Norman Tebbit, writing on his blog about Cameron's success at the recent Heads of Government meeting at the EU and the intention of that body to 'control' national budgets, quotes Gladstone.
"The finance of the country is intimately associated with the liberties of the country. It is a powerful leverage by which English Liberty has been gradually acquired … It lies at the root of English Liberty, and if the House of Commons can by any possibility lose the power of the control of the grants of public money, depend upon it, your very liberty will be worth very little in comparison …That power can never be wrenched out of your hands… That powerful leverage has been what is commonly known as the power of the purse – the control of the House of Commons over public expenditure – your main guarantee for purity – the root of English liberty. No violence, no tyranny, whether of experiments or of such methods as are likely to be made in this country, could ever for a moment have a chance of prevailing against the energies of that great assembly. No, if these powers of the House of Commons come to be encroached upon, it will be by tacit and insidious methods, and therefore I say that public attention should be called to this."
Substitute 'laws' for 'finance' and the same reasoning holds true - ie, the laws of a country are associated with the liberties of a country. In other words, unless the people of a country retain the right to decide the laws of the society in which they choose to live, they have no liberty.
10 comments:
WfW,
You got a lovely recommendation from Richard North over at EU Referendum.
Well done!
CR.
Concur with Captain Ranty! And not only "bigging-you-up" but making it more praiseworthy by the 'fame' of those he was slagging off!
CR & SO,
Thanks very much (blushing bright red!)
Yup. I too would concur with Richard North and the commenters above (sorry to deviate from the subject of the post).
Keep on fisking the mainstreamers, WfW ;-)
Many thanks CS, but I feel RN could have picked many for his comments who are far more potent with a keyboard than me.
Needless to say I will do my utmost to continue earning the praise of you and others.
For my money, WfW, providing proper right wing, libertarian-leaning commentary is not an easy thing to do at the moment. It leaves one open to extremely tribal Tories whose only answer to their own party's shortcomings are along the lines of "So you want another 5 years of Gordon, then?".
We don't want anything close, of course. But we'll get something reasonably close nonetheless, due to their inability to ask the Big Question. With a few token, miniature appeasements attached to keep up the illusion that we govern ourselves.
Your blog continues to question what has ultimately become a total orthodoxy, so I shall keep reading daily, even if I don't comment too often ;-)
Congrats on your recommendation from Richard. I'm not too sure if mine was a recognition with the introduction of 'If you want some real rubbish...'.
I take it as a compliment anyway.
Well done you. :)
CS, thanks for your further endorsement.
SR, Thank you and yes I did wonder that too, but put it down to Richard's frustration and possible proof-reading for interpretation.
Richard is I know a fan of Subrosa, so I shud not worry.
Congrats WfW, it's not the first time he's linked to your postings so clearly it's well deserved, however the red the blushing gets.
Ta TBF and yes I know but it is still a tad embarrassing to be complimented in such glowing terms!
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