The Curmudgeon

YOU'LL COME FOR THE CURSES. YOU'LL STAY FOR THE MUDGEONRY.

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Little Charmers

Prospective Conservative MPs are being groomed by a disturbingly plain-spoken organisation called the Young Britons' Foundation, a self-proclaimed "Conservative madrasa" whose chief executive has called for environmental protestors to be "shot down" for violating the sanctity of private property. He also considers the NHS to be "the biggest waste of money in the UK", favours torture provided the circumstances are appropriate (i.e. if the US says it's all right), and has had his dear pupils entertained by the delightfully maladroit Conservative party chairman, Eric Pickles; by their Minister for Whig History, Michael Gove; and by Daveybloke's chief barker and blatherer on defence, Liam Fox; besides such predictable preachers of moderation as John Redwood and David Davis. The president of the Young Britons' Foundation is Daniel Hannan, another public health expert who is a Conservative MEP and thus a member of that charming European political grouping for whose tastes the likes of Silvio Berlusconi are too left-wing. The Young Britons' Foundation's idea of giving students experience of another culture is to fly them to Virginia to play with automatic weapons.

On being asked about his involvement with these clean-limbed young builders of the future, Liam Fox said that just because he spoke to them doesn't mean he endorses them, which is fair enough. Let us hope he broke it gently that a nuclear attack on Iran followed by an invasion of China via the Churchillian underbelly of Russia may not be a realistic prospect, at least for the early years of the first Daveybloke administration. Eric Pickles didn't know anything about anything and then didn't return calls, which puts him in the unenviable plight of being less level-headed than Liam Fox. Conservative Central Office denied any official links with the group, but "strongly recommends" activists to attend the courses. The Young Britons' Foundation is a broad church, just like Conservative Central Office, and you never know when a firing squad might come in handy.

3 Comments:

  • At 8:36 pm , Anonymous darjeeling junkie said...

    From their website
    if you have the time, read The Guardian each day. If that doesn’t get you angry, nothing will. But save time, in particular, to be repulsed by the nauseating, self-congratulatory deceit that personifies Polly Toynbee’s columns.

    I don't really want to divert this comment box onto why I object to much of what Polly Toynbee has to say.All I will do is proclaim my mystification and amusement that Toynbee is regularly held up as some sort of 'left-wing' journalist.
    Philip,where might I recognise the "clean-limbed" thing from? I know what it makes me think of(fascists),but I don't know why.

     
  • At 10:58 pm , Blogger Philip said...

    Clean-limbed goes with clear-eyed, stout-hearted, guileless and pure, all of which were Nazi favourites - all part of the culture of regimentation and the valuing of the "straightforward" and physical over the complex and intellectual. Of course, a party chaired by Eric Pickles and fronted by David Cameron can no more be accused of excess physical jerks than it can be accused of placing excessive stress on intellect; but many Conservatives do like to play at being Boy Scouts with guns - the kind of chap who is trained to help old ladies across the road at seven years of age so he can grow up and help control the fuzzy-wuzzies at seventeen.

     
  • At 4:44 pm , Anonymous darjeeling junkie said...

    Thanks Philip-I understand now-I think these tendencies were more widespread during the first half of the 20thC. I think it's interesting how much of Nazi ideas and culture can be first found in the Anglo-American world of say,1890-1930,if we're being generous,or 1890-present day if we're not.
    I shall look less kindly upon bellowing,thuggish,overgrown,public school rugby boys in future.

     

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