS) has researched a number of European and North American medical systems.

The CIVITAS report on Canada makes some very interesting observations:

Lessons for Britain

Like the NHS to Britons, medicare is a quasi-religion to Canadians. Both systems are regularly subject to the claim that they are the best in the world.
[...]
Comparison with the US is ... understandable, but unfortunate. Firstly because opinion of US health care is largely based on myth (many Americans believe these myths too)...
[...]
Both the NHS and medicare have founding and guiding principles which they systematically fail to meet or abide by. Hence the charge in Canada that everything is free but nothing is accessible".
[...]
... three problems within the Canadian single-payer (government) healthcare model. First, accountability is poor and aggravated by the Federal structure. Second, decision-making is politicised. Third, single-payer government control eads to a lack of innovation. These three lead to a lack of responsiveness to patient needs or wants.
[...]
Canadian health care is inefficient in that financing (lack of direct payment) does ot encourage users and providers of health care to be accountable ...
[...]
Single-payer tax financed healthcare lends itself to rationing.
[...]
... poor availability in Canada of advanced medical technology, ...

[...]
... On most objective measures the Canadian system at best disappoints, and at worst is simply unacceptable in a wealthy, modern nation, particularly when expenditure is considered.
[...]
On an ideological level some might consider the Canadian system attractive, however, the reality is that the Canadian tax-funded single-payer model restricts expenditure to such an extent that healthcare supply far from matches demand.

Not that we didn’t already know most of this - but it’s worthwhile having an outside opinion.

The bottom line lesson for Britain: avoid the Canadian model like the plague! It suffers from many of the same problems as the British NHS. Which leads one to wonder whether Canada’s system has been thoroughly infiltrated by socialist Brits.

There are many lessons Canadian policy makers can draw from other counties. It’s a pity that all we seem to get are ridiculous references and comparisons to "American-style" healthcare. Other CIVITAS country reports are worth a look, particularly the first three listed here: France, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Hungary, Holland, and the USA.

Al Gore’s rough ride

The Telegraph recently reported on Al Bore’s speech (ka-ching!) to a forum in Singapore. Not surprisingly Gore droned on about the evil oil industry’s funding of a "misinformation" campaign opposing global warming hysteria, er, "consensus".

I’m not sure how Gore was received in Singapore - one assumes with reverence. Where he got a very rough ride, though, was in the readers’ comments to the Telegraph story. Gore was raked over the coals beginning with a long list of his ‘errors’. There were many more great comments including this one singled out by Roger Thornhill:

Al Gore reminds me of a second hand car salesman and a fairground shouter! Want an easy answer? too stupid to understand the complex issues? are you a guilt ridden self hating middleclass handwringer? Are you jelous of people who have more than you? Then Al Gore is the man for you! He will tell you all you need to know in easy to understand words! He will tell you who you should blame and persecute! Roll up, roll up folks, come and see the greatest con on earth, all you have to do is listen and obey without question and good ole Al will save you all from the evil capitalist swine who swan around in their big cars and fancy homes! CO2 is to blame for all your woes he shouts! If someone is not convinced, ‘heretic’ he cries!

Al Gore will stir up the mob and tell them who to blame as long as you DO NOT question his wisdom and he will lead the huddled masses to a socialist utopia and paradise just as long as you do exactly what he says with no questions asked! Hail the great and all knowing Al Gore! Hail the greatest scientist the world has ever teen! Vote for Al and you need never bother to think for yourself ever again because he will do all your thinking for you! HOORAY! - Stephanie Clague, 10:18AM.

Heartwarming, really!

[h/t to Roger Thornhill at Neuearbeit Macht Frei]