Reaction to the Inaugural British Tea Party Event
Surprisingly, there have been calls in the UK press for just such a tea party organization. Simon Jenkins made a strong case for such a movement to help bring Conservative leader David Cameron to sanity on the issues.
Why is there no British Tea Party? Where are the crowds of revenue slaves flocking to London to demand redress for the squandering of their money? Marginal tax is rising to 50%, VAT to 17.5% and state spending towards half the national product. The Treasury has lost control of public finance. So why no furious blue-rinses, bail-out haters, bonus-bleaters and embittered VAT victims storming parliament? Has a corrupt political class reduced the British people to quiescent gerbils?
Janet Daley in the Telegraph echoes this sentiment and calls for a return to passion in politics:
The two sides hurl knowledgeable quotes from the founding fathers and the Constitution at one another. Where is the major British party that will engage in an argument of such force and scope? Who will question the received wisdom of the middle-ground consensus?
The Freedom Association, which sponsored the tea party event, had several good reports on the goings-on. Alan M said this about it all:
The best news of the evening was simply that it was very crowded, Dan had to stop speaking after a few minutes to allow the audience to shift around so they could fit everyone into the room, there were so many that they had to fill up the area behind the podium as well as the room in front. The amount of CO2 in the room was getting decidedly dangerous towards the end and was undoubtedly causing a warming spike in the local climate.
There were some who urged caution about lumping it into the whole tea party meme:
The trouble is that this was not a tea party organized by local activists as they have been doing in the United States for a year or so; it was a fringe meeting at a party conference and that party is hoping to win the next election. Mr. Hannan is an active member of that party and eventually he had to face that and talk about what the Conservatives are going to do about all these matters, in particular about the fact that we are Taxed Enough Already.
Debate if you must whether it’s a proper tea party or whether it was just another fringe event at a Conservative conference. What was being said and discussed was probably unique to that room. While the Conservatives are worried about making any fuss over the rate of taxation, the choking state, and the burden of out-of-control government, people who attended the tea party meeting cared about these issues.
Simon Richards, in an email chat, informed me that this is just the start of such events. There are rallies planned before the imminent election in London. I suspect that if the election results in a hung parliament, and there is no change in prime minister or policy, the movement will really take off in a big way.
If the Conservatives do succeed in getting a majority, the tea party movement will be waiting to see how Cameron manages all their concerns. They will give him time, but I can assure you they will be back in a big way if the status quo remains. It might be a tea party with a British twist, but the attendees’ basic concerns are the same as those of any tea party protester across the U.S.
Good wrap up, Ian.
I, for one, welcome our British cousins to the Tea Party family!
Excellent. I do hope and pray that there will always be an England.
Please note: Kenneth Irvine was merely a consultant and never a member of the party. I apologize for the misunderstanding.
I have no current connection with the UK Independence Party. As a consultant, I acted as the party’s Campaign Director for the 2009 European election campaign. The party came second in that election and beat the governing Labour and Liberal Democrat parties.
The Freedom Association, for whom I organised the Dan Hannan meeting, is a non-party organisation. Its officers, members and supporters include Parliamentary members of the Conservative, Labour and UK Independence Parties as well as independent cross-benchers in the House of Lords.
It warms my heart to see our brothers from across the pond getting into gear to take back their country.
I apologize for the misunderstanding. okay
Shoot. I could’ve gone, but I didn’t think about it until too late. And we had what was reported to be a HUGE storm coming up the Channel from the direction of Brighton (fortunately, it mostly landed on France).
Honestly, I’ve been coming here since the mid-Nineties, and I can’t work out why the Brits haven’t risen up and marched on Whitehall. I thought the petrol protests from a few years ago might come to something, but they flared and died away.
2 things, Andrew. First of all, and I am willing to guess that Tom Brokaw unintentionally meant to give the Tea Party Movements on either side a boost, when in the 6 minute presentation of explaining
Canada to the United States, during the NBC run up to the Opening Ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics, we see very early on in the piece these words on the Peace Arch between Surrey, BC. and Blaine, Washington: Children of a common mother.
In just over 5 years, it will be the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. I purport that the Tea Party movements on either side of the Atlantic are doing the most to prepare for that auspicious anniversary. For, what does the Magna
Carta bestow upon the governed – you are more than sweepings.
These are exciting times in which to live, because I am confident that I speak for more than myself in that there is nothing like a good fight. The powers that be will defend their perks to the hilt, so it will be a knock-down, drag out affair. The winner, of
which I am positive will be the Tea Party movement, will be bloodied, but triumphant.
Nothing like a little grass roots uprising to bring people together!
Pip pip cheerio!
Got to love the decedents of the likes of Winston Churchill and Mr. Locke, not to mention the folks who gave us wonderful instruments of Liberty such as Habeas Corpus and the Magna Carter.
God Bless our cousins across the Atlantic, may we always be brothers and sisters of Liberty.
I have a sense of optimism regarding our good cousins that I haven’t had in years! Mr. Hannan will hopefully lead Britain to a more sensible, liberty-oriented system of governance which will be more responsible with the public funds. Just like what we want here.
“ENGLAND-STAN”….is well on it’s way to be devoured by their “immigrants”…Islamic of course. Do try to keep a stiff upper lip….mates.
They have gone a long ways downhill in Dear Old Blighty, and have a lot of work to do if they think they can reclaim their Nation.
I have been the only regular American to participate in Tim Montgomerie’s British ConservativeHome forums over the past 4 years and frankly I’m disappointed as a substantial percentage of Tories are not what Americans of conservative/libertarian bent can relate. They view Dan Hannan as too far right and disruptive. They are not only ignorant but eager to believe the left-leaning media’s angle that the American Tea Party are poisoned with “rednecks” and all around low life. They have a general anti-American view of the American right period, blaming us for a lot of their problems instead of wanting to understand our values and embrace willing friends. I don’t say its everyone, there are some outstanding citizens every bit as knowledgeable and committed as we have here but as I’ve said in posting there too many are no longer from Great Britain but instead, a resentful and scapegoat generation of Great Victim. I highly suspect if/when Cameron and Co. take control it won’t be long before the BBC, Guardian etc. rip them apart and they implode when Tory bashing becomes cool again.
Just like in the States I think your very fledgling Tea Party movement is your only hope but unfortunately your going to have to convert many who at present are petty superior-minded fools thinking they are above you.
Hope they can get it together before dissent itself is outlawed. England is a complete surveillance-statist mess, far worse than even America where peace movements are infiltrated by government goons. They’ll face rabble-rousing agents, coercion, and all manner of spying even to exist, let alone wield any political clout.
I live 8 miles from Brighton and I missed it. Damn! If only Cameron represented people like me who are self-employed,not that well-off and didn’t go to public school(that means private in American). I think the Tea Party in the U.S. has real blue collar support,is that true? Cameron’s Tories are hampered by their elite backgrounds. I agree with Dark-star,we are already a surveillance state and to resist it is to be labelled a racist,fascist,reactionary etc………….Cameron may be better than Brown but I agree with Peter Hitchens that things have to get a lot worse before the Tories will really become a conservative party again.
With people like Andrew, former politicians like Monte Solberg and Sarah Palin, and current lawmakers like Daniel Hannan – change is welcome.
Check this out: http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/monte_solberg/2010/03/12/13210031.html
They have gone a long ways downhill in Dear Old Blighty, and have a lot of work to do if they think they can reclaim their Nation.