Disgusting

Posted on 23. Dec, 2009 by OHC in United Kingdom

The Guardian has, presumably accidently, published a gloating obituary of Baroness Thatcher. They’ve hastily withdrew the article, realising that dancing on the grave of the living might not be a good thing. Fortunately, it’s cached. Whoops!


In the obituary, they made no reference to Thatcher having been the first female Prime Minister, no reference to her winning the Cold War, no reference to her turning the Sick Man of Europe into an economic powerhouse once more. Hell, it’s the Guardian, so you’d expect them to at least write that she was the first leader to recognise global warming. But no, just her as the mother of social strife.

To take one excerpt from the audio commentary:

A respectable working class boy, [Neil] Kinnock was always bothered by the need to be rude to an older woman. Thatcher was less inhibited. I remember her being rude, strident, insensitive, callous: not at all how she was often in private life. But this was war as she saw it.

And what is publishing a premature and gloating obituary? Isn’t that rude, strident, insensitive, and callous? Oh, but being rude to Thatcher is fine, because she’s a Conservative. For shame.

Friday Propaganda: Storm Warning Edition

Posted on 27. Nov, 2009 by OHC in Friday Propaganda

When our government claims to have saved the world, but has actually doomed the nation, we need some economic cheering up. You know, something like “We’re seeing some green shoots of recovery”. Maybe “We’re best-placed to recover from this global crisis”.

Kinda similar to the recession of the early 1980s. Like Brown, Thatcher called it a global economic crisis. Like Brown, Thatcher said we were best placed to recover from it. But unlike Brown, Thatcher actually had facts on her side. Here’s a poster from the 1983 election campaign.


And the electorate gave Thatcher a landslide victory in return. What are the odds on Brown achieving that?

Monkey: British soldiers are terrorists

Posted on 13. Nov, 2009 by OHC in United Kingdom

Recess Monkey, in getting ever so slightly too excited about the prospect of Baroness Thatcher passing away, decided to lambast Thatcher’s legacy as being the mother of a ‘convicted terrorist’. So I assume Blair’s legacy is… what?

But that’s not the insulting part. Terrorist? How so? he was prosecuted under legislation that bans citizens or residents of South Africa from participating in any foreign conflict. It has been criticised for criminalising the eight hundred South Africans propping up the British Army. If Thatcher’s a terrorist, so are they.

But our soldiers aren’t terrorists, and neither is Mark Thatcher. He was a financier of an attempt to replace the military dictatorship in Equatorial Guinea – Africa’s worst dictator – with a legitimate government currently in exile. Kinda like what Labour did in Iraq, except without our money and our brothers’ blood being poured into it.

Labour insulting our soldiers. What’s new?

Friday Propaganda: Foreboding Edition

Posted on 07. Nov, 2009 by OHC in Friday Propaganda

Imagine what Britain would be like in five years if Labour get in again. We’d be up crap creek without a paddle, having our heads beaten in by Nikolai Valuev (Ed: yeah, but would we have our keys?). Our economy, our Union, our freedom: all gone the way of the dodo.

Sounds familiar, right. Conservatives’ embrace of the civil liberties started with David Davis’s moment of madness, right? Wrong. After five years of Labour misgovernment, check out this election poster the Conservatives ran with in 1979.

Thank goodness Britain didn’t get them.

Friday Propaganda: “Back to work, you commies!” Edition

Posted on 30. Oct, 2009 by OHC in Friday Propaganda

We’ve been striving to find the best propaganda to keep you right, online and off, and so are proud to announce that Friday Propaganda is back as a regular weekly series, starting by counting down ten of the top posters from Conservative Party history.

Like many of the instalments, this week’s has a certain topicality: strikes. Issued in 1983, this poster was targeted at nurses that were going on strike over their pay increasing by only 6.4%, and were condemning patients to die as a result.

Touché! Now get back to work!

So, how about it, CWU? How on Earth will a £500m strike help pay for the post offices?

Bucking(ham) the trend

Posted on 17. Sep, 2009 by OHC in United Kingdom

More political news that slipped under the blogosphere radar last Sunday comes from an unlikely place: the Sunday Times University Guide.

Yeah, yeah, we all know who tops the list: Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, UCL. None of that should come as a surprise to anyone. But there’s one new entry in the charts at #48: the University of Buckingham.

Why is that a political story? Because it was set up under the aegis of the Institute of Economic Affairs as a libertarian experiment, was fostered by Margaret Thatcher when she left Number 10, is still staffed overwhelmingly by free marketeers, and remains the UK’s only private university. And they receive not one penny of government funding.

Any chance those free market folks at the university will be backing Farage?

Despite not taking government money, the rankings reveal:

• It has the highest student satisfaction in the country.
• It has more faculty per student than any other university.
• It has the lowest graduate unemployment rate in the country.
• It has the top record for preventing student drop-out.
• It is the only university to complete degrees in two years.
• It takes over 90% of its British students from the state sector.

Those rankings are pretty frigging cool, especially when you consider Buckingham received 0 for research, because it didn’t participate in the rating scheme. If it received the same for research as the university just below it (Brunel), it would have finished twentieth! And all for zero cost to the taxpayer.

And, yet, some people are still harping on about top-up fees as if they harm universities and student experience. Now do they believe us? The free market in education: we’ve seen the future, and it works.

Nailing our colours to the mast

Posted on 07. Sep, 2009 by OHC in United Kingdom

Spurred on by those doyens of soundness at the Libertarian Alliance, Jonathan Isaby asks readers if a libertarian can also be a Conservative.

We think the question is rendered the height of absurdity by discussing who grassroots members call their political heroes, most of whom are libertarians: Baroness Thatcher, Dan Hannan, Boris Johnson (Ed: enough said). Whilst those that think libertarians have no place in the party can pour their adulation on Ted Heath, the Wintertons, and John Bercow. Lucky them.

The free market is certainly no longer all that unites the party. Since David Davis’s stand last year, we haven’t heard a Conservative member sincerely advocate NOT rolling back Labour’s authoritarianism. And, particularly amongst young members, the permissiveness and acceptance of other peoples, belief systems, and lifestyles is dominant. If Michael Rock, Patrick Sullivan, and Christian May be for it, who can be against it?

Despite the laudable (but limited) attempts by Liberal Vision to turn the Lib Dems away from socialism, no other major party offers hope for libertarians. Thus, we’d go as far as to say that, if they want to be taken seriously politically, libertarians have no other option but to be Conservatives.

Keep Conservative, and Keep Right.

Unleash a libertarian revolution, my Conservative Comrades!

A touch of Sass…

Posted on 30. Apr, 2009 by keeprightonline in Other

On Monday the 4th May, Birmingham University Conservative Future will vote on a new President. Today, KeepRightOnline got the exclusive opportunity to interview Presidential candidate Sahar Rezazadeh, better known to the blogosphere as Sassy Conservative. We ask the big questions, but does she give the right answers? The members of BUCF will decide on Monday, but what do you think of this passionate young lady?

Thanks for the exclusive Sahar, or should I say, Sassy? Tell us about the name. Why ‘Sassy Conservative’?
Haha, either is fine! When I was deciding on a blog name, I was looking for two words that are truly reflective of my character- it wasn’t an independent decision, with friends and relatives helping out in the process! The most interesting and frequent word that came up in describing me was ’sassy’, you know… bubbly, lively and trendy. I think the Conservative part is self explanatory- I’m a conservative not just politically and economically but also socially.

Those who read your blog will know you’re well involved in the political scene in Birmingham already- tell us about your work with CF, the transport project and the focus of your blog?
Well, I’m currently serving as BUCF’s Social Action Officer- my heart is in grass roots politics. Supporting those who are better off supported by the community rather than big government. This represents the political conservative in me. It’s like late last year, when I first heard about the nationwide Christmas Hamper Project. We raised funds by caroling & kind donations, then made hampers for St. Basil’s who support homeless young people. I visited various hostels to deliver the hampers and those working there said how even St. Basil’s was sometimes constrained by the bureaucracy in it’s centralisation, so some people still don’t get the help they need- they were really grateful.

My first engagement with the community was through the Youth Parliament- I’ve long championed youth issues, locally, regionally, nationally and even internationally! The transport project created a dialogue between transport decision makers and young people. One of my colleagues who was chairing the project initiated it- mainly as result of anger of rise in costs. Our recent conference was about transport in Birmingham in general, I love this city and I genuinely feel that we need to improve the transport infrastructure in order to compete on an international scale. Birmingham needs to stay world-class.

Pretty sound, Sassy, but what sets you apart as a Presidential candidate? Aren’t you too busy?
Actually the demand on me from the projects I’ve been working on is easing now. I wouldn’t run for President if I couldn’t commit fully to a whole term. I think I’m best placed for the position not just because of the skills I’ve developed through actively engaging with community, but also because I take initiative. I don’t let go of projects half way through. I really want to empower BUCF members to be more active and involved. Too many people are fair-weather Conservatives, it’s about time we separated the men from the boys and the ladies from the girls!

KeepRightOnline agrees with you on that last point especially, Sahar. Tell us, if you could change one thing about Conservative Future, what would it be?
Well it’s been addressed before but I think there’s a lot of work left to do in making CF more localised and less London-centric. There are potentially thousands of new CF members waiting out there, but we have a history of being so London focused that we’re missing out on these young Conservatives. Young people should be able to find a CF branch easily- and feel empowered by it!

So what are your politics? Sum it up for our readers in… oh I don’t know… five words?
Hmmm… these types of questions can be tricky.

That’s more than five words.
Haha, hey! Ok… well… compassionate, neo-conservative, libertarian, capitalist… Sassy!

And your politician of choice would be?
Well right now no one can touch Daniel Hannan… I can’t get enough of his European Parliament speeches! Great remix, by the way! I’m actually flattered by often being compared to Lady Thatcher. Iain Dale once remarked upon that! She’s such an inspiration to me. Despite all the obstacles her achievements incredible… and I like to think we have a similar taste in handbags! Ron Paul also (not so much with the handbags). I like his ideas about government. Good things come in small packages.

And you’re proof of that, Sassy! Thanks once again for taking the time to describe yourself to our readers. If I could ask you one last thing… What would you say is your favourite right of centre blog?
Haha, there are many which have contributed so much, but I’m particularly excited about KeepRightOnline!

We’re excited about you too!

Sahar Rezazadeh is standing for the position of BUCF President on Monday, 4th May. KeepRightOnline will bring you the results as they happen!