Posts
"Deciding to leave the EU, but failing to carry it through, wouldn’t just be a normal political failure like failing to build HS2 or extend Heathrow. It would be an epic defeat, hardly matched since the Norman invasion; a national humiliation to echo down the ages, shattering to all who look to this country for inspiration. Not for nothing is the British flag again seen on the streets of Hong Kong, 22 years after its people last truly knew freedom under the law. If they believed Britain would be lost in Europe, as they fear being lost in China, they’d hardly be carrying your flag. For them, it’s a symbol of freedom; and for you, surely, a source of pride in all you have done and all you can still do."
He made one mistake. Britain is not the home of the mother of Parliaments. This is a misquotation. England IS, according to the great Radical John Bright, the mother of Parliaments.
I wish people would join my campaign to say England when they mean Britain - or the UK - but this and a revival of imperial measurements and perhaps Fahrenheit can wait till we have safely Brexited.
What a very good British Prime Minister Tony Abbot would make. Boris should at least make him Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary. This would mean moving the clever but vaguely disquieting Dominic Raab, whom Marina Hyde repeatedly says resembles a wife murderer wondering how to dispose of the body.
I wish people would join my campaign to say England when they mean Britain - or the UK - but this and a revival of imperial measurements and perhaps Fahrenheit can wait till we have safely Brexited.
What a very good British Prime Minister Tony Abbot would make. Boris should at least make him Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary. This would mean moving the clever but vaguely disquieting Dominic Raab, whom Marina Hyde repeatedly says resembles a wife murderer wondering how to dispose of the body.
"I wish people would join my campaign to say England when they mean Britain - or the UK"
ReplyDeletePaul,
I often wonder how you survive your trips to Ireland (the southern part) or Eire as I think you like to refer to it and Scotland. Perhaps angels still watch over children and fools even in these times.
I noted that on your recent tour of Great Britain that you avoided visiting Cardiff.
Please don't "campaign" there or anywhere else in Wales because although we Welsh are sometimes referred to as the "quiet Celts", we do get irate when ignorant Englishmen refuse to acknowledge that we are a separate country and people to England and the English.
I suppose that Phase 2 of your "campaign" is to rename the British Empire.
Why ever would it have been it called that I wonder?
Best regards,
David
I strongly back using Bombay, Peking, Rangoon &c but Constantinople and Angora seem to be lost causes.
ReplyDeleteWales used to be legally part of England until I think the late 19th century. But I am a Welsh and Cornish nationalist - though I hate devolution.
ReplyDeleteBut I am a Welsh and Cornish nationalist
DeleteI think there's something to be said for breaking up large nation states. Maybe it's time to break up the English Empire. Give the Scots, the Welsh and the Cornish their independence. Maybe that could be Boris Johnson's legacy. Who knows?
If it happened it would be Tony Blair's legacy. Mr Gladstone was right - Home Rule for Ireland was a far sighted idea that would have kept Ireland in the UK. Devolution for Scotland may have the opposite effect, but I hope not. I hope and think Brexit will reduce the chance of Scotland leaving. Cameron allowing the Scots a referendum has set a disastrous precedent but not one Boris should copy.
DeleteI hope and think Brexit will reduce the chance of Scotland leaving
DeleteWouldn't Brexit make Scottish independence more likely?