Saturday, February 28, 2009
Where's William Hague When You Need Him?
For the last two years I have attended the CPAC Conference in Washington. It's a gathering of 'conservatives' from across the US. However, they're 'conservative' in a way which few conservatives in this country would recognise. They really are the faith, family and flag brigade.
This is a video of a speech to CPAC today by a thirteen year old young man called Jonathan Krohn. He's published a book called Defining Conservatism. Precocious isn't the word. It makes William Hague's speech to the 1977 Conservative Conference look positively wooden in comparison. I wonder if he will live to regret this speech. Donal Blaney wonders whether to call him "punchable or inspiring". I;d go for both.
While on the subject of CPAC, I remember a delightful conversation with a young man on the Movement for American Families stand (it may not have been called that, but you get the drift) on my first visit in 2007. I noticed a poster on the stand which didn't quite say they wanted to see all fags burn in hell, but you got the impression that was where they were heading. I politely engaged him in conversation and we had a 20 minute discussion, which took a distinct turn for the worse when I made clear to him I was one of the people he would like to see burn in hell. At the end of the conversation I said we'd have to agree to disagree and offered him my hand. He recoiled as if I had given him an electric shock. I gave him my best Paddington Bear gimlet stare and said rather firmly: "You WILL shake my hand." And he did. I bet he went and washed it afterwards, though.
Hattip Paul Waugh
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18 comments:
Ron Paul and the libertarian wing of the Republican Party really need to offer people an alternative.
Ugh.
If this hate-fuelled repugnant little goblin is the future of the GOP, they're even more doomed than they look now.
He looks like a drag queen.
In the UK, thirteen year old kids are becoming daddies.
In the USA, they are playing politics.
Figures.
Wrong, wrong, wrong Iain. There are a number of Taliban Tendency conservatives here (just as their influence is growing in the UK). They are indeed bonkers and deserve ridicule and marginalisation. The lesson we need to learn in the UK is not to import big government, compassionate conservatism.
But the majority of people here are libertarians, fiscal conservatives or cold warriors. Not sure why you've just misrepresented the CPAC crowd like that - most unlike you to be shoddy.
C-
Almost made a whole week without talking about being gay again!
Is he the MP for Shipley by any chance?
I pity the woman he marries.
the little blatherskite
Whatever the nasty comments here, he makes a mockery of this Country's education. An author, most Labour educated kids of today wouldn't know what that word meant.
As for "coq au vin", I recognised the rebuttal style immediately. Full of common sense and a wonder that a thirteen year old makes Brown seem three years old.
I hope that's not breaking house rules.
IanVists- 13 year olds in this country are also playing politics as members of the UK Youth Parliament; www.ukyp.org.uk
Hell. And you were a damn Brit, too! Yikes. Poor soul.
"I met someone who was a foreigner and gay and... and... he was nice!"
Just as well you didn't give him your Golliwog grin Iain. Then he would have certainly run a mile. A Paddington Bear gimlet stare was probably just the right note to strike.
Why do these people care what other people do in their private lives?
Louis Theroux spent some time with a particularly virulent sect of these types. He had more fun with the swingers, the whores, and even perhaps the comedy neo-fascists.
Conservatism is not an "ideology".
"Almost made a whole week without talking about being gay again!"
What a disgrace to blogging that Iain dares to mention his sexuality on his own blog!
Rush Limbaugh gave the keynote address last night.
You can read the transcript here.
You Englishmen with your Beefeater gin,Earl Grey tea, marmalade,topped with hot tonic froth cocktails!
Wild. I was making the point, first made by Old Holborn on here, that when Peter Hitchens and Iain Dale had their little tiff, one key element raised by Hitchens was that the "gay community" keep on about their sex lives. Iain disagreed. This is an example.
"keep on about their sex lives"
I am not sure why Iain should feel under any obligation to hide his sexual preference simply because it makes you and Old Holborn feel uncomfortable.
You could argue that since homosexuals have been persecuted, exiled, ostracised, jailed, and killed because of their sexual preferences, he is under an obligation to ignore people such as yourself who object to him mentioning his sexuality.
If he went around his local supermarket wearing an explicit t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan "I am an uphill gardener" you may have a point, but he doesn't, and you don't.
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