Tea Party’s European Vacation

Posted on Sep 9, 2010

Flickr / TheArches (CC-BY)

Anti-tax organizers in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe are getting advice and assistance from the same well-funded astroturf groups that helped launch and control the tea party movement on this side of the Atlantic.

But as the Guardian’s Michael White points out, “Europeans are not so easily inclined to hate the state or socialised medicine.”

The Guardian:

Libertarian US Tea Party organisations attended a conference in London today to share tactics with British and European taxpayer lobby groups, and described their activities as “an insurgent campaign” against their government’s tax and spending policies.

The move reflects an increasing desire within rightwing circles to establish a British version of the Tea Party “uprising”, and a growing belief that expected union action against the coalition government’s programme of cuts could be harnessed to mobilise vocal counter-demonstrations. The Taxpayers’ Alliance also believes that public anger at the Revenue & Customs blunder that has left 1.4m people facing backdated tax bills could fan the flames of a wider anti-tax revolt.

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