Tea party slowly spreading to Europe

Post Reply New Topic

http://www.examiner.com/x-51421-UK-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2010m5d28-US-exports-tea-party-movement-to-UK-and-elsewhere
It might come as a surprise to some Americans, but the tea party movement is not just an American phenomenon. Tea party activists are hearing from people all over the world especially Europe, keen to learn how to get involved. Even the notoriously apathetic Italians have begun their own movement.

But for Americans most amusing and fascinating is that the British, the country against whom we threw the original tea party, have gotten in on the act. The Freedom Association, an organisation, that has been pushing for liberty for decades is helping the effort. www.tfa.net/tea/ “The Tea Party Movement in the UK” has 1383 fans already on Facebook and they have barely started.

An event has been planned for London next month with a list of liberty minded speakers. And over the year more are planned.

“Tea Parties are being planned for Boston (naturally) in July, Torquay (September) and Birmingham (October). Details will be announced in due course.”

One of the speakers at the small initial event last October was Dan Hannan MEP. The standing room only event was so successful that people were turned away. bit.ly/9wnww3

Dan Hannan, who co-authored the high successfully liberty manifesto The Plan with Douglas Carswell MP, has just recently launched bit.ly/9CxKwR the Direct Democracy project. bit.ly/cQa3aE

The group calls for things like “open primaries” for selecting candidates for Parliament. Direct election of local sheriffs and a “Grand Repeal Bill” to get rid of laws unnecessary and burdensome.

“By allowing more say in the governance of their own country and their own community, citizens would be empowered to make the decisions important to their own lives. And by creating more accountability, the sitting parliament and the government would be required to act responsibly and in the best interests of their citizens.

While much of their “mission” is specific to the UK, most of the 15 proposals would be welcome to the ears of your average American tea partier. The are overall goals of localism and the repatriation of power from the EU to London. They call for power to be returned to the people and decisions to be made at the lowest level possible.

It would not surprise anyone that Hannan and Carswell frequently refer to and quote great American thinkers on liberty from Revolutionary times to present day. They seek to re-introduce those ideas that made America great to the “mother country”.

The tea party movement in the US has reminded many freedom lovers all over the world of their duty to following generations to reduce the tide of statism and bureaucracy that seeks to subsume every country.

Italians? Apathetic?! Not last i heard the news <.< . They are rather unhappy with their illegal immigrants, and although it saddens me to see them use force to evict them out, it seems the Tea Party might find people willing to lend an ear. -.-

It'll be an alliance between the Tax Payers Alliance (TPA), the right-wing of the Conservative party and UKIP.

Pff... with what's happening in Greece and what the UK's supposedly been burgeoning on? I'm kind of surprised that it started here and worked its way across the Atlantic rather than vice a verse.

The UK is pretty different to most continental European countries. The political Left on the continent often claim that their right wing opponents want to introduce American standards in their country, which the Right then strenuously denies, accusing the Left of using scare tactics.

there must be somebody besides me that considers this to be a depressing development.

This doesn't even make sense in that the Tea Party makes constant references back to the Founders, the Revolutionary War, and the U.S. Constitution. Yes, they want less taxes, an end to the welfare state, and opposition to "socialism," but they base their arguments on their claimed knowledge of those U.S. national symbols.

Doesn't mean they can't be inspired by them. Best way to lead is by example.

T potty topic

Potty Movement is backlash balderdash.
Needs Housebreaking,

The best guarantees of my freedoms are my Constitutions commitment to, "peace, order and good government," the rule of law, and a free press.

One would have thought that the Civil War would have provided instructive lessons on the dangers of localism. But it's not my country, so have at it.