That which is cultural is not amenable to reason.
Consequently, at the weekend millions of Brits thought that what they were witnessing on their TV screens was perfectly reasonable.
In a country where many are faced with the “heating or eating” dilemma, they applauded a hereditary monarch and her gold carriage.
Actually they were cheering HRH, Her Royal Hologram.
To many in the outside world, this looked utterly bizarre
The historian Edward Gibbons observed that “of the various forms of government which have prevailed in the world, a hereditary monarchy seems to present the fairest scope for ridicule.”
He lived in the century that would see Britain become the dominant power on the planet.
The obscene wealth on display at the weekend was a travelogue of centuries of imperialist plunder.
Even the centrepiece of the British Crown itself is mired in controversy.
Even the Queen’s daughter in law was displaying baubles redolent of an African kleptocracy.
Remember this is a country where the basics of life are a weekly struggle for millions in poverty.
The featured image is doubly appropriate as this crescendo of grovelling occurred on the birthday of the Irishman from Edinburgh.
Those cogent words remain the best analysis of the deference disease that I’ve ever read.
British soldiers, who had sworn an oath of loyalty to her grandfather George V, shot Connolly in the stonebreakers yard in Kilmainham.
Dying from his wounds he couldn’t stand to face the firing squad, so they strapped him to a chair and killed a man who probably had days to live.
Almost a century later the current British monarch bowed her head at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin and honoured those who had fought for Irish freedom against the crown she inherited.
This special place is only a few hundred yards from the GPO where Connolly stood beside Pearse as the Proclamation was read out on Easter Monday 1916.
Sadly, in Connolly’s birthplace, this internationally acknowledged hero has no statue to commemorate him.
It’s almost as if Fair Caledonia has a problem with her own Irish.
He definitely deserves better than this in the city where he was born.
Connolly opposed the forelock-tugging of those who would worship royalty.
I thought you might like to see what happened in Dublin on “Jubilee Day” in June 1897.
Much respect to James Connolly and Maud Gonne.
Since the current British Monarch became head of state her troops have committed atrocities across the planet.
During her Coronation in 1953 Crown Forces were crushing dissent in Kenya.
I can highly recommend Britain’s Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya (2014) by Caroline Elkins.
Since then her soldiers have not mended their ways.
Lest we forget.
For sure, the Kenyans haven’t.
The Royalist Redmondites of the SNP took a full part in the Saxe-Coburg celebrations in London.
My social media indicated that some of the folks who voted for them were disappointed at this.
Well, disappointment implies surprise and I can’t join in with that.
Especially given that the SNP wishes to reinstate the Regal Union of 1603.
It is only the 1707 act of Union that they purport to have a problem with.
Although I’m not so sure about that.
Here is some top-class grovelling from the Holyrood regional assembly last year.
“Your address is a highlight of the day…a democratic and a cultural moment.”
Dear reader, this is what sociologists call ” a degradation ceremony”.
While the SNP attend Westminster and swear the loyal oath, they’re no threat to the current constitutional arrangements in the UK.
After all, it’s a nice paycheque being an Honourable Member.
Britain is no longer a world power and this carnival of celebrity feudalism can be viewed as part of the grief denial.
If we follow follow the money then the hard-headed folk who assess the health of a currency don’t rate the chances of the one that has Frau Saxe-Coburg on them.
“Investors should hedge for an ‘existential’ sterling crisis as the British currency faces struggles usually seen in emerging markets, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists.”
Sounds serious.
When your neighbours are going down the drain, you’re well-advised to keep an eye on them.
That is especially true for us in Ireland as the British state still owns part of this country.
I rather suspect that the combat veteran who is in line to replace “Mummy” will be the last one to have any claim to any part of this island.
Perhaps it will then be appropriate to beam his imposing hologram into various dignified venues in the northeast of this country in order to soothe people who are still in denial that they’re on an island called Ireland.
Just a thought.
In fairness, it isn’t often that the folks at the BEEB are this prescient.
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Hi Phil got my copy Native Shore great read
The £ Sterling has an interesting history , Sterling silver so called because it contained 92.5% silver in its coinage , well until 1918 when to help pay for the war years the coinage was exchanged for 50% silver although to the naked eye a half crown of 1918 looked exactly like a half crown of 1919 . That was until 1945 when to help pay for another war those 50% silver coins were replaced with lookalikes of 0% silver just copper/zinc/tin . What those clever chaps at the BoE had done in just 27 years was to remove all the value from the pockets of the proletariat . It is the silver (rare and precious metal) that gave the coin value replacing it with the equivalent of a beer bottle top was a cunning plan worthy of Private Baldrick . With the closure of the gold exchange window by Nixon ( a temporary measure to stabilise the market , that’s still closed) paper money was reduced to being worth the promises of the bankers who issued them. For those who think crypto is the future that fixes everything , Bitcoin is a digit on a screen that was created by a man nobody has ever met that comes into existence by solving a sum nobody needs the answer to . There’s a reason gold and silver have been money for 6000 years and a reason bankers hate it , the reasons can be found above.
Swearing an oath of allegiance is a pointless activity because it is only meaningful when spoken by a person who is already allegiant. For anyone else they are hollow words, no more meaningful than reading a part in a play. The oath does not make you allegiant.
The Jubilee was nothing more than a front for British imperialism for those who voted Brexit and the others who still think Britain rules the world and has an empire
They lap it up all this nonsensical flag waving and tugging the old forelock to a monarch that has no empathy with them at all .
If only those same people realised the British Establishment is one of the most corrupt institutions in the world .
https://fb.watch/dubmQaddBB/
Slightly off topic, but worth a watch.
The Kirk’s long standing rejection of episcopy never made for a genuine union with England. Arguably a marriage of convenience with a perceived lesser evil whose church they did their best to suppress. All shams eventually come to an end.
The royal sycophancy has been grotesque. But let the establishment ghouls continue to carefully hand-pick these mediocre Lords/Sirs/Dames. They’ll all be for ever deemed complicit with a deranged monarchy. We’ll know they’ve salivated and grovelled before Lizzie. Someone’s who’s bailed out her depraved son to the tune of millions. There’s no limits to this jubilee freak show. You even have black English players belting out ‘God Save The Queen’. A blatantly racist anthem. Perverse.
I’m not convinced swearing an oath prohibits anybody from threatening constitutional arrangements in the UK, to be honest. Boris Johnson has done a pretty devastating job in that particular regard.
Monarchism is indeed a very strange phenomenon indeed. I availed myself of the opportunity presented to me by this recent long weekend, to use my (still maroon) passport for the first time in nearly three years. So I suppose I can be thankful for that.
I don’t mind the royals or the royalists, if people want to stand on a street waiving union Jacks then let them get on with it, I can respect a person’s point of view .
What does bug me though is sturgeon standing on a street waiving a union Jack, not exactly the image of a Scottish freedom fighter is it.
She’s the leader of a party which obviously contains many republicans, but has never been a Republican Party (I’ve tried getting rid of those capitals several times; the American auto-(in)correct isn’t helping me here). I’ve never been convinced of her sincerity with regard to the monarchy (as I always was with Salmond, who was so obviously pro-monarchy), but there we have it.
She swears an oath to the crown, after her loyalty to Scotland/Scots. She makes a point of this, though doesn’t go so far as the SSP used to do (by registering ‘under protest’) or as Tony Benn used to.
She does as Parnell did in the 19th century – if anything, a far better comparison than with Ireland after 1916. In 1916 there was a blend of circumstances: the rebellion at the GPO, the general distaste for it in Dublin at the time (there were 80,000 Irish ENLISTEES at the front at that time, with disproportionately high numbers from among the Dublin working class – many of whom had little time for upstarts at that point), the foolhardy and bloodthirsty British response in executing and making martyrs of its leaders, which turned public opinion entirely.
There are no such circumstances in Scotland, which on balance we’d have to say is a good thing. Equally, prior to those particular circumstances, Irish Parliamentary Party MPs swore allegiance to the crown at Westminster. I’d doubt their sincerity, but there we have it.
Very well put
Hi Phil . Received your book today . Can’t wait to start it many thanks for the book and autograph 🇮🇪🏴
Well said Phil, received my signed copy of Native Shore today and looking forward to the read.
Keep at them Phil.🍀🇮🇪