Always Be An England

English Conservatives are having the same problem w/ their 27% even-righter-wing that our Republican friends are having. Though it seems at least one Tory had the intestinal fortitude to be honest & specific about them. "Mad, swivel-eyed loons."

In remarks immediately seized on by Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, the senior Tory said that the party's MPs have to rebel against the leadership because they face pressure from hardline associations.

Farage, who knows the identity of the Tory, tweeted: "If you are a Conservative supporter who believes in Ukip ideas then your party hates you. Come and join us."

The senior Tory made the remarks – in earshot of journalists – after being asked about the decision of 116 Tory MPs to defy the prime minister and vote in favour of an amendment regretting the absence of a EU referendum in the Queen's speech.

The Conservative said: "It's fine. There's really no problem. The MPs just have to do it because the associations tell them to, and the associations are all mad, swivel-eyed loons."

The unnamed Tory wasn't pulling anyone's leg; here's some of what the Limey loonies have to say:

"People want, in a sense, to revert back to how we were," she says. "You know: we won the second world war, only we've lost it now, because Germany's taken over… But we had people then, ready to stand up like Churchill and say, 'This is what we're going to do.' A lot of people in this country are saying, 'Where are the leaders? Where are the people prepared to take a stand?' "

As well as the awfulness of modern politicians, immigration, the amount of money Britain pays into the EU, the alleged failings of multiculturalism, the need drastically to cut the UK's foreign aid budget and the dazzling brilliance of the late Margaret Thatcher, Ukip members mention the second world war a lot. But McCaffery's take on 1939-45 is that bit more interesting. Unprompted, she explains her support of the theory that Britain eventually saw off the Germans thanks to the power of prayer. "The soldiers at Dunkirk were able to come back on a calm sea, whereas the German aircraft couldn't take off from their places because the weather was so bad… There were all sorts of changes that happened, and part of it was a result of people praying and asking God for help."

Two different village idiots:

There is talk of "the British way of life". As Downes sees it, "A lot of people of our generation – the grey pound, sort of thing – really feel, why has our culture become unimportant?" There is also unease about same-sex marriage. "The problem is, you're going to put churches in a position where it won't be long before someone will go to the European court and say they're being discriminated against," he says. "So it opens up a whole hornet's nest."

The two also talk, at some length, about the EU – once again with the seemingly obligatory references to Hitler and Churchill. "My father fought in the second world war, as millions of people from this country did," Downes says. "We fought to free Europe from tyranny. And we're now in a position where we're almost being… controlled by a communist regime, in my view, where the EU controls everything."

"It may not necessarily be communist, but it's authoritarian," Le Gresley offers. "It's no longer non-democratic: it's anti-democratic."

[...]

Keith Gibbs, 65, joined in 2012. He's an ex-policeman and another disciple of Margaret Thatcher. "She looked after the armed forces and the police, and I'm all for that," he tells me, nursing a lunchtime pint in a pub garden in nearby Rayleigh. "I mean, we're becoming a third world country really, the way we're going."

How? "Our military's going down and down, and you're going to get to a stage where we won't be able to defend ourselves."

And while the old folk miss the good old days, the younger ones spew the usual glibertarian crap:

His basic politics, he explains, is "libertarian". He goes on: "If you're asking me rather than the party, I think all taxation is immoral… I genuinely believe that if there's a real need for people to give money, then people will give it if they're not forced to."

This takes me aback. He really thinks that an entirely voluntary system could fund, say, schools, hospitals, the police and the roads? "If people needed roads and there wasn't this comfort blanket of the state providing everything, they'd be built." What about the NHS? "I'm probably straying too far off policy now. But people would donate to make sure people were fit and healthy."

Ah, the English-speaking peoples.