Libertarian-leaning Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan will be kicking off an English version of the tea parties (see that link) on Saturday, February 27, 2010 ([1], promoted of course by Glenn Reynolds, [2]). And, like the American version, it will probably be basically a scam, pretending to try to reduce spending at the same time as allowing policies that increase spending and ignoring issues where the political establishment is weakest. The issue in question is, of course, immigration. In the U.S., both the Republicans and Democrats are extremely vulnerable on that issue and it has a broad impact, especially considering the high unemployment rate. Yet, the tea partiers have consistenly ignored it, giving the political establishment and the mainstream media a pass on a fundamental issue that could be used as leverage to extract other concessions.

For a clue that Hannan will pursue the same route, see the comment here. That's just a comment, but here's Hannan himself. After he received push back for praising Enoch Powell, he wrote this [3]:

For what it’s worth, I think Enoch Powell was wrong on immigration. The civil unrest that he forecast, and that many feared in 1968, didn’t materialise. Britain assimilated a large population with an ease that few countries have matched. Being an immigrant myself, I have particular cause to be grateful for Britain’s understated cosmopolitanism. To be sure, inward migration should be controlled: we want a rough sense of whom we are admitting and in what numbers; and (in large part because of Europe) we are losing that sense. But a measure of legal settlement can benefit a country.

Obviously, "rivers of blood" was a gross overstatement, but Hannan isn't offering a fact-based, non-hyperbolic version of Powell's concerns. Instead, that comment is more like something John McCain would say, and that's not a good thing.

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[1] blogs.telegraph . co . uk/news/danielhannan/
100027366/british-tea-party-movement-to-launch-on-saturday

[2] instapundit -dot- com / 94595

[3] blogs.telegraph . co . uk/news/danielhannan/
3677651/Journalists_magic_word