Quote of the day 10th December 2021
"Freedom is unlikely to be lost all at once and openly. It is far more likely to be eroded away, bit by bit, amid glittering promises and expressions of noble ideals.
(Thomas Sowell, American economist)
Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria
Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
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Thomas Sowell was making a general warning that the most dangerous threats to freedom may not appear that way.
You don't have to be opposed to any individual measure to recognise that, particularly in the kind of difficult times we are living through, if people do not pay any attention to the cumulative impact on freedom of the various policies being enacted, there is a huge danger that our liberties may gradually disappear.
As Senator Padme Amidala (a.k.a. Mrs Darth Vader, though that was absolutely not the role she signed up for) says in "Revenge of the Sith,"
"So this is how liberty dies - with thunderous applause."