political commentator * author * publisher * bookseller * radio presenter * blogger * Conservative candidate * former lobbyist * Jack Russell owner * West Ham United fanatic * Email iain AT iaindale DOT com
Monday, April 02, 2007
Dave Hill Would Vote Tory...
...if he could vote for Shaun Bailey, the new Tory candidate for Hammersmith. Click HERE to read how David Cameron's 'big tent' is billowing...
However, on one issue where I would disagree with Shaun: slavery.
Here's part of an eye witness account of the 'life' that around 80-90% of our British ancestors had for far too many many centuries of the history of these islands:
'The condition of the Essex labourer is a bad as it can be. He toils like a slave, lives like a pig and too often dies like a dog, with nothing to look forward to except an old age of rheumatism and misery in the workhouse'
Essex Chronicle 1860
The vast majority of British people are the descendants of British slave labourers who received not one penny of benefit from the slave trade. It would be hugely unjust of we were to be made either to apologise or to pay reparations for slavery.
I'm utterly distraught to find that Greg Hands will no longer be representing Hammersmith.
Perhaps someone will publish a statement of condolence in the local rag. Much in the same despicable way that Hands did when he discovered his incumbent Labour oppo had a tumour.
Anonymous/Auntie Flo, I'd go further than that: there is a vast common heritage shared by the Anglo-Celtic and the West African slave-descended peoples, throughout the world. Of course, that heritage includes the English language.
But it is also includes blood ties. All African-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans have Anglo-Celtic blood. Likewise, huge numbers of Anglo-Celtic people have African blood, not just in the Americas, but right here in the British Isles, and therefore also in later settler societies.
All but two of the English-speaking countries in the Caribbean freely retain the same Head of State as four of the six Anglosphere countries, and vice versa. Those in the former category thereby declare the latter’s Anglo-Celtic identity to be integral to their own, and those in the latter category (including Britain) thereby declare the former’s West African slave-descended identity to be integral to their own. (There is also a Pacific dimension, which is just as important.)
So, are we all expected to apologise and pay reparations to ourselves?
Come on Iain, you know full well why Shaun Bailey is Hammersmith PPC, and it ain't his admirable charity work. It's Montgomerie's support, & why did TM back him?
If the way we get our "big tent" is by filling it full of reactionary Evangelicals decrying the liberalism we ought to espouse, then I'd rather be on the outside p---ing in.
I hope that Little Black Sambo enjoys the Tory results in Scotland and Wales, where, as in the North and the Midlands (which, among other things, have large Irish-descended populations), the Tories have to recapture seats in order to recapture power.
I can't think why a party full of people like him, and led by the Notting Hill set, is still so detested in what are, after all, far more conservative places than the ultra-liberal South East, where, by some sort of fluke, the Tories already hold most of the seats...
And there was me getting all excited, thinking Cameron had got the endorsement of Super Yob himself! Now that would be something worth reporting...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.photofeatures.com/slade/ppages/ppage14.html
(He lived next door to a friend of mine - used to do his gardening in 8 inch glitter boots! Vic and Bob hadn't got the half of it.)
I'd vote for him too, go Shaun!
ReplyDeleteHowever, on one issue where I would disagree with Shaun: slavery.
Here's part of an eye witness account of the 'life' that around 80-90% of our British ancestors had for far too many many centuries of the history of these islands:
'The condition of the Essex labourer is a bad as it can be. He toils like a slave, lives like a pig and too often dies like a dog, with nothing to look forward to except an old age of rheumatism and misery in the workhouse'
Essex Chronicle 1860
The vast majority of British people are the descendants of British slave labourers who received not one penny of benefit from the slave trade. It would be hugely unjust of we were to be made either to apologise or to pay reparations for slavery.
Auntie Flo'
Tony Blair's offficial spokesman intends to vote for Cameron?????
ReplyDeleteI think you mean Hammersmith, the new constituency. Fulham will go with Chelsea and a good thing, too.
ReplyDeleteWhat we can and should do, however, is to show solidarity with all who were enslaved and with their descendants.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the numerous errors in me previous post - should learn not to post from my office
Auntie Flo'
I'm utterly distraught to find that Greg Hands will no longer be representing Hammersmith.
ReplyDeletePerhaps someone will publish a statement of condolence in the local rag. Much in the same despicable way that Hands did when he discovered his incumbent Labour oppo had a tumour.
Anonymous/Auntie Flo, I'd go further than that: there is a vast common heritage shared by the Anglo-Celtic and the West African slave-descended peoples, throughout the world. Of course, that heritage includes the English language.
ReplyDeleteBut it is also includes blood ties. All African-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans have Anglo-Celtic blood. Likewise, huge numbers of Anglo-Celtic people have African blood, not just in the Americas, but right here in the British Isles, and therefore also in later settler societies.
All but two of the English-speaking countries in the Caribbean freely retain the same Head of State as four of the six Anglosphere countries, and vice versa. Those in the former category thereby declare the latter’s Anglo-Celtic identity to be integral to their own, and those in the latter category (including Britain) thereby declare the former’s West African slave-descended identity to be integral to their own. (There is also a Pacific dimension, which is just as important.)
So, are we all expected to apologise and pay reparations to ourselves?
Now Dave Hill would be a great Tory scalp.
ReplyDelete"Dave Hill would vote Tory...." That isn't QUITE what I've written, is it Iain?!?!?!?!?!?
ReplyDeleteAs for your fine readers "confusing" me with famous namesakes - been there, done that etc...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1077032,00.html
(scroll to the third item down).
By the way, have ever I mentioned my family connection with Alastair Campbell? Thought not.
Cheers!
There is no such thing as Celtic.
ReplyDeleteCome on Iain, you know full well why Shaun Bailey is Hammersmith PPC, and it ain't his admirable charity work. It's Montgomerie's support, & why did TM back him?
ReplyDeleteIf the way we get our "big tent" is by filling it full of reactionary Evangelicals decrying the liberalism we ought to espouse, then I'd rather be on the outside p---ing in.
I hope that Little Black Sambo enjoys the Tory results in Scotland and Wales, where, as in the North and the Midlands (which, among other things, have large Irish-descended populations), the Tories have to recapture seats in order to recapture power.
ReplyDeleteI can't think why a party full of people like him, and led by the Notting Hill set, is still so detested in what are, after all, far more conservative places than the ultra-liberal South East, where, by some sort of fluke, the Tories already hold most of the seats...