A Miller's tale
Thursday, November 26, 2009 Three weeks I ago I attended the funeral of my old friend George Miller and wrote about it HERE.
Today the Independent published an obituary written by another old friend, Dr Julian Lewis (Conservative MP for New Forest East). Julian - who in the Eighties ran an anti-CND organisation called the Coalition for Peace through Security - writes:
Intellectual and visionary, liberal and anti-Communist, George Miller inspired a generation of Conservative activists in the 1980s, when the Soviet Union seemed impregnable. His operations were so extensive that few of his associates knew the full picture ...
For Miller the demise of Soviet Communism was an absolute certainty, provided that the West remained strong. His vision was tempered with patience and humour. He would liken the regime to an elephant, repeatedly stung between the eyes by a mosquito. The insect would be brushed aside time and again – yet, one day, without warning, the elephant would roll over, stone dead, with its feet in the air. Miller lived to see it happen; indeed, he helped to make it happen.
Full article HERE.
Simon Clark
George was also involved in a little escapade that took place in 1984. If I remember correctly, it was George who drove the van that took a number of young Conservative activists (myself included) to the Aeroflot office in Piccadilly which we had chosen as the location for a small demonstration. I have a photograph of what happened next and it still makes me laugh. Full story HERE.
Reader Comments (32)
The world could do with a lot more people like George Miller, and we could do with a lot more mosquitoes, constantly attacking and stinging the big white elephants that are ruining so many people's lives.
And we could do with his like to inflict a few stings on the KGB Copenhagen Climate Conference.
I know nothing about George Miller. But the thought about mosquitoes biting elephants brings into my mind the question, "How can we PETS (people who enjoy tobacco) bite the elephant of big government and its associates, Ash, Cruk, etc?" I think that it can only be done by multiple bites.
It is a matter of fact that posts on this site are few in number. I wonder if it is possible for posters to increase their influence by emailing their contacts, wherever in the world they might be, and asking their contacts to 'pass the message on'. The message would have to be about the REAL facts about passive smoking. "Pass the message on - THERE IS NO TRUTH IN THE OFFICIAL STATEMENTS ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF PASSIVE SMOKING" It would be helpful if FOREST were to produce a 'proforma' letter that we could copy on so that we all sing from the same hymn sheet.
The idea ought to be seriously worth thinking about.
Sounds a good idea to start with Junican, the only problem that I foresee is that getting the truth across, even to friends, can be more difficult then one would imagine.
How many time have I, and I am sure everyone else on this site, tried to tell 'friends' about the truth on passive smoking? No need to answer, we have all tried hundreds, if not thousands of times, and have we made a dent yet? We haven't even annoyed the elephant, let alone stung the b*****d.
I watched Question Time last night, and Malanie Phillips, who I very much admire, tried saying what she believed in with regard to climate change. You know what the audience did? They laughed at her!
This is what we are up against, the general public have been so brainwashed, that they cannot see the wood for the trees. As David Davis said, "you should never say the debate is over, in science, the debate never finishes".
We have the anti-tobacco squad constantly telling us the debate is over, now we have the climate change mob doing the same. Is it any wonder then, that our 'friends' go along with this type of rhetoric as well then?
I am afraid that the general public, as a whole, are morons. If I called myself Professor Thurgood, they would take notice of me, if I call myself Peter Thurgood, and then say, I am a smoker, they either smile benignly or want to string me up.
Sorry to be so negative Junican, but that's just the way I feel about people who will not question, and just accept everything that is thrown at them.
The tele and the Beeb news is the holy grail to most people Peter.If its on there it must be true. Yes I agree, most people now are simpletons, they do not know when they are being walked over.
Peter T -
How badly we need a few more George Millers.
And I'm in awe of your ability to sit through 'Question Time' without smashing the screen !
I, too, greatly admire the wonderful Melanie Phillips.
If Mr Cameron were keen on getting women like THAT (or Lyn, Margot, Pat, Joyce, Mary, Ann etc) on his 'team', I'd be rather more sympathetic.
Some chance !
It IS difficult, though, to persuade people to alter their unalterable views, isn't it ? Especially when they're derived from An Unimpeachable Authority - such as Karl Marx, the Pope, or the BBC.
I found it especially amusing that Fatty Falconer should have suggested that the reason that Our Tone 'believed' (yeah, right) in WMD was - in the main - because of all the 'evidence' coming from the United Nations.
Strewth - the United Nations !
That statement - as much as any - demonstrates the blinkered religiosity of the Left, and its unquestioning acceptance of institutionalised bullshit.
Especially if it's Global Bullshit.
Further examples, anyone ?
If the IPCC, the UN, the Fed, the WWF, UNESCO, the World Bank, the European Commission etc etc ad nauseam says it, it MUST be true !
As any Good Catholic will tell you, the Vatican wouldn't lie (or maybe just get it wrong) - would it ?
As for the Collapse of Communism: do me a favour !
At least, whilst the tanks rumbled through Red Square, and various 'dissidents' were periodically jailed (or sent to the KGB's mental asylums), people in the West OCCASIONALLY paused to think about the importance of Freedom in THEIR daily lives.
Well, just pause again: and consider what has HAPPENED to our 'freedoms' here and in the States SINCE the Berlin Wall came down.
And THEN congratulate yourselves on OUR 'victory' !
The Real Threat was NEVER Over There (and still ain't now).
It is where it has ALWAYS been (at least for these past 80 years):
BEHIND you !
"Oh no, it isn't."
Oh yes it is.
Enjoy the Panto, children.......................
I agree with what Peter Thurgood said about last night's Question Time and Melanie Phillips. She is a marvellous writer and 'on the ball'. The audience for Question Time, in my opinion, is 'hand-picked' and when David Dimbleby had his recent run-in with a bullock, I would have highly commended and decorated the bullock for services to the British people.
I didn't know much at all about George Miller, but having read through the obituaries, I realise that this man was a great visionary. Peter and Martin - in spite of the great force of opposition, I do believe people are starting to 'wake up' and realise that this global warming stuff is merely one of the diversion tactics used to hoodwink the general public. The reality is that we are nose-diving into a real depression and poverty which my generation would never have imagined possible. We need people of the calibre of George Miller desperately at this time.
Jenny -
I agree - but it's a slow process, this:
Education !
Education !
Education !
(Excuse me while I vomit, Tony).
We must ALL do our bit, however. And if we can't persuade our friends, whom CAN we persuade ?
Whatever colour The (Immediate) Future is, it ain't Orange - that's for sure...............
They've wrecked education, Martin. I've witnessed that first-hand. As for global warming - it's blooming well freezing up here in Yorkshire. The future is red, Martin, in more ways than one....
Jenny -
Yes, the wrecking of Mass Education is one of the wickedest things ever. And it didn't start in the Sixties, either.
One day, someone will have to UNwreck it: it's the ONLY way (IMHO) permanently to stave off Tyranny.
But, that, of course, is the point.
Think you're right about the Colour of the Future, though...............but at the moment, it's hidden (largely) behind the Green.
Either that - or a goodly proportion of Mankind has gone colour-blind.
And it may be cold Up North - but at least YOU can take it.
Viking blood, and all that.
I'm just a soft Southern Saxon.
Guess I'll just have to get used to the tumbleweed and arid savannahs of Hampshire when it goes all sub-Saharan on me.............
Just watched QT and the air is blue! I was toying with the idea of emailing Melanie Phillips to draw her attention to the parallels between the AGW scam and the passive smoking scam until I heard her on The Alcohol Issue at which point I just lost the will to live.
"I don't know what they have to say,
It makes no difference, anyway,
Whatever it is - I'm AGAINST it "
(Groucho Marx - RIP)
Just received the following Youtube link from Steve Milloy's site - an amusing little 'Cat's out of the bag' cartoon entitled 'Hide The Decline' (in Global temperature):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEiLgbBGKVk
The bearded prat is Michael Mann, incidentally: the genius behind the Hockey Stick Graph.
Check it out - it may cheer you up (a little) !
PS:
Anybody with a pulse STILL believe that Barack Obama's A Good Thing ?
Doh..............
Yes, "Hide the decline" is brilliant. and the word is spreading despite the skewed cover up by MSM. Google climategate and you get 11,300,000 "hits" versus zero a few days ago.
I keep wondering why Cameron appears so happy to go along with the AGW fraud.
One comment I found has a rather interesting perspective which I hadn't considered before:
"The power of propaganda is the problem, not the intellectual argument. In this debate, the few have access to the information that the climate information has been rigged. The vast majority do not. How can Cameron open up a front based on denial of climate change, and be tarred by a generation as someone who doesn't care. His strategy is instead to cooperate but deflect the programme towards beneficial aims. Within the environmental movement there are many laudible objectives. The typical EUKIPPER who wants to run off into a well-informed huddle while 90% of the world is ignorant is a strategy to lose political power just as you need to gain it. Only with power can any result be obtained. The tragedy of those who understand that climate propaganda is just that, is that they don't understand or have any strategy to stop it. They simply want to rush off the pitch as the ball is being delivered for the game. The game of courtiership requires proximity to the powerful first. Then once in a position of power and in the game, you can pass the ball where you like. The only people who want the truth immediately execute themselves from the game. Cameron does not. He agrees that the sky is green for the time being."
This is from Tapestry who is ex UKIP.
The blog is http://umbrellog.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1008075&start=330
And no, Martin, it became obvious some while ago that Obama is on course to be the worst president since Peanuts Carter.
Sorry Goodstuff but I couldn't understand a thing you was talking about?
Tell you what I am waiting for though, and that is the Ukipper girls on here, who was telling us all to vote for them because they are the smokers salvation.
Now we learn that king Ukipper himself offered to sell completely out to the Tories if they promissed a referendum on Europe. No mention of smoking there, no help for the smoking masses, and to make it even worse, the new king Ukipper has openly admitted all he wants to see is a hung parliament.
Come on u-kippers!
Goodstuff -
Thanks for that analysis. It's a point of view, certainly - but perhaps just a little TOO Michael Dobbsian for me and my Simplified World View.
I can't be the only one who's getting just a little tired of 'clever' politics, and now rather craves the refreshing splash of Honesty.
Moreover, I don't quite get the:
"How can Cameron open up a front based on denial of climate change, and be tarred by a GENERATION as someone who doesn't care...."
argument.
I know of hardly ANYBODY - whatever 'generation' they belong to - who now buys into all this crap. In fact, precious few ever did.
He has nothing to lose (IMHO) by now 'discovering' that the whole thing is (shall we say ?) misguided, and everything to gain:
a) A tremendous saving for the British Taxpayer, and possibly
b) The rare tag of 'Honest Politician', and even
c) Widespread admiration for his courage, which may just eclipse his image as a dilettante lightweight.
Sure - a lot of people will be upset. Especially the ones who got us into this mess. But not enough, I feel, to block his path.
Worth the gamble, don't you think ?
The BIG problem, however, is this: he's probably daft enough (still) to BELIEVE the Convenient Lie, anyway..........................
Martin V
Yes, that was my first reaction too.
What better opportunity for Dave to at least call for the science to be sorted before anything else?
I think the problem is the parallel universe we have. People who follow the story in some detail on the web are likely to take the view that AGW is total fraud - ditch it. But the vast majority who get their news (often in snippets) from MSM may well take another view. Just check BBC/ITN/even SKY websites - no coverage of the scam and the beeb is even now still bigging up Copenhagen as the second coming. And then factor in the generation of kids (tomorrows voters) who've had the AGW propaganda foist upon them through schools etc. I not sure I'd want to be the next potential leader who (in their eyes) condemns the poor polar bears to extinction. Not until I had power and some control over things anyway.
Full marks to Lawson for this, but then again he's not in the running for power is he?.
Interesting times.
Goodstuff -
'Interesting times', indeed.
It's funny, but I'm beginning to find myself even more angry with the Beeb than with the fraudsters (and their sheepish little camp-followers).
At least they have a rational (if self-serving) motive to 'justify' their actions.
But Auntie is supposed to be working for US, and doing things that journalists are SUPPOSED to do.
Like - ASKING QUESTIONS.
Isn't she ?
If only the MSM had but one neck.................
Oh dear Ataloss, it doesn't look like you are going to get any answers AGAIN, does it????
I wonder why?
Perhaps, Peter, there are no responses because people like me (who was a 'Ukipper') have worked out that UKIP is as daft as the Tories, Lib Dums and New Labliar and are wondering what we should follow next....
There was a good point made in Monty Python's 'Life of Brian'. There was the People's Front of Judea, the Judean People's Front and then, in the amphitheatre someone asked, "Where's the Popular Front?" Oh he's over there! Splitter. That just about sums up UKIP. While all this was happening the Romans simply stood there and maintained control.....
I am sorry to say Jenny, that so many people on here, and elsewhere, have been waiting for coming of the Messiah. They thought they saw such a person in Nigel Farage, a confirmed smoker.
But being a smoker alone, does not make the Messiah, nor does it mean that he could perform miracles. A good example is Obama in the USA, it seems the people there, also thought along these lines, and look how they are being let down.
Don't get me wrong, I like Farage as a person, but right from the start I had an instinctive feeling that he could not do what so many people thought he was promising to do. Of course he could stand up and say what he would like to see happen, just like you and I can, but he can no more make it happen then us.
I was going to say that I feel sorry for all the UKIP believers, but then I thought, no, why should I. We have all been let down in one way or another by our respective parties, and UKIP, as you so rightly say, are no different than any of the others.
You ask who we should follow then? I can only speak for myself, and I am just trying to pick the best out of a bad bunch. Forget the smoking ban for now, and concentrate of trying to avoid other bans.
Your last comment, "While all this was happening the Romans simply stood there and maintained control....." Our bunch of morons didn't even maintain control....they just kept on fiddling!
Cranmer has a piece on the new leader of UKIP:
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/
They continue to fiddle, Peter! I like that last comment you made!:)
As I mentioned on previous posts no polotical party will amend the smoking ban, and I got shot down in flames for being soooo negative.They are all the same just a different colour.The only way the ban will be forced into an amendment is all the publicans dance from the rooftops....In my dreams.And yes, lets concentrate on preventing salt being banned after all its claimed it kills 40000 people a year so it has to be banned does it not.
Joyce.
Well spotted. All should read Archbishop Cranmer's blog, [scroll down a bit], before saying one word more about Lord Pearson. I, for one have backed him as the new UKIP Leader right from the start. So has Nigel Farage.
Regarding repeal of the smoking ban, here is the published UKIP manifesto: =
Our policy paper Rebalancing Justice states:
“UKIP would replace the smoking ban with legislation requiring premises owners to provide smoke-free areas and/or dedicated internal smoking areas. If not possible, the premises would have to be designated all 'non smoking' or 'all smoking' and advertise this prominently outside.”
Nothing has changed in that respect. Nor will it change.
The offer that Lord Pearson made to the Tories was a genuine one. He said that UKIP would put country before party, 'this time round', in order to get us out of the clutches of the EU. He said UKIP was here to stay and, in effect, would be waiting in the wings. It is obvious to any thinking person that if the U.K. were given a Referendum, [at last], the country would say NO to the EU. It is obvious that the ensuing political catastrophe would cause a General Election and UKIP would be back in the running with greater power than ever.
Nigel Farage backed Lord Pearson yesterday in the Sunday Politics Show but added that he had already had a meeting with David Cameron on the subject. Cameron refused UKIP's offer and stated unequivocally that he will NOT call for a Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
So any Tory supporter's hopes that Cameron, or any other "Leader", [including the Scottish National Party], who promises a Referendum on any particular bit of the Lisbon Treaty, is just promising hot air, as usual.
As from today, [1st December], the Lisbon Treaty is law. It is binding and self perpetuating and cannot be changed or challenged. The only way out is the UKIP way -
Stop paying £45million per day to the EU. All UK MEPs would then automatically have their salaries stopped and be forced to return to the UK.
UKIP style of government would be based on the successful independent Swiss model. Small central government and directly elected regional governments with accountable transparency. Elected by the people for the people. Direct referenda on all important matters.
Europe is looking to the United Kingdom, as always, for our lead.
[There was no immediate reply, Peter T., because we couldn't get a word in edgewise!]
I have been asking for days and days the same question, what would the ukippers do about the smoking ban, and all I get is one semi-answer stating what the ukippers would LIKE to do?
I dont know if the ukippers ever watch what is going on elsewhere other than in ukip- land but the SNP yesterday said they would give Scotland a referendum on being independent or not, BUT the opposition parties simply said NO WAY ALEX we will oppose your bill.
Thats the way politics works. It works like that in Scotland and it works like that in England.
Ataloss.
If you listen carefully to that SNP interview yesterday, [BBC iPlayer], you will see that Salmon was "talking" of a Referendum regarding Independence from England. Listen even more carefully and you will see that he has every intention of staying within the EU.
How many Scottish people will misunderstand his "Referendum" as you did?
So typical of present day smoke-screen politics
What are you talking about Margot, I didn't misunderstand him, it was you that misunderstood me.....or did you?
The irish green cultists, friends of the earth and the tree hugging brigade are having a field day with their global warming bullshit, since half the country was submerged in the worst floods in the history of the state, in the past week.
They're licking their lips with the prospect of the brainwashed rushing to pay their green taxes after the disaster.
While the one true voice of farmers is kept submerged as to the true cause of the flooding.
Which was the banning of cleaning of rivers of silt by the gangs of various quangos of environMENTALISTS, friends of the birds and hedgerows etc which led directly to the cause of the flooding in the first place.
Together with brown envelope building speculators, in cahoots with the planners and govt cute hoors, who built their monstrosity trophy houses, apts and shopping malls over flood plains.
As its not nice or PC nowadays to point the finger of blame, and just like the smoking ban, I have the feeling that the global warming scam is going to turn into another great little earner for our bankrupt leaders. Yea! the gods have been good.
Ann -
Should any of your acquaintance assume that the Recent Inclement Weather has ANYTHING to do with You-Know-What, you may care to remind them of what the multi-award-winning climatologist and satellite-monitoring specialist, Roy Spencer, said in this regard:
"Abnormal weather is not............abnormal."
The Climate, I fear, is as unpredictable as Human Behaviour.
And NOT as predictable as Human Stupidity - or the quasi-sexual mania of the Power-Seeker and the Control-Freak.
If only there were a way to 're-cycle' drivel.......and political cowardice.
If we're doing the global warming thing again you might be interested in something I came across elsewhere this morning:
Re Just imagine a Martian landing and somebody trying to explain to him/her/it how $Zillions are going to be "traded" for carbon.
"What - you mean that essential gas?"
“That's right!”
“You buy and sell carbon, which is so plentiful?”
“Yeah – we think its a pollutant and there's too much of it.”
“So what do you do with it?”
“Well, nothing really – just buy and sell it.”
“At a profit?”
“Well somebody's making a bomb on it – don't know who.” (Thinks – Al Gore?)
"Do you ship it around in liquid form in tankers?”
“No, we just leave it where it is to “do its thing”.”
“Which is?”
“Oh – you, know - help things grow – help people to breath.”
“But you said its a pollutant.”
“Yeah, that too – or so Gore tells us.”
“How and what exactly does it pollute?”
“Dunno, I'm just a climatologist, you'd best ask Al Gore that – or John Key – or DOKTOR Nick Smith – they must know.”
“So – somebody's making a fortune out of this. But who's paying?”
“Well, the taxpayer coughs for most of it. Manufacturers and farmers too – pretty much anyone who is producing anything or doing a useful job.”
“Why farmers?”
“Oh, that's because cattle fart a lot.”
“Really? They fart carbon?”
“Well, no, but I guess they must fart something similar.”
“Do politicians pay their share?”
“What share? Probably not. (Thinks – another question for Gore.) Nah,
they probably trouser a percentage seeing as they thought the whole scheme up.”
“How will you know when you've bought/sold/traded enough?”
“I hadn't thought of that. Perhaps when the politicians (and Gore) say so.”
“You mean when they've bled you dry and their pockets are full?”
“No – it can't be then.”
“Why - you mean they'll stop before they've bled you dry?
“No – I mean their coffers'll never be full – they're bottomless!”
“You realise this is going to ruin you all, do you? That the wheels of industry will gradually grind to a halt - and they wont be able to pay taxes? That education, health services, transport, welfare and all that stuff will be history?”
“Must admit, I have wondered.”
“Well, I'm not hanging around here – it's going to be chaotic. I'm off back to Mars.”
“OK – see yah! Oh, do you have carbon there?.”
“Yeah, heaps – much more than you do. The percentage varies quite a bit according to the effects of sun-spots and weather patterns. But
we don't worry about it – seems harmless enough – it's quite inert.
Why do you ask?”
“I was just thinking – could I cadge a lift with you?”
Auntie Podes
on November 30, 2009
http://umbrellog.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1008075&start=420
Over 30 pages so far
Funny how this story can make main headline news elsewhere but here zilch.....
There is also a story going round that the whole thing started at a Bilderberg meeting when one rather drunken participant bragged that they could persuade the proles to pay tax on the very air they breathed!!!!!!!!. Some joke.
Too true Aunty Podes Nov 3O.
And Goodstuff, I would say that the ravings of a drunk is exactly how the global warming scam started.