I first and foremost must mention: I’m a fan.
Furthermore, this man’s use of the English language fascinates me. “I can’t help noting parenthetically that…” Parenthetically? I have a new favorite word. Now, on to the good stuff:
* “Prime Minister, I can’t help noticing that you’ve already mastered the essential craft of the European politician. Namely, the ability to say one thing in this chamber, and a very different thing to your home electorate. … Perhaps you would have more authority in this House if your actions matched your words. Perhaps you would have more legitimacy in the counsels of the world, if the United Kingdom were not going into this recession in the worst condition of any G20 country. The truth, Prime Minister, is that you have run out of our money. The country as a whole is now in negative equity. Every British child is born owing around 20,000 pounds. Servicing the interest on that debt is going to cost more than educating the child!
Now once again today you try to spread the blame around. You spoke about an international recession, international crisis. Well, it is true that we are all sailing together into the squalls, but not every vessel in the convoy is in the same dilapidated condition. Other ships used the good years to caulk their holes, and clear their rigging. In other words, to pay off debt. But you used the good years to raise borrowing yet further. As a consequence, under your captaincy, our hull is pressed deep into the waterline under the accumulated weight of your debt.
… Now, it’s not that you’re not apologizing. Like everyone else, I’ve long accepted that you’re pathologically incapable of accepting responsibility for these things. It’s your carrying on, willfully worsening our situation, wantonly spending what little we have left. Last year, in the last twelve months, 100,000 private sector jobs have been lost, and yet you’ve created 30,000 public sector jobs.
Prime Minister, you cannot carry on forever, squeezing the productive bit of the economy, in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit. You cannot spend your way out of recession, or borrow your way out of debt, and when you repeat, in that wooden and perfunctory way, that our situation is better than others, that we’re well-placed to weather the storm, I have to tell you, you sound like [something I can’t make out] giving the party line. You know, and we know, and you know that we know that it’s nonsense! Everyone knows that Britain is worse off than any other country as we go into these hard times. The IMF has said so. The European Commission has said so. The markets have said so, which is why our currency has devalued by 30% and soon, the voters, too, will get their chance to say so. They can see what the markets have already seen: that you are the devalued prime minister of a devalued government.” – Daniel Hannan
The way he speaks of the “Brussels Racket” and the EU remind me of our current American administration’s handling of our economy and culture.Turns out, the fellow even has a blog!
Breaking the press monopoly is one thing. But the internet has also broken the political monopoly. Ten or even five years ago, when the Minister for Widgets put out a press release, the mere fact of his position guaranteed a measure of coverage. Nowadays, a politician must compel attention by virtue of what he is saying, not his position.
It’s all a bit unsettling for professional journalists and politicians. But it’s good news for libertarians of every stripe. Lefties have always relied on control, as much of information as of physical resources. Such control is no longer technically feasible.
– My speech to Gordon Brown goes viral (Daniel Hannan)
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