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Sunday, November 12, 2006
Long to Reign Over Us
Stephen Tall's A Liberal Goes A Long Way BLOG has become a daily read for me. Today he has an excellent post on Remembrance Sunday. Well, if you ignore the last two paragraphs... And he was doing so well.
Liberals and liberals take note: The Queen is Head of State of 16 sovereign Commonwealth Realms (and of the Cook Islands, a state in free assocation with New Zealand), each of which retains this arrangement entirely of its own volition and may change it at any time. They have now kept up this link with each other (not just with Britain, but with each other, including in relation to the others on Britain's part) long beyond the age of decolonisation.
Only four of them have white majority populations, as do only two of the remaining British Overseas Territories, any of which may become independent whenever it pleases, but all of whose people explicitly choose to be British.
Furthermore, the Great Council of Chiefs of Fiji (which now elects the President) continues to acknowledge The Queen as Paramount Chief (with precedence ahead of the President), even though Fiji formally became a republic after two miltary coups in 1987.
Indeed, The Queen still features on the Fijian currency and stamps, and did so even while the then-new Republic of Fiji was expelled from the Commonwealth immediately after the coups. As one might expect, the Chiefs themselves are from the Melanesian half of the population (the other half is of Indian descent).
Compare and contrast all of this with the whiter-than-white EU, or indeed with the whiter-than-white Atlantic Alliance.
What a despicable little urchin. I am convinced liberals in this country need a good slap and a short, sharp reminder of what was at stake all those years ago.
Right is right What was right all those years ago? Appeasement, nazi sympathy? You far rightwing creeps would have been quick to make a deal with Hitler to keep the British Empire. The Second World War was a victory for liberalism.
Well, I'm a Liberal, and a liberal, I generally support the monarchy, even though I am somewhat uncomfortable with the heriditary principle.
What I dislike is concentrations of power and unaccountable power. The Queen has little real power today, I am far more concerned over the power that the Prime Minister has today, he has assumed all powers of the monarch.
Today, the existence or not of the monarchy has no impact on freedom. The fight is elsewhere.
He is one of an ever increasing number of people that cannot bring themselves to sing the words to the National Anthem. Are there any other countries in which such a large (albeit probably not yet a majority) number of the population are so embarrassed about the words of their national Anthems? The Flower of Scotland, which is a truly awful song, does not cause the level of embarrassment for Scots that the National Anthem causes to most Brits (and even more English).
11 comments:
His picture of a bunch of councillors persuades me that such events are much improved by a few kilties.
Liberals and liberals take note: The Queen is Head of State of 16 sovereign Commonwealth Realms (and of the Cook Islands, a state in free assocation with New Zealand), each of which retains this arrangement entirely of its own volition and may change it at any time. They have now kept up this link with each other (not just with Britain, but with each other, including in relation to the others on Britain's part) long beyond the age of decolonisation.
Only four of them have white majority populations, as do only two of the remaining British Overseas Territories, any of which may become independent whenever it pleases, but all of whose people explicitly choose to be British.
Furthermore, the Great Council of Chiefs of Fiji (which now elects the President) continues to acknowledge The Queen as Paramount Chief (with precedence ahead of the President), even though Fiji formally became a republic after two miltary coups in 1987.
Indeed, The Queen still features on the Fijian currency and stamps, and did so even while the then-new Republic of Fiji was expelled from the Commonwealth immediately after the coups. As one might expect, the Chiefs themselves are from the Melanesian half of the population (the other half is of Indian descent).
Compare and contrast all of this with the whiter-than-white EU, or indeed with the whiter-than-white Atlantic Alliance.
What a despicable little urchin. I am convinced liberals in this country need a good slap and a short, sharp reminder of what was at stake all those years ago.
Right is right
What was right all those years ago?
Appeasement, nazi sympathy?
You far rightwing creeps would have been quick to make a deal with Hitler to keep the British Empire.
The Second World War was a victory for liberalism.
right is right - it was the right for people like him to want to be free to an exercise and opinion, and people like you to whinge when he does.
Well, I'm a Liberal, and a liberal, I generally support the monarchy, even though I am somewhat uncomfortable with the heriditary principle.
What I dislike is concentrations of power and unaccountable power. The Queen has little real power today, I am far more concerned over the power that the Prime Minister has today, he has assumed all powers of the monarch.
Today, the existence or not of the monarchy has no impact on freedom. The fight is elsewhere.
Shurely shome mishteak. Lasht Five paragraphs.
He is one of an ever increasing number of people that cannot bring themselves to sing the words to the National Anthem. Are there any other countries in which such a large (albeit probably not yet a majority) number of the population are so embarrassed about the words of their national Anthems? The Flower of Scotland, which is a truly awful song, does not cause the level of embarrassment for Scots that the National Anthem causes to most Brits (and even more English).
Ah well Iain, you can't have it all, esp with a Lib Dem! ;)
"The Second World War was a victory for liberalism."
Yes, I'm sure the Poles were glad to be liberated by that great Liberal, Joseph Stalin.
WWII was not an ideological crusade, it was a war that we reluctantly stumbled into and soon became a struggle for national survival.
"This is your victory.It is the victory of the cause of freedom in every land."
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill May 8th 1945
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