Britain Needs It's Own Sarah Palin

If you ever wish to hear the dulcet tones of a snort of derision, the best way to do so is to wander into a middle class left-wing dinner party, or a trendy university halls of residence (preferably one where there are pictures of Che Guevara on the wall, and all the boys look like girls, while the girls look like boys) and say two words – “Sarah Palin.”

The resultant snorts of haughty condescension will be loud enough to shatter windows and will result in severe sinus trauma for many of the occupants. For what “we all know” about Sarah Palin is very clear, especially to the left. Sarah Palin is a moron, a stupid imbecile who represents everything that is wrong with America; she is a hard-right nut job who makes gaffe after gaffe, and the only people who support her are gun toting red necks who hate gays and evolution. It is widely accepted that she cost the Republicans the 2008 election, and if she receives the nomination for 2012, she will certainly hand the election to Obama instead. Right?

Wrong! In fact, everything in the above paragraph is wrong. I could go through everything that is wrong with the paragraph, but it would take more space than this article allows. I could point out that most “gaffes” that Palin is known for are usually either not gaffes (but instead opinions with which the Guardian and the New York Times disagrees) or were not said by her at all – such as the famous “I can see Russia from my house” gaffe, which was actually spoken by Tina Fey. I could say that she is only hard-right if you class someone who believes in free market economics as “hard-right” or point to her consistently high poll numbers as governor of Alaska (where her approval rates reached the 90%+ mark), and the wide success of both her TV show and two books.

Yet instead of going through these arguments, I instead want to point to her biggest strength – the venom with which the left hate her. For as a Palin fan myself (although I think there are better candidates for 2012) it is obvious that I am going to claim that she isn’t a stupid, illiterate moron who has hit a good patch. But the left also unwittingly agree with this assessment by their hatred and obsession for her.

For when I hear Sarah Palin mentioned by various left-wing friends, they spit out her name with the same revulsion and disgust that most people say “aggressive yeast infection.” Furthermore, it seems that it is the left-wing media that want to report on her the most. Streams of journalists and camera crews have been following Palin’s tour bus, while at the same time tutting at how she is getting above her station. However, what is really interesting is the way in which the media has reacted to the release of her emails, with the New York Times and the Guardian both asking their readers to help them scour through the emails for dirt or possibility of scandal.

Why anyone would want to spend their free weekend going through a political opponent’s dull emails unpaid is beyond me. The fact that there have been thousands of unpaid lefties spending a June weekend going through these emails, as well as an organised campaign by the Guardian, the NYT and other media outlets, shows an unhealthy obsession for the ex-Alaskan governor.

It seems a strange hatred to have if we are expected to believe that Palin is a no-hoper. I think of left-wing no-hopers here in England such as Ed Miliband and Diane Abbott, and I have no hatred for either; in fact I enjoy their presence on the television as I know that the longer they speak, the more harm it does to their cause. I don’t react to the very mention of their names by foaming at the mouth, nor would I spend a sunny weekend scouring through Diane Abbott’s thousands of emails telling her friends just how racist everyone is.

The obvious explanation for this hatred is simply that Palin is not as stupid or as useless as the left try to make us believe – and they know it. They know that despite her folksy Alaskan accent and occasionally peculiar ways of expressing herself, that Palin has an incredible appeal. A strong independent woman (without needing to be reliant of left-wing radical feminism) who stands for common sense conservatism and core American values as found in the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution, Palin is admired by many Americans and has the skills to be able to change the media narrative and set the debate with a mere tweet or Facebook update.

Whether she becomes President or not, Palin is going to have a powerful influence on both American conservatism, and American politics as a whole in the upcoming future. British conservatives should not buy into the left-wing smears of Palin and should learn from her. Conservatism is at its best when it isn’t hidden away in buzzwords or sound bites; but when it is expressed clearly and simply as an expression of liberty, common sense and personal responsibility. Britain needs its own Sarah Palin; and when the left begins foaming at the mouth at the mention of their name and spending days going through their emails, we will know that we have found them!

The Left Have Slowed Down Gaddafi's Departure

First, apologies for not having blogged for a few days - I decided to take a week off to clear my head from politics, but I am back now!

It looks like the Gaddafi regime in Libya may finally be over.  Although he is clinging to power, it looks unlikely that Gaddafi will last the week in the face of enormous riots and protests at his tyrannical regime.  This is marvellous news.  Unlike Egypt, where the jury is still out on what the result is going to be, and whether it will be better or worse than Mubarak, in Libya it really can't be any worse than Gaddafi.  He is one of the most toxic and evil dictators in history, is extremely anti-Western (but pro-Obama!) and is responsible for the Lockerbie bombing - the worst terrorist attack in history on British soil.

Recent pro-democracy protests in the Middle East have not helped the left-wing, especially their argument of "Ohh, people in the Middle East don't want democracy, that's a Western concept!"  Recent events have shown this argument once again to be condescending, wrong-headed, and just plain incorrect.  However, the ousting of Gaddafi causes some other rather uncomfortable problems for the British left.

You see, before Obama there was Blair.  The American left should be aware that all this "let's all get along, even if you are a nutball dictator" is not a new Obama concept - it has been tried before.  This is especially the case in Britain where it has been tried from Chamberlain to Blair.

Just before he ceased to be Prime Minister, Tony Blair (in what was an effort to make his left-wing base more comfortable after going along with the invasion of Iraq - a surprisingly right-wing move) stretched out his hand to Gaddafi, kissed and made up about what went on in the past, secured the release of the Lockerbie bomber (unknown to the public at the time), and came back with some pretty hefty oil contracts.  The moral justification of this was that Gaddafi was set to be dictator for the long term future and that we should come to terms with it.  Instead of trying to oust Gaddafi, we should try to "dialogue" with him, which would moderate him and therefore be good for both countries.

So now Gaddafi has been proven to be oust-able, it makes Britain look like a collaborator in keeping him in power for as long as he has been.  International figures have already started to comment on this, the most notable being Louis Susman - the US ambassador to London - who has blamed the British policy for keeping Gaddafi in power and giving him international legitimacy.

Susman for once is absolutely right.  The silence from the Labour party on Libya over the last week is very telling - they know that their policy on this matter was wrong, and they have egg on their faces.  They took a gamble, both morally and economically, and it has failed.  Britain's moral standing has taken a hit, and the oil deals that have been gambled upon could fall through the floor.  Libyans who have seen Britain collaborate with their now hated leader will not forget their betrayal by what is supposed to be one of the leaders of the free world.  It will make any relations with Libya an a post-Gaddafi Libya very difficult indeed for Great Britain.

Once again, under the banner of "peace", "dialogue" and "realism", the left-wing have collaborated with evil tyrants and dictators, and this time it has backfired.  It will take a long time to undo the damage that has been done, both to Libya and to Britain, by the British left.

Britain - Tax, Tax, Tax, Tax....

So far, the Coalition government in Britain has been an enormous failure when it has come to issues of taxation.  After a promising start where the income tax threshold was raised from £7,500 to £10,000, it was then announced that in order to "make up" for the loss in taxes, the middle class and the rich would predictably get soaked some more in order to compensate for it.  They then raised the already high VAT (or sales tax) from 17.5% to 20%.

While this wouldn't be a disaster in a normal country, in socialist Britain where everywhere one turns there is another large tax waiting for you, it is yet more theft from those who work hard to provide for themselves and for their families, and who have dared to have the audacity to be successful.  Iain Martin has written an incredible article on this, and I fully recommend that anyone interested in this subject takes the time to read this article, as it sums up brilliantly the current state of taxation in Britain and the Coalition's decision to make it worse.

In addition to a now 20% sales tax in Britain, from this year those earning over £35,000 (approximately $50,000) will be hit with a 40% income tax.  Even when one considers the raising of the threshold, this is still an unbearable tax burden.  Add into this things such as the high corporation tax that affects those working in business, inheritance taxes, National Insurance taxes and enormously high fuel prices, and the result is a Britain that is not an easy place in which to work or do business.

We have known this for a while, but for the predominantly conservative Coalition to be making this worse and not better, is a real scandal.  It needs Brits to begin putting pressure on their government to ease the tax burden, just like Americans have been doing through organisations such as the Tea Party, as it seems like all of our political parties have one thing in common - they want to tax us more!

The UK's Pitiful Economic Freedom

Shocking but not surprising news from the Wall Street Journal and Economic Affairs this morning.

Their study of Economic Freedom places Britain 16th and America 9th.  Hong Kong is at the top, followed by Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland.  In addition to this, Britain ranked 169th out of 179 for "fiscal freedom" behind nations such as Zimbabwe and the Congo!  Finally, for government spending we are ranked 156th

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.  The last government spent and spent and spent and spent......and spent!  That this has enormous ramifications both for our businesses (who are always the first to get hit when the left start eyeing up potential tax targets) and our economic stability as a whole, and the left's pathetic claim that even the slightest public spending cut will destroy "the poorest and the most vulnerable in our society" (seriously, do these guys have that as a macro?) is a mere tactic to completely dodge the fact that Britain is economically screwed, and that they are the ones who caused it.

How can we possibly expect businesses to choose to come here and create jobs and provide investment when we are less economically welcoming than Robert Mugabe?  And when our "vicious" spending cuts are as pitiful as they are, and barely scratch the surface, we do not offer inviting prospects going forward either.  As much as the left like to stamp on business and talk about how evil the corporations are, the fact is that without them, we are going to have a higher unemployment rate, higher spending on welfare and an even higher debt.  We had such a situation in the 1970's and Britain was nearly destroyed.  It took years for Thatcher to rescue us from that, and yet we somehow have managed to get ourself back into the very same hole, caused by following the exact same route as before - socialism.

Britain has traditionally been a fairly solid place to set up a business.  It has never been quite as attractive as America, but it has always been solid, and this is one of the reasons we have remained prosperous.  If we intend to regain that prosperity, this government needs to be get some balls, cut spending, cut taxes and stop scaring away investment and businesses.  It is only by doing this that we can get Britain's economy back onto track, which will ultimately increase, not decrease, the tax revenue coming in, which will allow us to turn the deficit into surplus, and start paying off our crippling generational debt.

The Royal Couple Checkmate the Left

After the Royal Wedding was announced last week, we saw lots of hand wringing by those on the left, "anxious" about "excessive" expense on the upcoming Wedding  in a time where welfare and the power of government is being cut.  "We couldn't have that" said they, "It should be simple" they pined.

Of course, this was really about the left's distaste for those principles that the monarchy stand for.  In attempting to "draw attention" to these issues and politicise the wedding, they were attempting to hijack the happy day for William and Kate in order to push forward their own political ends.  However, it has now been completely wrecked.

It has been reported today that not only have Prince William and Miss Middleton set the date, but that (apart from security and clean up) the Royals and the Middleton's will be footing the entire bill.  Although I am sure that there will be some who attempt to claim this as a victory, this is actually a stunning checkmate for the Royals, and a disastrous defeat for the left.  This is because the left can no longer have any axe to grind about the whole thing.

The wedding was being set up by the left-wing media to be an horrific display of "pomp and privilege", to be contrasted with pictures of the Dickensian nightmare that we are told haunts Britain, all because "the rich" are too mean and stingy to give more than half their income to the taxman.  It was through this that the left would try and turn this happy day into a political canvassing opportunity for their cause, a cause that would result in the abolishment of the last checks and balances of state power and an even greater concentration of power into our State machine.

Now, they are going to have to regroup, and they will have to do it quickly, as this is quickly turning into the Monarchy's finest hour.  The Wedding will put Britain on the map once again, it could stimulate the economy by billions in the short term, and will increase tourism to Britain in the medium to long term.  It will make Brits proud of their country, proud of their traditions, and will inject both a patriotism and a religiosity into the British public at large that has not been seen for a very long time.

Do not underestimate this.  This is Defcon 1 for the British left.  They will try and attack this wedding with everything they have, but at the moment they have nothing.  Let us hope that it stays this way.

Britain is Losing its Nerve

I told you this wouldn't last long.....

I predicted last week that the announced spending cuts would very quickly be challenged, and soon the government would fall to pieces over it.  In fairness to David Cameron, a week later he is still staying strong, but there are members of his party who are trickling off.  One of the more "controversial" announcements is that housing benefit is to be capped at £400 a week for a family of four.

Despite the fact that this amounts to over £20,000 a year of untaxed housing benefits, the left are still bitching.  Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee said last week that this amounts to nothing less than "a final solution" for the poor, stating that poor people will be "driven out" of nice areas, into squalor and poverty where there are no jobs.  The association with the Holocaust is obvious, and disgusting.

It is also complete nonsense.  £20+K in housing benefits (approx $30K) is a high figure.  It is more than a great deal of people who aren't on housing benefits can afford.  Why should taxpayers pay poor people to live in houses that they themselves cannot afford?  It is nonsense, and the facts get in the way of the leftists fear-mongering, and that is why they scream all the louder to drown out the facts.  All that was necessary was for the government to stand behind their decision, wait for the screaming to die out, and explain just why this was an unfair system, and why it was necessary for it to be reformed.  That was, unless a particular mayor is up for re-election and is a complete coward.

Enter London Mayor Boris Johnson, who is up for re-election very soon.  If you are not familiar with Mr Johnson, he is an extremely popular Conservative MP, who is popular mainly because he occasionally says outrageous things, or appears on a comedy show and makes jokes.  His policies and beliefs however change with whatever the new of the day is.  Occasionally he will look like a hard-right Tory, other days like a socialist nut job.

Today it is the latter, and he has thrown the government under the bus, claiming that he would make sure that "Kosovo style social cleansing" would not happen in London.  Since then he has backtracked and claimed he had been quoted out of context, claiming that he actually does accept the cuts.  I don't believe him, and even if I do, his statement is still insensitive as well as idiotic.  I have listened to what he has said, and he is going along 100% with the line that these cuts are brutal and therefore needs extra interference from him so it doesn't result in social cleansing.

The problem with Boris is that, whether he does believe in the cuts or not, he has gone along with the left-wing narrative.  That narrative is that these cuts will be brutal and unfair, and if we don't do something, the result will be horrific.  Johnson may argue that they are necessary, but he is trying to be a moderate, and accepts that these cuts are unjust and harsh.  What he should have done was hold the line and say that spending a stunning £400 a week on a family on housing benefits is outrageous and needs altering immediately, whether there is a deficit or not.  The debt only makes them more urgent.

He has not done this, and has instead put the government on the defensive, he has given momentum to the opposition.  We should be arguing not that "well, we have to do it", but "this is the just thing to do as it is unfair to the taxpayer, and not good for society to be handing out enormous benefits."  By wussing out of this, Johnson has put conservatives into great difficulty.  He should focus less on his own career, and more on the good of the country.

Conservatives need to stay strong, but at the moment we are crumbling.