Friday, April 1, 2011

Possibly the beginning of the beginning

Some time ago I posted a somewhat critical piece about the so-called UK Tea-Party Movement, whose first (and only successful) meeting was really a fringe event at one of the Conservative Party conferences in Brighton. Chaired and addressed by Conservative MEPs, it was attended by Conservative delegates to the conference. Unsurprisingly, it got nowhere.

I can now report about a much more exciting initiative: a Rally Against Debt to be held in London on May 14. This is a genuinely private initiative, unconnected to the Conservative Party though at least one MEP has, as could have been expected, already jumped on the bandwagon. Let us hope he will not insist on addressing the event to tell us that the only way forward is to support the Boy-King.

Still, there are other supporters. Ed West has blogged about it in the Telegraph. Word is being spread through the social networks. The Facebook site is becoming very popular. So, anyone who can, please join us on the day.

As more news and support come in, I shall post about it. In the meantime, here is what the organizers say about the event:
A well mannered, polite rally for civilised people who don’t wish to see their hard earned money being spent on pointless government initiatives and instead would like government spending to actually fall and our national debt to be cut.
We don’t think that it’s fair for us to continue borrowing money to live a lifestyle that we simply can’t afford – burdening our children with unnecessary debt that they will have to pay back.

Any visits to Fortnum and Mason’s by protestors will only be to marvel at their selection of quality goods and perhaps make the occasional purchase.

Bonfires will be strictly forbidden: it’s out of season anyway.

Trips to see Vodafone and other high street chains will result in congratulations to the company for providing jobs and growth in the UK.
How can you resist such blandishments?

UPDATE: Just found Harry Phibbs's posting on ConHome.

2 comments:

  1. I would definitely have joined in this rally but will be in Austria (I will not be blaspheming Islam or any other religion). I hope that 1000s take part to show the government that we are not prepared to accept tax on tax on tax; especially to pay for the EU and windmills.

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  2. I don't think it will be as large as the other one - not enough money to organize it. As someone said on the site the NUS is not going to provide coaches for people to come down for free. But it may well be larger than the government expects and will certainly be better behaved than the anti-cuts demo. After all, the tea parties started with meetings of 20 or 50 and look where the movement is now.

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