Quote of the day

From the Times:

"Something important is being said about democracy when the only legislative chamber to perform the functions that people expect — deliberation, revision, improvement — contained not a single elected politician." - Hugo Young

The truth about talent

...the truth about talent is this – talent is a set of skills you develop over time through desire.

People disagree and the old nature vs. nurture argument rears its ugly head. They say “surely you aren’t denying that gift and natural ability exist?” I do believe in gift ... But the gift of natural ability, without the awareness of it, or without passion attached to it, is either an unknown or unfulfilled potential. Even when natural ability is discovered and nurtured, it is only good for one thing – altering the trajectory of your learning curve.

From The Myth of Telent by Craig M Tanner.

Quote of the day

Call me an old dyed in the wool Thatcherite, but what poor old Albion needs is a lot less bleeding heart compassion nonsense & a great deal more individual freedom. Surveying the entire spectrum of British politics, there isn’t a single political party that is committed to rolling back state interference in peoples every day lives & mores the shame for that. - Mr. Free Market.

Quote of the day

If a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he next comes to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. - Thomas De Quincey.

Quote of the day

On low turnout during elections:

"Is it surprising that turnout is generally falling, when the outcome of elections does not represent what people really want?" - Peter Cranie.

Quote of the day

This one from Gandalf on the French NO:

Now we'll get a Chirac/Blair death-fight. Which is great, because nobody cares who wins...

This is worth a read too.

Quote of the day

Eric the Unread commenting upon that Galloway chap and his performance in the US:

Could any visiting Americans please explain how the only remaining superpower in the world can produce such weak and ineffective politicians? It was like watching Godzilla savage lightly-armed Tellytubbies.

I'm no fan of Galloway but if I had come to the whole thing cold I would be by now.

Quote of the day

Game on boys.

Neil Herron on government ignorance of the Bill of Rights and Magna Carta.

Apparently information leaked from the Inland Revenue reveals that two individuals have already refused to pay fines citing the Bill of Rights as the reason why.

Quote of the Day

"The turnout at the last election was pitiful and is likely to be even more so at the next one - probably below that in Iraq, where voters ran the gauntlet of bomb and bullet.

"In one of the world’s most secure democracies, how can such disillusion have set in?"

John Major, former leader of the Tory party, putting the boot into Blair and his New Labour machine.

On seeing that Alistair Campbell is back in Downing Street as Blair’s spin master in chief Major had this to say:

"But the identity of the spinner is a side issue. He is merely a mercenary, a hired hand. It is not the monkey, but the organ grinder who makes the music. The culprit is the man who commits them to behave as they do - the Prime Minister."

Ouch.

Quote of the day

This from Sean Gabb's speech at The Royal Society of Arts (“What's Wrong With British Conservatism?") on Tuesday.

All that is wrong with British conservatism is that it lacks a conservative party.

Quote of the day

Sometimes a single sentence can be so devastating that it stops the reader in their tracks:

Japan wonders why it is giving aid to a nation that has a program to put a man on the moon.

Labour council groups oppose ID card scheme

And now, from Norwich, it's the quote of the week:

Finger printing ordinary people and making them feel like criminals, then charging them for the pleasure, has no place in a supposedly free and liberal society. New Labour is becoming alarmingly authoritarian, to the point where even their own Council Groups cannot support them.

Quote of the day

Via Nick and from the graphic novel V for Vendetta:

'It does not do to rely too much on silent majorities, [...], for silence is a fragile thing...one loud noise, and it's gone... Noise is relative to the silence preceding it - the more absolute the hush, the more shocking the thunderclap. Our masters have not heard the people's voice for generations...and it is much much louder than they care to remember.'

Quote of the day

Listening to BBC radio 5 live this morning I caught the end of a programme about the various politically correct attitudes that seem to be in fashion with our moral guardians these days. You know the kind of thing, eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day, don't smoke, don't eat this or that, don't drive that particular kind of car, don't make derogatory remarks about this group of people etc. etc. During this piece one of the guests on the show said (and I am paraphrasing because my memory is dreadful this time of the morning):

These people want us to take responsibility for leading our lives the way they tell us we should be leading our lives.

Bingo, I thought. And if we don't they'll jolly well legislate to make sure that we do.




M'kay.....

Quote of the day

It’s one of life’s great tragedies that the brands of your own stupidity end up on the backs of the people who love you most.

From gangstories. Compulsive reading.

Quote of the day

From this BBC report on regional devolution in England:

The English people identify with their nation, and their cities, counties, boroughs and neighbourhoods, not with the government office regions - Caroline Spelman (Tory spokeswoman).

Quote of the day

This will be of fine service for you, you bag of the scum. I am sure you will not mind that I remove your manhoods and leave them out on the dessert flour for your aunts to eat.

From a collection of subtitles used in films made in Hong Kong.

Quote of the day

Maybe a bit too long to fit this category properly but it's too good to miss:

We know that it is a lie that changing our aftershave will make women lust after us; we know that not changing our phone for the latest one will not mean social death; we know that confidence does not come from using a certain deodorant; we know our bank does not really give damn about our welfare; we know the government is not there to look after us and that our tax money mostly just vanished down a bureaucratic black hole regardless of who you vote for. Moreover, we know that the people who make those claims to the contrary on the TV adverts and posters are not just wrong, they are barefaced liars who try to deceive us for a living. If we buy their products, it is in spite of the crap they throw at us, not because of it. - Perry de Havilland

Taken from his excellent Business Hippos and Blogging Birds article.

Quote of the day

But that's the way of our public sector these days. There are so many of the useless bastards that they have to make work for themselves, or someone might spot that a few thousand unnecessary civil servants are hiding behind the Emperor's new clothes.

From the pen of Barry Beelzebub.

There's a poem in there somewhere

Who would have thought that when Pandora’s box was finally opened they would find nothing but a huntsman’s horn?

Hey, I didn't say a good poem.

Quote of the day

People can’t choose their skin colour, or their sex or their sexual orientation, which is why racism and misogyny are so repellent. But a religion is a system of ideas like any other, and if you’re going to make inciting hatred against an idea illegal, you really should be ready for the consequence that upholders of the idea will demand the punishment of their opponents. - Nick Cohen

Quote of the day

"No coinage is politically neutral" - some expert on coins

I heard this last night on channel 4 during a program on Britain and the origins of the legend of King Arthur. It was uttered by expert in historic coinage , whose name I forget, and seemed not only likely true but also appropriate to one of my pet hates, namely the political union of European member nations and, more specifically, the coinage they want to thust upon us in the name of economic utopia.

Quote of the day

.....it might make their back passage smell of poo. - Mrs. England Project

Context deliberately not provided.

Quote of the day

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. - C. S. Lewis

Quote of the day

Yes, another one:

LIFE, they say, is a lottery. But life has taught me that some things, other than death and taxes, are dead certainties. It seems a safe bet, for instance, that as soon as newspapers stir up public outrage over something, the Home Secretary will promise a law to ban it. When it comes to new legislation, David Blunkett’s knee jerks so fast and often that his guide dog might need to wear a riot helmet. - Mick Hume

From this Times online article.

Quote of the day

In France it is rude to let a conversation drop; in England it is rash to keep it up. No one there will blame you for silence. When you have not opened your mouth for three years, they will think: "This Frenchman is a nice quiet fellow." Be modest. An Englishman will say, "I have a little house in the country"; when he invites you to stay with him you will discover that the little house is a place with three hundred bedrooms. If you are a world tennis-champion, say, "Yes, I don't play too badly." If you have crossed the Atlantic alone in a small boat, say, "I do a little sailing." - Andre Maurois (1885-1967), Three Letters on the English

From the CEP quotation page which is most definitely worth a visit.

Quote of the day

“Really, the last hundred years have been f***ing horrendous, haven’t they?” - Francis Fulford

Quote of the day

"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." - William Brandeis

Quote of the day

Sooner or later pretty much everyone with libertarian leanings comes up with the idea of living on the sea in international waters..... - Andrew Case, Transterrestrial Musings.

You know, I was thinking the same only yesterday.

Ha! When I read the above at Transterrestrial Musings it had a distinctively familiar feeling about it that I could not quite put my finger on. Yellow, I thought. Anyhow, Lurch, over at Gun Culture nails it.

Man, the mind is some kind of crazy medicine.

Quote of the day

This, by Charles Moore in the Telegraph:

But Lady Thatcher is right that she and Reagan made a good team because "although we shared the same analysis of the way the world worked, we were very different people". She stood for the stern, puritanical side of conservatism - the need to brace up and take the medicine. He stood for the optimistic, open, deeply American side of it - the idea that everything will be all right if only people are trusted to get on with their lives. Mix the two, and you harness the Special Relationship, for the first time in history, to the march of conservative ideas.

Quote of the day

One bleeding-heart type asked me in a recent interview if I did not agree that "violence begets violence." I told him that it is my earnest endeavor to see that it does. I would like very much to ensure - and in some cases I have - that any man who offers violence to his fellow citizen begets a whole lot more in return than he can enjoy. - Jeff Cooper, Cooper VS Terrorism.

Quote of the day

I know it's early but here it is anyway:

Read pretty well any account of how the British government responds to a threat to its sovereignty from the EU. First they say it is all a scare story. Then they say, well it has been proposed, but it will be resisted to the last gasp. Then they say that the new proposals, while maintaining the name, purpose and structure of the old proposals are in fact completely different than or at least heavily influenced by our tough negotiating stance. Then they swap whatever sacred principle it was for a deal on beetroot. - Natalie Solent

Quote of the day

As to the BNP themselves, I think their un-British attitudes were truly emphasised by the fact they had to invite a Frenchman to an event celebrating St George's Day weekend.

From Drake posting over at The Edge of England's Sword. Snigger.

Quote of the day

The world needs anger. The world often continues to allow evil because it isn't angry enough. - Bede Jarrett The House of Gold

The above quote is one that I have had stored in the vault for some time. It very quickly came to mind when I read this by some guy called Dennis Prager (via lgf). I was captivated by the first line:

If you love goodness and hate evil, this is a tough time to stay sane.

The quote I use above I don't use lightly. I understand and appreciate that anger is the cause of much of the evil that goes on today but that's not the kind of anger the quote is really referring to. It means the kind of anger that should be felt and expressed by two kinds of people but often isn't.

Firstly, the predominantly good but habitually indifferent. Those caught up in the day to day tasks of leading their complex and time draining lives. Those who know something happened in Rwanda, but didn't focus upon it until it was old news. Those who now look upon it as a history lesson rather than taking it on head-on when it was actually happening. We should have got angry about that, all of us, and made it impossible for the evil to continue.

Secondly the powerful. The quote refers to them in as much as it accuses them of not necessarily getting their priorities right. Gross domestic product, imports and exports, business contracts, not upsetting the balance. These can all be used by the powerful as an excuse for not getting angry enough and, consequently, allowing evil to continue.

Lack of anger can be bad. That is what the quote is getting at.

Quote of the day

"It's only a game if you win but if you lose it's a stinking waste of time." - Al Bundy

Quote of the day

From the moment anyone becomes involved with a terror group and devoted to the murder of a country's citizens to the moment they sever all such links, they have a right to life only in so far as their opponents see advantage in granting it. The killing of terrorists, like the hiring and firing of bureaucrats, is a proper function of the state. We all need to start saying so. - Peter Cuthbertson

Quote of the day

This one comes from my good Lady after she noticed that "European Summer Time" had been printed in her diary:

Oi, Europe. No!

Quote of the day

In tiny dribs and drabs, through lots of small errors, slants, distortions and descents into narcissism, the Old Media, at least, have squandered their credibility and their audience appeal until it's gotten to the point where the audience has noticed, and isn't accepting excuses any more. - Glenn Reynolds

Quote of the day

Dan, over at Jackalope pursuivant points us to an article by Thomas Strathclyde in the Telegraph which contains today’s quote of the day:

This is one of the unremarked fault lines in modern politics. Conservatives, old Labour and many traditional Liberals have an instinctive affinity for our ancient liberties, and the practices and conventions that balance our constitution.

The neo-rationalists - New Labour and the Roundhead tendency among Liberal Democrats - lack any such affinity. They think offices such as the Lord Chancellorship are bad because they are old. They fail to appreciate they have become old because they are good.

Quote of the day

If the continentals couldn't maintain an independent judicial system, then that's their fault. We've managed it perfectly well for centuries, and, as Conservatives realise but leftists can't even comprehend, the tradition is the guarantee. Break the tradition and you break the guarantee. - Iain Murray

Over at The Edge of England's Sword.

Quote of the day

This goes up as quote of the day simply because it made me laugh out loud. David Carr over at samizdata.net on David Goodhart and the progressive dilemma:

Ironically, in a state of affairs that the 'progressives' would like to see, 'diversity' and 'solidarity' are not polar opposites. 'Solidarity' means a whole population forced into a universal state of monochromatic immiseration under the stewardship of a dull, earnest and condescending ruling elite. 'Diversity' means exactly the same thing with the addition of some brown people.

Just you wait until Blunkett finds out you said 'brown people' David. You are so in for it.

Today is double quote day

Two quotes today. Notice the different delivery styles for the same subject matter:

"The rifle is a weapon. Let there be no mistake about that. It is a tool of power, and thus dependent completely upon the moral stature of its user. It is equally useful in securing meat for the table, destroying group enemies on the battlefield, and resisting tyranny. In fact, it is the only means of resisting tyranny, since a citizenry armed with rifles simply cannot be tyrannized."

"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."

from, The Art of the Rifle by Col. Jeff Cooper.

"Hey, Yutz! Guns aren't toys! They're for family protection, hunting dangerous or delicious animals and keeping the king of England outta your face!"

- Krusty the Clown from 'The Simpsons'

Quote of the day

G's Third Law:

In spite of all evidence to the contrary, the entire universe is composed of only two basic substances: magic and bullshit.

Quote of the day

Be careful lest, in casting out your demons, you cast out the best thing that is in you.

Nietzsche

Quote of the day

Samizdata contributor Gabriel Syme on Shepherds restaurant, Westminster, London:

One has to remember though that Shepherd's is frequented by politicians whose palates are not necessarily amongst the most discriminating, what with having to kiss arses all day long...

Quote of the day

Holy shit! I didn't think they still existed in England!

By Paul, the proprietor of the newly blog rolled Voice of the Future , commenting upon Tim's recent blog entry on wild boar in the British countryside.

I suspect that Paul's comment is exactly what most people would think if they ever encountered one. Word for word.

Quote of the day

From an article in the Telegraph titled I say, let them eat pheasant by Robert Gore-Langton:

Britain, once a cheerful land of Labradors and cordite, is enslaved to a sentimental cult of animal luvviedom. In the modern child-psyche meat and animals are now completely unrelated.

Quote of the day

"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppresive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." - H.L. Mencken

Quote of the day

And to lighten the mood, a few quotes on the subject of alchohol:

I'm not as thrunk as drinkle peep I am - unknown

I've never been drunk, but often I've been overserved - unknown

Only Irish Coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and fat - unknown

Sublime

The British left intermittently erupts like a pustule upon the buttock of a rather good country. - Frederick Forsyth

From an open letter to the visiting presedent of the United States of America, George Bush.

Quote of the day

I don't know who said this:

When subjected to extreme feminine heat and pressure, male hydrocarbons will often produce a diamond.

Quote of the day

Talking about Mercedes Benz:

"There are a number of mechanical devices which increase sexual arousal, particularly in women. Chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz 380SL convertible." - P.J.O'Rourke.

Some Churchill quotes

George Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill:

"Dear Winnie, Here are two tickets to my new play. Bring a friend, if you have one."

"Dear GBS, Sorry, but I can't make it to the opening night of your new play. However I would appreciate tickets to the second night performance - if you have one."

Lady Astor and Winston Churchill:

"Sir, if I were married to you, I would serve you posion in your wine."

"Madam, if I were married to you, I would drink it."

Besse Bradock MP and Winston Churchill:

"Sir, you are drunk."

"Indeed, Madam, and you are ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober."

On The Times' newspaper during the debate on Irish home rule:

"The Times is speechless, and takes three columns to express its speechlessness."

Quote of the day

After his Ignoble Disgrace, Satan was being expelled from Heaven.

As he passed through the Gates, he paused a moment in thought, and turned to God and said,

"A new creature called Man, I hear, is soon to be created."
"This is true," He replied.
"He will need laws," said the Demon slyly.
"What! You, his appointed Enemy for all Time! You ask for the right to make his laws?"
"Oh, no!" Satan replied, "I ask only that he be allowed to make his own."

It was so granted.

- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"

Quote of the day

I know that it's a bit early have a quote of the day but I doubt a better one will come to my attention today. If one does I'll be sure to punish myself.

I am not one who, to quote an American author, believes that democracy and enterprise have finally won the battle of ideas - that we have therefore arrived at the end of history, and there is nothing left to fight for. That would be unutterably complacent, indeed foolish. There will always be threats to freedom, not only from frontal assaults, but more insidiously by erosion from within. - Margaret Thatcher

Jeepers

I'm up on samizdata.net's quote of the day.

How did that happen?