“Conservatives achieved nothing in 14 years!”
You hear it all the time. But is it quite true?
God knows they made mistakes. But they had real achievements, too.
Tragically, all those achievements are now being undone.
Let’s consider some of them.
1/6 In 2010, the Tories inherited a deficit that was higher than in Greece and an economy in deep recession. Slowly and patiently they restored order to our public finances.
Now Labour is blowing it all away again. Spending, taxes and borrowing are all on the rise.
2/6

#OTD 250 years ago, the Second Anglosphere Civil War began. British settlers in Massachusetts had taken up arms in defence of what they saw as their inherited rights. Regular troops were sent to disarm them.
1/4 In the skirmish that followed at Lexington, eight Patriot militiamen were killed, as was one regular soldier on the other side.
2/4

Last week, the UK announced that it was eliminating all remaining tariffs and quotas on Ukrainian imports - something it was able to do because of Brexit. The reaction from Europhiles, and even some EU officials, has been telling - and not in a good way. A thread. 🧵 (1/9) Background. In 2014, Ukraine and the EU (then of course including Britain) signed a deal eliminating most tariffs, but leaving some in place, especially in agri-foods. Britain inherited this deal on leaving. The remaining tariff schedules are here. eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/… (2/9)

A very moving 5 days in Poland, working with Conservative MPs and peers to build a playground for Ukrainian orphans who have been forced to move to Poland. The unfussy professionalism with which Poles have responded to the refugee crisis is humbling. (1) Several politicians gave up a chunk of their recess to lend a hand. Thanks to @Tom_Randall @ASollowayUK @HodgsonFiona @jamesowild @NatalieElphicke and @BrooksNewmark, as well as to Andrew Bingham , Zak Khan & Natalie Evans. And thanks to @NaweedKhan for organising it all. (2)

I am in awe of the unfussy generosity of the volunteers on the Polish-Ukrainian border. Here is my old friend @BrooksNewmark who has so far arranged bus transport for more than 400 people to their preferred destinations. Here’s a team from the West Country, organised by @AlastairChambe5. They’ve brought two lorry loads and four van loads of aid, and are coming back with more next week. The brisk and practical helpfulness of both volunteers and local people in these Polish marchlands is humbling.

The moment that Russia, a sovereign state, openly began to act as a terrorist gang. “Do as we say or we’ll shoot down your civilian airliners”.

https://twitter.com/mfa_russia/status/1501880265584615425

It is worth restating that arms sales are a legitimate part of the international order. You might not like them, but they are in no sense unusual. Selling Polish MiGs to Ukraine for €1 each would be perfectly legal. So would allowing their pilots to accept Ukrainian passports.

What's the worst aspect of wokery?
The inconsistency? ("Respect diversity! We're all the same!")
The intolerance? ("That's an outdated word! Sack her!")
The irrationality? ("My anger trumps your facts, whitesplainer!")
For me, it's something even worse... telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/2… Eton says the lecture might have breached the Equalities Act. If this is true, we need to change the law. How can it be illegal to advance a view shared by most biologists, neuroscientists and psychologists, namely that there are innate differences between male and female brains?

A senior curator in San Francisco is forced out for his “toxic white supremacist beliefs”. His crime? Saying that diversity meant collecting the works of white artists, too. (As an aside, @reason is one of the few institutions having a good culture war.) reason.com/2020/07/14/gar… This, by the way, is what "cancel culture" means. It doesn't mean criticism of a public figure. It means pressuring an institution to sanction someone, not for doing anything illegal or immoral, but for crossing some woke line that didn't exist until the day before yesterday.

The cases against @darrengrimes_ and Alan Halsall have finally been dropped. They've been put through hell for four years - FOUR YEARS. And over what? No accusation of personal gain or nefariousness. At worst, they filled in forms incorrectly. Our quango state is out of control. Both have been punished monstrously for, in effect, giving up their time to volunteer for a cause they believed in. Will any of their accusers at the Electoral Commission now face sanctions, or even public opprobrium? Of course not: that's not how it works.

A prorogation normally happens every autumn. This parliamentary session has lasted three years - the longest since the Civil War. What kind of screwed-up mindset do you need to see the long-overdue return of constitutional normality as "a coup"? So much hysteria. Here’s a reminder of what Remainers were saying about the need for a prorogation as recently as April.

https://twitter.com/rhonddabryant/status/1122824677175570434?s=21

Your regular reminder that, for roughly the first third of WW2, the USSR and Nazi Germany were on the same side.

https://twitter.com/mfa_russia/status/1135970619726749696

The Nazi-Soviet Pact was signed 80 years ago #OTD. Two totalitarian ideologies united against the liberal West.

Euro-enthusiasts are told "Vote for this deal or there'll be be no deal".
Eurosceptics are told: "Vote for this deal or there'll be no Brexit".
Plainly both assertions can't be true. In reality, neither of them is.
conservativehome.com/thecolumnists/… If, as seems almost certain, MPs vote this agreement down, it doesn't follow that there'll be no deal. It's surely likelier that the two sides will agree a slimmed-down version which includes the uncontentious stuff - reciprocal citizens' rights etc.

Today, Theresa May went as far as any British leader could go to accommodate Brussels, offering money, acceptance of EU regulations and other one-sided concessions. She was rebuffed and trolled online by Donald Tusk - and some UK Remainers cheered. Now watch Leave support harden. A small thing, perhaps, but using a picture of cake to insult a diabetic struck me as unkind as well as uncouth, undignified and ungallant.

Ninety-six million people were murdered in the name of Marxism, some shot into pits, some starved as deliberate state policy, some arrested in the night and tortured to death. No other ideology comes close to being so lethal.

External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @OwenJones84 view original on Twitter

For an antidote to all the Marxist drivel on Twitter today, read this issue of @conservative_on, with contributions by @Kasparov63 @NigelBiggar @AynRandOrg @JamesDelingpole @JohnOSullivanNR @K_Niemietz @iainmartin1 @holysmoke
theconservative.online/tC-03.pdf