Wednesday 15 June 2011

More wise words

Courtesy of CallingEngland comes this interview on Russia Today - with Nigel Farage - on the euro crisis in Greece.

As I am in an 'Enoch Powell fest' , lets have another quotation that seems quite pertinent:
"We are taunted—by the French, by the Italians, by the Spaniards—for refusing to worship at the shrine of a common government superimposed upon them all... where were the European unity merchants in 1940? I will tell you. They were either writhing under a hideous oppression or they were aiding and abetting that oppression. Lucky for Europe that Britain was alone in 1940."
Speech to the Merseyside Conservative Ladies' Luncheon Club (5 January, 1990), from Simon Heffer, Like the Roman. The Life of Enoch Powell (Phoenix, 1999), p. 928.
For the sake of the European continent the UK desperately needs to free itself from the tentacles of the EU for one reason; and that is when the entire edifice comes crashing down, someone is going to have to "bang a few heads together" - and lets face it, we do have some expertise of banging European heads together!

However, with the present decimation of our armed forces, the above scenario is perhaps unlikely - something this Great Man also foresaw:
"The safety of this island nation reposes upon two pillars. The first is the impregnability of its homeland to invasion by air or sea. The second is its ability and its will to create over time the military forces by which the last conclusive battle will be decided. Without our own industrial base of military armament production neither of those pillars will stand. No doubt, with the oceans kept open, we can look to buy or borrow from the other continents; but to depend on the continent of Europe for our arms is suicide."
Speech to the Birmingham branch of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Association (18 February, 1989), from Enoch Powell on 1992 (Anaya, 1989), pp. 49-50.

11 comments:

kenomeat said...

Perhaps we should promote a national Enoch Powell day (his birthday) on the internet, with postings of his speeches from Youtube. I'm being serious; it could raise awareness of what our country missed when the Tories failed to elect him as leader and stimulate debate on proper Conservative policies. (Is Farage the closest we have now to the great man or can anyone think of a more worthy successor?)

WitteringsfromWitney said...

k Whilst Enoch had a way with words (and boy could he speak) his phraseology today would not be understood, I don't believe.

As to NF, possibly but he needs to drop the you know phrase, one he uses too often.

kenomeat said...

Just watched on Youtube the 2008 BBC film about Enoch's Rivers of Blood speech. That which really caught my attention was that some 80% of people polled after his speech agreed with him. As he was seeking an end to immigration (then about 50,000 p.a.)and the people clearly agreed with him, how significant that the politicians took not a blind bit of notice and immigration actually increased.

kenomeat said...

What a coincidence; tomorrow (16th) is Enoch's birthday.

TomTom said...

Well the EU is now keen to regulate our use of energy and set targets for household reduction according to People's Commissar Oettinger to the point where the utilities have said he might as well nationalise them as organs of state

PeterCharles said...

Well it certainly looks like we are now entering the economic end game. It seems the Greek tragedy has been kicked down the road as far as it can be, now comes decision time.

The next kick of the economic can, restructure, default, Euro ejection, more bailout, whichever it is the can could go anywhere and that's what terrifies them. Any of the available choices could conceivably bring down the ECB, which would kick every European economy, including ours, into the long grass, trigger crunch2 which will make crunch1 seem like a minor hiccup, bring down Frau Merkel and Sarkozy, see a new military government in Greece, throw Spain and Italy into the drain hole or even all of them.

And just to add insult to injury Iceland has just successfully floated a billion dollar bond auction at 5% and the latest figures show their economy humming nicely. Default was their best option, Ireland's too though it would probably bring down at least one UK bank.

WitteringsfromWitney said...

k: Politicians haven't change much then, have they?

An yes the date did not pass without notice.....

TT: Why not, they are just as nationalised as if they were natio.....

PC: Agreed, but see that Iceland has opened negotiations to join the EU....... Can't see the people agreeing to that, somehow.....?

PeterCharles said...

WfW, Icelandic politicians are still politicians, for politicians anywhere in Europe EU membership is a wet dream. I have no doubt they all see themselves as then being BIG fish in a small pond rather than the reality of a minnow in an ocean. But then, we all agree politicians have a very large but natural reality deficit.

Still, for small countries EU membership can be a very good thing, or would be if it weren't for the Euro crisis. Don't forget Ireland had a net subsidy of around £40 billion over the 25 years from 1973 which allowed it to modernise its infrastructure and institutions and impose the low tax rates that enticed so much multinational industry there. It would also be in a much better state now if it had let its banks go bust, probably able to limit its loss of general standard of living to around 5% temporarily in contrast to probably being reduced to a pre 1973 level which would drop it 30 - 35% potentially for decades. That scenario is unlikely to arise, of course, once Greece defaults, and there is no other possible outcome, Ireland will follow.

I rather think, as you say, the people of Iceland will look at Ireland and Greece, shudder and say no thank you, if the politicians actually ask, of course.

WitteringsfromWitney said...

PC: I may be wrong but I seem to recall that a referendum is obligatory on this......?

Anonymous said...

A Greek Tragedy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO0N_UsByt0

WitteringsfromWitney said...

A: Thanks - had actually seen that.