Winston Churchill, Pop Star?
Posted in Leisure by Julie Ponzi
In case you missed this, we have
word this week that
Winston Churchill is now climbing the British pop charts. This, in the wake of Prime Minister,
David Cameron's stirring speech last week in which he claimed that the conservatives "are the radicals now" makes it almost as interesting to watch political events unfold on the other side of the pond as it has been the last several months over here.
Of course, Cameron's fine speech came despite
reports that Cameron and the conservative Brits still don't get the Tea Party and don't much like being identified with it at home. Come to think of it, those Brits never really quite understood that first Tea Party either . . . so perhaps Cameron can be forgiven his disinclination to fully identify with his American political cousins?
2:03 PM / October 13, 2010
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“How shall I put this? We seem to have drifted apart … there is an element of American conservatism that is headed in a very culture war direction, which is just different. There are differences with the American right.”
-Cameron.
I think from a realist perspective that if you look at Cameron, and you look at Obama, they share as much in common as Bush and Blair, and both certainly define themselves in opposition to the other.
Step 1: Contrast an Obama quote blaimming Bush with a Cameron quote blaming Blair.
"Let me just get this off my chest. They left us with massive debts, the highest deficit, overstretched armed forces, demoralized public services, endless ridiculous rules and regulations and bureaucracy and nonsense. Yes, they deserve some blame, and we’ll never let them forget it.
But the point I want to make is this. The state of our nation is not just determined by the government and those who run it. It is determined by millions of individual actions — by what each of us do and what we choose not to do."-Cameron
Throw in a Yes we Can, and Obama has said similar things.
Bush is known for No Child Left Behind.
According to Cameron: ""Tony Blair once explained his priority in three words: Education, education, education. I can do it in three letters: NHS"
NHS is National Health Care. And NHS is "worse" than "ObamaCare" from a right-leaning perspective.
Also Cameron and Obama both agree that Afghanistan is more important than Iraq and that both countries could possibly begin to withdraw by July of this year.
Cameron is likely to cut defense spending 25%, the only reason Obama does not cut defense spending 25% is: Mr Cameron said the dollar was a reserve currency "so he doesn't have to hurry in the way that I do". He added: "If we don't sort out our public finances, we can't be a dependable trading partner. Our companies won't be serious prospects for investment; our inflation and interest rates [will be] high; the debt burden on our children greater still. We have to make cuts. And we have to make them now."
In terms of "elitism": Both Cameron and Obama went to the most exclusive schools, Obama went to Harvard and Cameron went to Eton and Oxford.
Cameron's political cousin is Obama. In some sense also Cameron's austerity measures, and a desire to cut back on defense won't work very well if the U.S. goes on a similar spending freeze.