Via a commentator on dKos, I came across this little house of horrors:
The Henry Jackson Society is a non-profit organisation that seeks to promote the following principles: that liberal democracy should be spread across the world; that as the world’s most powerful democracies, the United States and the European Union – under British leadership – must shape the world more actively by intervention and example; that such leadership requires political will, a commitment to universal human rights and the maintenance of a strong military with global expeditionary reach; and that too few of our leaders in Britain and the rest of Europe today are ready to play a role in the world that matches our strength and responsibilities.
Their “principles” include forceful democratisation, an emphasis on military power, “the importance of unity between the world’s great democracies, represented by institutions such as NATO, the European Union and the OECD, amongst many others” and “Believes that only modern liberal democratic states are truly legitimate, and that any international organisation which admits undemocratic states on an equal basis is fundamentally flawed.”
Their list of signatories is interesting: their list of patrons reads like a most-wanted list.
From one of their editorials we get the following, appropriate, quote:
Equally, there have been stirrings throughout British society that tolerance – an intrinsic part of British culture – can only be taken so far, especially when dealing with bigots.
I looked at the list of signatories — would you too, and give us some history about them?
The list of patrons is more familiar — Perle, Woolsey, etc.
Tory and Blairite Labour MPs with a scattering of UK arms and media types. The usual really. Wikipedia has individual entries for most of them.
Me busy at moment.
I can help with some of the more prominent figures.
Michael Ancram MP (he is actually the Marquis of Lothian but does not use the title). Depity Leader of the Conservative Party. I would say a declining political fugure unlikely to prosper in the Cameron era.
Col. Tim Collins. The officer who gave a famous speech to his men before the start if the Iraq invasion.
Michael Gove MP. A Times columnist before and after his election to Parliament this year. I saw him on TV over the weekend looking forward to getting all Tony Blair’s daft right wing domestic policies through Parliament with the Tories votes replacing those of defecting Labour backbenchers. He is supporting Cameron for leader and mau have a bright political future.
Denis MacShane. Labour MP and former Europe Minister.
Lord Powell of Bayswater. Margaret Thatcher’s foreign affairs adviser and the brother of Tony Blair’s Chief of Staff.
Gisela Stuart. German born Labour MP.
Ed Vaizey MP. I think he is another journalist turned Conservative MP.
David Willetts MP. Member of the Shadow Cabinet, known as Two Brains. Backed Davis in the kleadership election but probably able enougth to be forgiven.
Odd mixture of politicians (particularly the pro-European Labour ones), academics and journalists associated with The Times newspaper (prop. Rupert Murdoch).
Thanks, very helpful. Would you mind crossposting in the parallel diary on European Tribune?
I was thinking, yeah, if they’re anything like “our” neocons then hopefully they’re all floating belly-up.
looks like a lot of conservative Northern Irish Protestants too. This looks like what remains of the old British Imperialists. It is well known that neocons admire them. Too bad the Irish do very nicely without their “leadership”. They have become alot more liberal as well.
This is PNAC on the Thames. Even their website’s homepage mimics the PNAC homepage to a certain degree, nevermind that the most prominent patrons are basicaslly the same bunch of insane megalomaniacs that founded PNAC.
Trying to trick the rubes in Britain that this is about democracy, just like the PNACers here in the US are trying to do. The fact that these are creatures addicted to an authoritarian mindset for governance is cleverly hidden. But all these nuts have done is transfer their previous Trotskyite leftism over to the rightwing end, the reactionary, Jacobin end of the political spectrum.
But, they are not Democracy oriented, thay are authoritarianism enthusiasts. They use Democracy as a cover, figuring they can dupe the voters into relinquishing their individual democratic rights in the name of sevurity and progress. But tyrannies frequently use this tactic to overthrow democratic institutions priorto seizing control of the country.
Whenever this spectre of “Law OR Order” ideology raises it’s ugly visage, tyranny is on the march.