Westminstenders: Constitutional History

[RedToothBrush]

The Supreme Court case continues
(ruling possible Friday but likely Monday)

The new NI proposal is bollocks and Johnson didn't get why until it was discussed in Europe.

There was a press conference in Luxembourg which looks good for Johnson.

Johnsons approval ratings are up.

And we are making no obvious progress to anything but no deal...

NotaRealLawyer
thank you the Pope essay is informative and yes I think you are correct that JRM is referencing BJ's potential 'forgiveness' of the Tory MP's he kicked out - Rory the Tory and Co.

MathAnxiety yes - my grammar isn't up to much, but I had no h'education m'lud. JRM did...

I still think its an odd thing for JRM to do, from a Faith point of view.

He did the schools with the shipbuilders last week? The interview on the boat was after he bumbled through meeting primary school students attending the same event?

I’ve booked a slot at the “get ready for brexit” business event this afternoon, organised by government. Let’s see if they tell me anything useful. I’ve already reminded my Eu staff to do the settled status application. I’ve told everybody about the international driving permit (not that it’s really that useful for work). The rest is mystery. If my industry collapses can I ask for support? Something (fuck business) tells me the answer is probably no...but I’ll keep an open mind....

I think it will be Army and Airforce - might avoid Navy as no ships and they are all off doing "jobs" or US anyway.

Told you I would take one look at the housework

A very long time ago I did a legal secretarial Pitman course. That is when I first heard of tort. It's been a while since I used my legal brain though and seems like another life looking back at it.

Our school office closed early yesterday as they had a meeting about the effects of Brexit. Fingers crossed we might actually get a newsletter with advice in it soon like most of the other schools in the area. I have a strong feeling a lot of the office staff are leavers and are still trying to say "it will all be fiiiiiine!"

Those parts of the empire that did not engage in a fight to the death were given up under duress because of Roosevelt's and Truman's own imperial ambitions and the UK's absolute weakness when faced with the power of the US in the aftermath of WW2.

To be fair to Roosevelt, he warned Churchill that the price of US support (bearing in mind the aid we got before the US entered the war) was the loss of Empire. He was quite blunt about it - the American people would not support anything which looked like the US returning Britains empire to it. Hence the undignified end to the war in the Pacific.

Whether or not the mechanism of British government was transparent with it's subjects on that matter is a different story.

It's interesting to speculate what would have happened had the public been better informed about what they were actually losing sons, brothers, fathers, sisters, mothers and children for ?

It's the same climate of ignorance that prevailed during the troubles.

Fans of supersonic passenger travel and transparent government might be interested to know that the US government was approached when Concord was being developed (because the UK desperately wanted to work with anyone but France). The US government pretty quickly sized up the situation and declined. As one official said in an interview:

It would have been politically impossible for the US government to be seen subsidising a program which was mean to see rich playboys jetsetting around the world with US taxpayer dollars.

I mention that, because it highlights a fundamental difference between the US perception of it's people, and the English perception of it's people.

While I would love to see Deadwood Redwood lose his seat, I don't think it's going to happen.
As for Oxford East going LibDem from Labour - no.
Ed Vaizey losing his seat in Wantage - well now, here we don't know. He's been booted out of the party. If he stays out and stands independently and an 'Official' Tory stands then there could be a nice split in the vote with both Labour and Lib Dems fancying their chances.

@mathanxiety imagine being tasked with writing up a JRM speech though, with his own version of grammar or, maybe people just print his speeches incorrectly to wind him up

I wonder if the possible collapse of Thomas Cook will have any effect on things ? It will certainly add to the mood that "something" is afoot. Might stir another 10% of the population who haven't heard of Brexit yet ?

I am now Windsor and the tory there is a complete nut job

That is no way to talk about Her Majesty.

jesuispoulet army- done for the day!

I've just had a very somber email from The Law Society about Brexit. It all seems more real than at the previous deadlines.

Sombre. What planet is autocorrect on?!

With polling I always look at who or which newspaper has commissioned it.

DGR "It's interesting to speculate what would have happened had the public been better informed about what they were actually losing sons, brothers, fathers, sisters, mothers and children for?"

"Interesting to speculate?!" I'm sorry DGR but if I'd written that I'd like to think I'd have reread that once more at the very least, before I clicked "post".

Re. end of empire: Didn't the UK squander the money it received from the Marshall Plan in propping up or otherwise dealing with the effects of losing the empire after the war? Whereas other recipients used their (smaller) amounts to renew and update their industrial plant (or rebuild in Germany's case). I seem to recall that the UK actually received more money under the Plan than other countries, but didn't use it with an eye to the future.

In the longer term historical context, empire does seem to turn out to have been a double-edged sword.

With polling I always look at who or which newspaper has commissioned it.

And exactly what questions were asked, and in what order, and how the responses break down across demographic lines. Even then, if it was only a poll of 1,000 people it's of limited value.

In fact the best thing a poll of 1,000 people can tell you is how much different polling organisations charge for polls of 1,000 people. Anything else is pretty much homeopathy explained by astrology.

Speaking of polls, our local Conservatives dropped a leaflet through our letterbox yesterday, asking for a signature on a petition, and an indication of one persons voting intention (despite there being 3 voters registered here). I couldn't help but think it was representative of 1950s Tory thinking where "the man of the house" answered for his chattels, goods and wife (in that order). It's sitting in the car waiting for me to be arsed to drop it (reply paid !) into a postbox. But when they pass that data back up to Mount Doom, it will only be half the picture since they won't have a response from MrsDGR.

I smiled wryly at the fact they gave email addresses for the councillors, as it's been radio silence for two years when I have bothered to email them (on local issues).

I once asked my DM what she thought about the atom bombs being dropped on Japan. She said they knew that they were different, but they didn't know exactly what that meant, and there was just relief that the war was over. I imagine that she was very, very typical.

They really didn't know about the full effects of radiation - I remember seeing a picture of some big-wig standing next to the tower on which one of the test bombs had been on - just standing there in ordinary clothes - no protective clothing in sight, not even a face mask or gloves.

"Interesting to speculate?!" I'm sorry DGR but if I'd written that I'd like to think I'd have reread that once more at the very least, before I clicked "post".

?

shrug

Nope, still can't see what's wrong with it. Are we talking grammar, or sense ?

cherin Woo-hoo! I called it! I'm sur he gave out JC posters for them all to fire at too...

My late DM became suspicious of the Japanese when she married my step-dad. He was older than she was and had had friend imprisoned by them in POW camps. At the time I had a Japanese girl in my dorm and my late DM told me to "keep an eye on her" . Tbf she did once leave sushi under the bed for a week which was grim, but other than that ...!

In the longer term historical context, empire does seem to turn out to have been a double-edged sword.

A few years ago, I read a fascinating article that pointed out how incredibly well the British propaganda machine had worked on Britons to create and maintain this all-encompassing myth of a "Little UK" somehow standing up to the might of the Wermacht armed only with a toothbrush and pluck.

We rather forget we had an Empire that spanned the fucking globe in 1939 - we had command of hundreds of millions of people and a smorgasboard of natural resources in spades. That's before you add the support of the US.

And when I say "we" I mean me, because twats like Mark Francois certainly don't credit the soldiers of empire when he has his "special moments" in public.

A couple of years ago there was a sobering exhibition in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery highlighting the millions of Indians who fought in WW1 (and just as many in WW2).

I think people could understand what they were fighting for with Hitler, because they had suffered bombing plus many would have heard stories from the survivors of the BEF straggling back after Dunkirk. But the war in the Far East and Japan? I think most were a bit bewildered.

I think people could understand what they were fighting for with Hitler, because they had suffered bombing plus many would have heard stories from the survivors of the BEF straggling back after Dunkirk.

sadly it seems they understood wrong. They thought they were defending their country from an aggressor. In hindsight it seems they were defending the upper classes inherited privilege from an aggressor. Much as they did in the First World War.

They thought they were defending their country from an aggressor. In hindsight it seems they were defending the upper classes inherited privilege from an aggressor.

But the War did teach them that, and they booted out Churchill at the first opportunity and ushered in the welfare state. Attlee's Government had much more radical policies than current Labour policies.

Fair enough DGR if you don't see it, you don't see it Not that it will matter I imagine, but perhaps I can try and explain why I reacted like that to this particular post.

The part of your post I quoted back, suggests strongly to me that you understand yourself to 'know' why "peoples sons, brothers, fathers, sisters, mothers and children" died. The implication being from this then, that their surviving relatives, and their wider families and friends do not?? Your mention of "ignorance" in a subsequent sentence reinforces this. I'm assuming from the context of the rest of the post that you are referring to lives lost during the Second World War.

I'd just gently remind you that for quite a lot of people, we are still close enough timewise that what is being talked about is the loss of those people's parents (and other relatives).

If you take the position that those people were lied to by their government? Well I can't help you either way on that one, but your "it is interesting to speculate" just seems insensitive to me (putting it mildly)

But the War did teach them that, and they booted out Churchill at the first opportunity and ushered in the welfare state

something a Brexit "victorious" Tory party might contemplate, if it hadn't replaced it's brains with its arse.

It would be richly ironic and deserved if having inflicted Brexit on us, we end up with a Labour government to actually work with it.