« "That's not cricket!" |
Main
| The Queen Delivers Prime Minister's PowerPoint Presentation »
"Fear of public speaking ranks slightly below night-landing a plane on an aircraft carrier during a storm," says John Falck, a partner at a trading firm, in the Wall Street Journal's print edition today. This fear, Falck, suggests, is why PowerPoint is so popular. "When they freeze and forget their own name, they can just read it off the first slide."
It occurred to me that many politicians might be no different from most of us. Fearful of speaking, doubly fearful of looking idiotic, they carry PowerPoint presentations inside their heads. This might explain why they find it so hard to change, why, for instance, they look at a great British medical system brought low by the NHS, and repeatedly decide not that the system needs changing but that more money needs to be thrown at its head. Your money if you pay taxes in Britain. The PowerPoint Point most firmly embedded in every politician's head, no matter his or her party, is that government is the answer to every problem.
But clearly, if we could only remember the best of the Brits, it's not.
We mentioned Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in an earlier post. The hospital was started by Brits banding together and starting a hospital for children. This was done all over the country, as we describe here, and James Bartholomew describes in riveting detail in Welfare State.
David reminded me that J M Barrie gave the copyright of Peter Pan to the children's hospital in April 1929, and sales of the magical story have helped countless children. This is the kind of generosity and imagination that a PowerPoint politician with a few fixed ideas cannot see. He or she appears to want the citizen to remain a child beholden to and unable to live without government.
Meanwhile we forget how exhilarating it is to fly, really fly, helping each other.
|
ARCHIVES | RSS | CONTACT US
THE KNIGHT
Never a dull moment on the road to Runnymede
Includes how boys became men, chivalry and the Geneva Conventions, aid on your life's quest, and Magna Carta.
YOUR OWN CHOICE
Shall Britain be free?
INGENIOUS INVENTORS
INNOVATIVE THINKERS
The British scientists and inventors who gave us the modern world are
HERE
 
LIBERTY! THE TIMELINE IS HERE
BRITISH HISTORY
DEFENDING FREEDOM
DEFEATING THE EU SUPERSTATE IS HERE
DEFEATING VIOLENT ISLAMISTS IS HERE
CREATIVE BRITS
NEW files on British artists and art are HERE
HEROES & ADVENTURERS
Meet the cool and daring risk-takers, the curious and resourceful adventurers, the heroic and humorous Brits who risk their lives for great causes HERE
A FEW IDEAS IN
THEIR HEADS
The virtues and powers that create success are HERE
BRITISH LIFE
We begin with English gardens, sportscars, whisky and laughter
HERE
British women and children waged their own campaign against slavery.
ABOLISHING SLAVERY
The report is HERE
SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS
HERE
Brits invented football (soccer), rugby, cricket, tennis, croquet, badminton, squash, fly-fishing, and golf. Off the playing fields, they created a quintessential style – romantic, adventurous, and equally at home in the country or on the urban runway.
BRITS WORLDWIDE
COMING SOON: A place for your stories, profiles, ideas, and images.
THE SITE MAP IS HERE
DAVID ABBOTT MD, MRCP
Over the last decade I have come to realise how much of all I value depends on ideas and traditions nurtured by Brits. I hope you will be inspired by what you find in this blog/website, and that you will help us to make it grow in brilliance and depth by becoming a Friend.
CATHERINE (CAT) GLASS
As an American who is the descendant of Czech, Irish, and English lovers of freedom, I am dedicated to bringing the courage and spirit of Brits at their best to you.
Join the CIRCLE OF FRIENDS HERE
The best of the Brits produced thousands of indispensable inventions, developed wildly popular sports, designed romantic houses and gardens, created astonishing literary masterpieces, lived with style and humour, tackled dangerous missions with daring and ingenuity, and fought with indomitable courage to establish and protect the free world. We aim to describe their superb achievements and extraordinary lives. We celebrate creativity and common sense, fair play and compassion, bravery and self-discipline, rational thought, freedom, faith, and wit.
________________________
Note:
E-mails we receive may be published along with the name of the sender.
________________________
BLOGS & SITES OF NOTE
1party4all »
18 Doughty Street »
Albion's Seedlings »
Adam Smith Institute »
Anchoress »
Barnabas Fund »
Belmont Club »
Better Off Out »
Britannia Radio »
Britannica Blog »
British Declaration
of Independence »
British Museum»
British Weights & Measures »
Bruges Group »
Captain's Quarters »
Cato Unbound »
Center Liberty in the Mideast »
Centre for Policy Studies »
Christian Institute »
The Churchill Centre »
Churchill Society »
Civitas »
Conservative History »
Countryside Alliance »
ejectejecteject »
English Cut »
Englishman's Castle »
EU Referendum »
The Flag »
Foundation Economic Freedom »
The Freedom Association »
Free Market Fairy Tales »
gardenmob »
Global Britain »
Global Vision »
Daniel Hannan, MEP »
Roger Helmer, MEP »
Hugh Hewitt »
Hitchens in the Mail »
Instapundit »
Iraq the Model »
Lindsay Jenkins »
Joe's Dartblog »
juliansdaughter »
Marginalized Action Dinosaur »
The Monarchist »
Mother's Union »
National Maritime Museum »
National Portrait Gallery »
National Review »
National Theatre »
New English Review »
Nights in the Past »
On This Day »
Open Europe »
Pajamas Media »
Piddingworth »
Point-to-Point »
Polo »
Powerline »
Royal Academy »
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew »
Royal Horticultural Society »
Royal Opera House »
Royal Shakespeare Company »
Royal Society of St. George »
Samizdata.net »
Say Uncle »
Shailer »
Sharon Chadha »
Steyn Online »
TaxPayers' Allliance »
The Ten O' Clock Scholar »
This England »
Welfare State We're In »
WSJ Opinion Journal »
UKIP »
UKIP Bournemouth West »
UKIP West Sussex »
Victory Caucus »
Woodlands Web »
________________________
Masthead Photo: [email protected]
Contributor Masthead Design: Linda Wettengel
Sportscar Image:
Joe Malchow dartblog.com
Small boy on beach:
[email protected]
|
