US Tea Party in London to spread low tax message

[47of74]

Source: The Guardian

Lobbyists behind the rightwing Tea Party group in the US will arrive in London today to spread their message of low taxes and small government at an event organised by the UK's controversial Taxpayers' Alliance.

The event, the largest of its kind in Europe, is heavily sponsored by US lobby groups that have backed the Tea Party grouping as its challenges moderate Republican party candidates in congressional elections.

Critics of the event said it established a clear link between British rightwing groups and aggressive American lobbyists who pursued low taxes, loose regulation and widespread privatisation of public services.

The Taxpayers' Alliance aggressively promotes an anti-tax, anti-state, anti-Europe agenda and many of its leading figures have close links with the Tory party and the rightwing press. Its chief executive, Matthew Elliott, will lead the "no" campaign against the adoption of the alternative vote system in next May's referendum.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/07/tea-party-london-low-tax

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:sarcasm: I bet most Brits are thrilled with the idea of us exporting teabaggers to their country, even if only for a short while. :sarcasm:

[muntrv]

1. Good luck with that "gettin' rid of gubmint midisin."

[Downwinder]

2. Didn't Tony tell them he had canceled his book signing? n/t

[vduhr]

3. Gee...I thought teabaggers were regular working class folks

like the rest of us. I certainly could not afford a trip to the UK, (or a trip to DC for that matter) who's paying for their airfare, hotel, etc.? hmmmmm.....

[pampango]

4. What a Tea Party Looks Like in Europe (National Front in France)

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/05/how-marine-le-pen-is-changing-french-politics.html

Marine Le Pen is moving her father’s rabble-rousing, far-right party away from the fringe, and redefining French politics in the process.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the 82-year-old firebrand of France’s far right—the man who for decades has played on the inchoate fears, xenophobia, knee-jerk racism, and ill-disguised anti-Semitism of many of his supporters—had just finished speaking to the faithful on a farm not far from the English Channel.

Tall, blonde, plain-spoken, and thick-skinned, Le Pen’s youngest child, at 42, is the heir apparent to his party. She’s expected to win the contest for its leadership in January, and she’s a passionate advocate of its core message: strong French nationalism, relentless Euro-skepticism, and a lot of hard-nosed talk about fighting crime and immigration.

It’s a measure of the Le Pens’ enhanced power that they’ve managed to push President Nicolas Sarkozy to the right and cast their own party as mainstream. But in elections this past March, Sarkozy’s UMP party managed to keep control of only one out of 22 regional governments. So he decided to swing back to the right by playing on fears about public safety and immigration. He proposed taking citizenship away from some criminals of immigrant background and launched a campaign against Roma (or “Gypsies”), booting hundreds out of the country.

Today, however, the Front wants to bill itself as “neither left nor right.” If that means losing some fringe elements (many of whom support Marine’s rival, Bruno Gollnisch), well, "tant pis," she says.

Marine Le Pen says, and she still believes “the American right is much more to the right than the National Front.” She might agree with those who want to manage American frontiers more effectively and prevent massive illegal immigration, but she’s also a big believer in the state’s ability and obligation to help its people. “We feel the state should have the means to intervene,” she says. “We are very attached to public services à la française as a way to limit the inequalities among regions and among the French,” including “access for all to the same level of health care.”

[drm604]

5. Wasn't the original tea party *against* the British?

They're kind of ruining the symbolism aren't they?

[Drale]

6. I think

they ruined the symbolism the second they started using the name in the first place, plus the Boston tea party was a bunch of drunks who many people at the time said crossed a line

[drm604]

12. All true. n/t

[Javaman]

14. Well the modern version of the "tea party" are nothing more than Tories anyway. nt

[AlbertCat]

7. May they all get sick...just a little...

... just enough to have to "endure" that "awful" socialized medicine.

[47of74]

11. Maybe they could all get a case of the "British disease"

[Thor_MN]

8. I doubt it would cause any international incidents if the Teabaggers somehow ended up in the Thames

Not promoting the idea, just stating an opinion...

[Historic NY]

9. Teabaggers tell tea drinkers whats good for them.!!

[glinda]

10. Just like a group of meandering terrorists... they are everywhere. blech*

[tanyev]

13. Just a bunch of unorganized, local, grassroots activists, eh?