...any guesses?

I think the anti-'baby boomer' attitude is to some extent copying American generational warfare: blaming 'baby boomers' for having a cushy life at the expense of younger taxpayers is to some degree an American right-wing talking point. I have even seen it on DU. It's unusual in the UK, at least on an explicit level. Ironically in the Asian countries that they claim to wish to emulate, respect for elders is a very important value. As it's also on the whole a British Conservative value, I think this attitude will not get very far here - hope not, anyway!

This attitude that the British are 'lazy' is something that has been around for a while. 'Worst idlers in the world' - I don't think so. What gets me is that the Tories essentially destroyed British industry under Thatcher and now act as though people are unemployed or underemployed due to their own laziness.

I was puzzled when they described people in their 60s and 70s as boomers

Now I am no great shake at Maths but if you are over 70 then you were born before 1942 which hardly makes you part of post war baby boom. The reality is that apart from a brief spikee in births in 1946-47 the British post war population surge began in 1956 and petered out in the early 1970s which is ironically when many of these individuals were born. It was only the USA had a full blown spike in birth rates in the period 1945-55. This confusion of US with UK statistics is typical of political policy wonks retreading US ideas without bothering to find out whether the UK reality actually matches that across the pond In fact most UK baby boomers are in their 40s and early 50s and working hard to pay the taxes that support these idiots.

Still who am I to stop the Tories slagging off people who actually work for a living or the biggest demographic voting group in the country. If they want to commit electoral suicide then I for one will encourage them.

... a reminder that they are the Nasty Party still and that some of them will never cease reminding people of it.

Those whom the gods wish to destroy ...

The Skin

I might have guessed.

Raab remains a serious contender for the title of "worst Tory MP" along with Phillip Davies, Aidan Burley and Jacob Rees-Mogg.

to piss off traditional nationalist right wingers. Three are second generation immigrants (Raab, Patel, Kwarteng). One is Jewish (Raab) and one comes from a family of left
wing intellectuals (Truss). Not exactly people likely to win the hearts and minds of most ordinary Tory voters. Most were foisted on their constituencies by Conservative Party Central Office rather than being local choices. The problem for the Tories is that Queen and Country conservatism may be old hat but it still has quite an emotional pull for a number of voters. By contrast neo liberal capitalist internationalism has very little appeal at the polls outside a small self interested elite and their intellectal camp followers. I think that as the SHTF in the next couple of years as the economy implodes then the Tory party may fragment as its core voters drift off to more nationalist parties. That trend is already under way.

(Just checked the Wikipedia profiles of their respective constituencies)

so it's likely most of them will be in parliament for years to come.

Last edited Sat Aug 25, 2012, 12:03 PM - Edit history (1)

It's quite true that sections of the constituency Tory party hate her and tried unsuccessfully to get her deselected for having an affair with the MP Mark Field (this did seem unfair as no one was trying to deselect him); but it doesn't look as though the seat will move away from the Tories any time soon. Still, no one thought Portillo's would either; so I suppose all things are possible.

spin-off, in leading them to take this stuff less seriously: 'A bunch of young whippersnappers with Foreign names telling us what Britain should be like! Harrumph!'

If it encourages a re-energizing of the BNP and its spin-offs, that is not a good thing, of course.

I think the five are, even more than many Tories, pseudo-clever fools who see themselves as People of Ideas, and want to put themselves on the map. The forthcoming book could probably be summarized as 'Look at meeeee! Aren't I clever! Pay attention to meeeeee!!!! And can I be a Minister, please?'

detailed article in the Guardian, with pics revolting enough even for Oldironside!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/aug/22/britannia-unchained-rise-of-new-tory-right

No, I do not want to model my country's industrial policies on China, thank you very much.

Conservatism is about the protection of existing, property, power and privilege not about ideas. As for citing non English speaking nations as role models that is going to go down like a cup of cold sick with most Tory voters who are instinctively much closer to the gut (or gutter) emotional pull of a party like UKIP who thrive on slagging off foreigners.

The harsh truth is that international capitalism as a concept has no real popular mass appeal anywhere in the world. It is just a convenient ideological fig leaf that allows a tiny rich elite to get ever richer. Of course, Trotskyists and certain Marxists would say that the way to counter it is via International socialism but that also lacks real pulling power to human beings wedded to nation, culture and language.

Of course what these creeps are angling for is power in some future Conservative government circa 2020. They think we are in for some rerun of the 1970s with one of them riding to power as the new Thatcher. Unfortunately, the status quo that they envisage overthrowing is far from the left wing establishment of their fevered imaginings but the one Thatcher and her heirs including Tony Blair built brick by brick. Sadly, the edifice was all erected on hot air and debt which is why it is now falling down. They dont really have any replacement just more of the same with a slightly different wrapping. I think Louis Mensch probably had a more realistic view of the recent Tory intakes future prospects which is why she has quit and gone to the USA.

BTW worth noting that these lovelies previous little self promoting Opus 'After The Coalition' only ranks 2 stars on its Amazon review , is already retailing at under £4 with some suppliers and ranks at 164,075 on the Amazon sellers list 141,902 places behind My Little Pony Phonics Fun 2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/After-Coalition-Kwasi-Kwarteng/dp/1849541582

It will be interesting to see if their desperate media campaign to promote their latest book gets it to sell any better.