Saturday, 2 April 2011

Lord Tebbit - an interview

Bryony Gordon interviews Lord Tebbit in today's edition of the Daily Telegraph - someone for whom I have great respect, something which cannot be said about the vast majority of our present day politicians. Some excerpts:

On the Brighton Bombings:
"It is not a surprise that Lord Tebbit cannot find it in himself to forgive Magee. Does he think God exists? “I’m not sure. He ought to. Things would work better. I said to someone the other day that it’s up to God whether he forgives him [Magee], not for me. All I’d like to do is accelerate the time of the interview."
On government:
"...the priorities of government are defence, enforcing law and looking after the economy and infrastructure, and that it should not get involved with social mores."
 On being a Conservative:
"He says he is more of a Conservative than David Cameron. The Big Society is just a “buzzword. It’s a logo looking for a product”. He wants to turn the party back to being nationalist and jokes that he would like it to go into coalition with the UK Independence Party."
 On Cameron:
"I’m not sure what he believes in. Let me put it tactfully like that...... David was more concerned about being prime minister than what he was going to do as prime minister. I think that’s the heart of it."
 As Brynony Gordon reports, Lord Tebbit has been described as the greatest Prime Minister we never had. Together with Enoch Powell, Lord Tebbit exhibits traits that so many of our politicians lack: honour, principle, a belief in small government and the independence of the nation state.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lord Tebbit has also had real life experience WfW.

He must despair of the conveyor belt produced clowns we have running us now.

I just wish that those across all parties like Tebbit had been more vociferous concerning the EU when they were at their peak.

WitteringsfromWitney said...

BJ: Totally agree, especially with your last para.

13th Spitfire said...

There'll be more like him.

It is a similar parallel to this country's engineering skills. Anyone who knows anything about British engineering should really commit suicide; we are the only country to have developed satellite launching capabilities and then ditched it. But we can build it tomorrow if we want to. There'll be no lack of ingenuity coming out from these isles anytime soon.

Same with politics there are plenty of good honest politicos waiting in the galleries once the current bunch of idiots have gone.

Cometh the hour cometh the man. Not to worry.

Woodsy42 said...

I wish I had your optimism 13th! I do agree that this country has a history of producing people of extrordinary skills, but I think the hour is nigh and I don't see them yet.

derek.buxton1 said...

I'm with Woodsy42, I do not see anyone in any sphere coming to the rescue, in politics, science or engineering. The education system is just not good enough to produce any. And looking at Cameron and his public school buddies, I see nothing there either.

kenomeat said...

Whilst I respect Lord Tebbit he, like nearly all modern politicians, has put his party before his country. Should he defect to UKIP the boost to the independence movement would be seismic and might lead to an avalanche of defections. He might modestly play down his own influence but it is far greater than he thinks.

WitteringsfromWitney said...

13th: Problem is how long will the hour be coming?

W42 & d.b1: Agree with you both.

k: True, every point you make!