the dissident frogman

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Quote of the evening:

" France is living in Britain's medieval age. »

(Dr M.P. discussing with the dissident frogman at the Oxford and Cambridge Club, during the celebration of the 25th anniversary of Baroness Thatcher's election as Prime Minister.)

Yeah, I'm a bit of a poseur here but surely, you need to know the context, right?

And you have to admit it's an excellent summary of the situation.

UPDATE:

A few pictures of the evening. As usual, a larger version is one click away from the thumbnail.

The Adam Smith Institute, who masterfully hosted the event, has more picture, and so has Samizdata.


Lots of people were there to pay homage to Baroness Thatcher.


Lord Parkinson, Trade minister in Margaret Thatcher's first government, to whom I had the pleasure to be introduced.
Now that gave me the somewhat unique opportunity to hear one of the very few statesmen who argue for a smaller state, point at civil servants as the main force opposing it, and telling me that with first hand knowledge of the problem - and what's even more important: while being one of the very few who did succeed in defeating them.

Last time I looked, there were more than 6 millions of civil servants in France. That's 27% of the active population - no matter how I feel about tagging them as "active" - that is actually consuming wealth instead of creating it, and locking the system from top to bottom in order to keep feeding on it.

Putting that monster down while staying in the democratic course of action like Thatcher's government did, seems less likely everyday.

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Citation de la soirée :

" La France vit au Moyen Age de l'Angleterre. »

(Dr M.P. discutant avec le dissident frogman au Club d'Oxford et Cambridge, durant la célébration du 25ème anniversaire de l'élection de la Baronne Thatcher au poste de Premier Ministre.)

Ouais, je suis un peu poseur là mais vous devez être informé du contexte, pas vrai?

Et force est d'admettre que c'est un excellent résumé de la situation.

MISE A JOUR :

Quelques photos de la soirée. Comme toujours, une version plus grande n'est qu'à un click de la miniature.

L'Adam Smith Institute, qui a magistralement organisé l'évènement a plus de photos, et il en va de même pour Samizdata.


Later in the evening, the density of the population declined. Sort of.


The British are allegedly famous - among other things - for their, err, surprising taste in the color of their ties, including but not limited to, bright pink.
Well, I'm not British, so any color will do as far as it's black (okay, I'll tolerate dark grey for a change)