CPAC Dispatch – Part 2 New Directions Foundation - Granite Grok

CPAC Dispatch – Part 2 New Directions Foundation

CPAC: New Directions Foundation- defending the Reagan/Thatcher Legacy in EuropeNew Directions Foundation: A think tank defending conservatism in Europe.  Simple truths like hard work, opportunity, individual responsibility.  Reagan and Thatcher shared a belief in their nations and peoples, not governments.  Geoffrey Van Orden, president, was a Brigadier General in the UK, and notes that Thatcher is the patron of their organization.

Noted that Thatcher had the courage to stand up to the anti war lefties, especially during the cruise missile crisis, and especially that Baroness Ashton, who is effectively the EU’s foreign/defense minister, was in fact a top dog in the loony anti war movement which wanted to completely disarm Britain.

During Thatcher’s term, the govt share of GDP fell from 43% to well under 30%, and that the Clintonesque government of Tony Blair had managed to pus government’s share back up over 50%.   And you wonder why we fight the left? (Even the ‘moderate’ ones)

Derk Van Eppink, European MP from Belgium, recalled the transformation of Britain from the late 70’s through Thatcher’s term. Also talked a little about the EU’s project to write a history of Europe and the Union, and because they couldn’t agree about who won and lost the first and second “European Civil War”, they agreed that European history began in 1946! According to this history project, the direct election of MEPs began in 1979, and then the Berlin wall just happened to fall a few years later – no mention of Reagan and Thatcher. Never trust the left to write history: as the old Soviet joke goes “the future is certain, only the past is subject to change”!

Noted that the EU is well along the path to disaster, having long forgotten the lessons and conservatism, and also noted that it is now the Eastern European states which have Lowe flat tax structures, and it is the old, sclerotic, central bureaucracy which is crying foul that these upstarts da to have low taxes!

Next up, Luke Coffey of Heritage. He talked about the distinct groupings in the European parliament, which closely resembled the battles of our founders over whether we should have a powerful national government, or a limited federal government as the agent of sovereign states.

He also takes about the tragic state of NATO, where most members do not pay anything close to their share for the common defense.

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