Skip to main content

"It came from Heaven Down"

I have always liked Denmark. I have many Danish friends. I like Copenhagen, I even like the Danish language, which seems to me to carry some echoes of English. The quiet, humorous Danes have created a steady, civilized country, which is proud of its achievements without being jingoistic. The Country is, to use that almost nineteenth Century word "worthy". High minded, honourable and kind.

Danish democracy is consensus based, but the country has not been afraid to make occasionally radical political decisions. Denmark is a country that, whatever its faults- and all countries have them- works.

Now, steady, stable and fair Denmark has come under attack. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the cartoons published in a Danish newspaper, the response is horrific. Danish Embassies have been attacked, people have been hurt and several even killed.

I believe in free speech- even the free speech of the Islamo-Fascists who would take my own free speech away from me. I am going to show my support for free speech and my support for Denmark by wearing a pin of the Danish flag. By doing so I will show my contempt for the violent savagery of those who can not even understand the strength and nobility of a free society.

I know a lovely land
With spreading, shady beeches Near Baltic's salty strand;
Near Baltic's salty strand;
Its hills and valleys gently fall,
Its ancient name is Denmark,
And it is Freya's hall
And it is Freya's hall

Comments

Edis said…
Title of your post of course refers to the National Flag, which 'Appeared from Heaven' to inpire the Danes when they were beating up Estonia... you do keep your interests close together!
Bishop Hill said…
Good for you.

Popular posts from this blog

Waiting for the Barbarians

What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum? The barbarians are due here today. Why isn’t anything going on in the senate? Why are the senators sitting there without legislating? Because the barbarians are coming today. What’s the point of senators making laws now? Once the barbarians are here, they’ll do the legislating. Why did our emperor get up so early, and why is he sitting enthroned at the city’s main gate, in state, wearing the crown? Because the barbarians are coming today and the emperor’s waiting to receive their leader. He’s even got a scroll to give him, loaded with titles, with imposing names. Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas? Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts, rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds? Why are they carrying elegant canes beautifully worked in silver and gold? Because the barbarians are coming today and things like that dazzle the barbarians. Why don’t our distingui...

Liberal Democrats v Conservatives: the battle in the blogosphere

It is probably fair to say that the advent of Nick Clegg, the new leader of the Liberal Democrats, has not been greeted with unalloyed joy by our Conservative opponents. Indeed, it would hardly be wrong to say that the past few weeks has seen some "pretty robust" debate between Conservative and Liberal Democrat bloggers. Even the Queen Mum of blogging, the generally genial Iain Dale seems to have been featuring as many stories as he can to try to show Liberal Democrats in as poor a light as possible. Neither, to be fair, has the traffic been all one way: I have "fisked' Mr. Cameron's rather half-baked proposals on health, and attacked several of the Conservative positions that have emerged from the fog of their policy making process. Most Liberal Democrats have attacked the Conservatives probably with more vigour even than the distrusted, discredited Labour government. So what lies behind this sharper debate, this emerging war in the blogosphere? Partly- in my ...

Lib Dem v. Tory (Round 2)

The Liberal Democrats stand for a distinct political ideology. It is an ideology built around both socially and economically liberal precepts. In as far as our ruling Labour government can be said to have an ideology at all, it coincides with Liberalism only incidentally. Labour stands for pragmatism, and where it does not there is still a core of values that are collectivist and not individual. Sometimes people are prepared to claim the moral high ground for policies of social solidarity and redistribution of wealth. Liberals may argue in favour of equality of opportunity, we can not argue in favour- as Socialists do- of "and equal society". The reason is simple: Socialism does not work. If one places equality above freedom, then eventually we get tyranny. This is why, while we may argue in favour of a more equal society as being a stronger society, the tools that we may use to gain -in our view- socially desirable outcomes must rest upon freedom above all else. As PJ O'...