Incidentally, it must have escaped Greywolf's notice that I have championed Peter's work on this blog and have no objection whatsoever to good work being claimed as such. Although opinions are subjective, here's one of mine from the archives:
"
Peter Hitchens said the single most important thing at that conference - that Cameron should offer a way out of Europe"
David Cameron is in Brussels now.
Osborne announced 'cuts' of £81bn over the next 5 yrs. We pay the EU £45m a day. Over 5 yrs that equals £82 billion. That's without the increase in our contributions recently announced under the ConDem government. Vodaphone has been 'let off' a £6bn tax bill. Almost the entire amount saved in cuts to welfare in the UK. Why? Can you imagine a private person being 'let off' their tax bill? The ConDem cuts have clearly targetted the poor more than any other group. Is this sensible fiscal management or more social engineering?
I championed Peter's recent Mail on Sunday column elsewhere. You can read the whole column, and comments, on the MoS website,
here. One of the important points made in the piece is:
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while Labour spent £600 billion (roughly £10,000 for every human being in this country) in their last year in office, the supposedly vicious cutter George Osborne plans to spend £692.7 billion (£11,500 per head) in 2014-15"
Happily for Peter, poor single parents and those most in need are seeing a decrease in housing benefit. They don't know how they will keep a roof over their childrens' heads.
What we are waiting for are the events
after Cameron's visit. The Conservative party have given nods of reassurance towards a referendum but slime their way through any real commitment. Quite the opposite. It seems that every event will be deemed something not requiring a referendum (like a new treaty giving Brussels more power). Which is a bit like the rich saying they would have fed Lazerous if they thought he was
really hungry but he never was.
Daniel Hannan tells us:
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Eurocrats have responded to the financial crisis with a massive power grab which will affect Britain regardless of whether or not we join the euro. Westminster MPs are will soon be asked to approve plans for Brussels surveillance of national budgets. The City of London will be severely disadvantaged by the EU’s new financial regulators"
The City of London matters to Britain. It is important. Hannan goes on to say:
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Denying Britain a Euro-referendum a second time would degrade people’s confidence in our democratic institutions"
And this is something Peter Hitchens is good at - drawing attention to the freedoms we have and that we might lose them by stealth. He champions freedom and liberty (although not always on an individual basis *ahem*) and I think the ConDems are a gift. I mean, you just can't make it up! I read recently that the changes the ConDems have made to Child Benefit are unenforceable. How true that is I don't know but what a fiasco changes to Child Benefit were. If ever a journalist was looking for something to write about, the ConDem government is a gift that keeps on giving.
Freedom is important. The freedom to sit in disgusting housing alone, with the amount of money the government has decided you need to live on is not quite the same thing as independance. The fear of losing your precious child to the state because some asshole with a psychology degree says he needs drugs and you just won't roll over and say 'Yes Sir!' is not a benefit of freedom. It's a 'benefit' of an authoritarian state.
Freedom is important. And I will walk in London and Oxford and wherever I bloody well please. Because being bullied is wrong, especially in a 'free' society. But I can't wear a badge in the
Socpa zone protesting anything, without permission. How free are you? Really? Or are we all caged in some human zoo, "Fat and safe and dull and lazy like some cow in a milking machine" ('Joy Adamson' - Born Free) What we need from those in authority is more freedom, not less.
On this day, dear readers, I wish you freedom. I insist upon it. And a happy birthday to Peter Hitchens. May he strive to make us all free, except from our love of God and our fellow man.
