The passing of the monarch - and a nightmare journey This week, I was going to review what Liz Truss as prime minister might mean for Brexit. I also planned to tell you all about my trip to Geneva, Switzerland and from there into the French Alps and use that to extrapolate on the “Swiss model”and how Brexiters always misunderstand it. Then, yesterday, two things happened.
Yeah, I share the feeling Nick expresses in this article. There's certainly a sense of things going downhill for the last 10-15 years or so. Probably started with the banking crisis of 2008, which clearly made things difficult for the world, but Brexit accelerated that sense of decline. It's like, the world is going through a tough time, but virtually every decision that British governments make make our position in all this even more precarious than it has to be. So, yeah, I fully understand the sense that beyond the sadness of it as the death of a respected person, it adds to the sense of everything in Britain becoming unmoored, everything getting worse.
Thanks for the interesting articles. I did come here because of references and links in Chris Grey's blog, which I've been reading for a while now - I think I came to Chris Grey while Theresa May was still trying to get Brexit bills through parliament with little success. I guess all of our thoughts about Liz Truss are on hiatus now because of the death of the Queen.
"That was saddening to people all around the world (excluding those with a chip on their shoulder about the Queen being responsible for colonialism, the 19th century Irish famine or some other things she had nothing to do with)"
How incredibly insulting. While she was widely admired in some places, there are in fact people who disliked her for perfectly legitimate reasons, and I imagine a vast number who feel nothing.
Many people around the world have never heard of the Queen.
Many people around the world don't care about the Queen, or British monarchy, or Great Britain.
And blaming the Queen for colonialism is not about "chip on their shoulder" - when she took the throne, colonialism was going strong. She didn't realize that it was wrong: the countries had to fight for their freedom to decide their own affairs - actual freedom, not the impossible sovereignity (nobody tells me what to do) of the Brexiters. And during that struggle that lasted for decades the British Empire committed atrocities, e.g. Mau-Mau rebellion.
She, as Queen, was officially the Head of the whole Empire during all that time. That she practically had little power, and was partly a prisoner of a broken system, doesn't change that she was the boss, so she bears not only the glory, but also the blame.
And even after, she didn't officially or otherwise apologize, or even recognize, that the actions of GB during colonialism in general and in particular were wrong and morally bad.
Since parents and grandparents of people who had to fight for their indepence and suffered for it are still alive, of course people are angry at how she's lauded now.
Colonies of course also include Ireland: she wasn't personally responsible for potatoe famine, but the actions of England during the troubles go back to never apologizing or acknowledging that the dismissal of Irish people by the English as inferior leads to regular cruelty and injustice during history.
I would tend to agree with you Nick that the situation is ever more desperate.
I believe it is comparable to the situation that has grasped the United States where there is a deepening division in society. We find ourselves in an era where society is constantly exposed to a generally melancholic media and baseless Government spin.
Are we able to cope? Is our ability to question and dissect truth from lies lost with a preference to take the easier populist route? Brexit could be the poster child on which to reflect on that question!
Trump/Boris have fueled a divide that has split Republicanism and Toryism respectively; Labour had already been divided by the Corbyn/Keir saga. So as Frank Sinatra once sang; "What now my Love?". Who to believe? Are party policies that disparate from each other that political change would lead to a resurgent Britain?
I worry that Liz Truss for all her mercurial and inconsistent decisions sees herself as a born-again Thatcher. There were parallels in her campaign such as her pledge to take on the Unions, suggesting British workers needed more graft, contemplating cuts to sales tax, reversing the National Insurance rise and cutting business rates. None of which will help the millions of low to middle income earners saddled with increasing mortgage payments and energy bills. It's alarming given the looming crisis that she promoted ideological loyalists over seasoned officials; how the crisis is handled is likely to be a measure for public dissent that might prove her early downfall.
I remember watching some of the desperate scenes from Secret Millionaire showing the desolation and depravity in some parts of Modern Britain, it was backed up with first hand experience of a 65 year old cancer survivor who had to find a job in order to support her husband who had to be homed some years before due to a progressive illness. It was all to try and avoid having to sell her house. Those are just two examples, none of which have gone away, and indeed have probably worsened in the last 10-15 years.
Indeed God Save the King, and eternal rest to the Monarch but there are troubling times ahead!
Yeah, I share the feeling Nick expresses in this article. There's certainly a sense of things going downhill for the last 10-15 years or so. Probably started with the banking crisis of 2008, which clearly made things difficult for the world, but Brexit accelerated that sense of decline. It's like, the world is going through a tough time, but virtually every decision that British governments make make our position in all this even more precarious than it has to be. So, yeah, I fully understand the sense that beyond the sadness of it as the death of a respected person, it adds to the sense of everything in Britain becoming unmoored, everything getting worse.
Thanks for the interesting articles. I did come here because of references and links in Chris Grey's blog, which I've been reading for a while now - I think I came to Chris Grey while Theresa May was still trying to get Brexit bills through parliament with little success. I guess all of our thoughts about Liz Truss are on hiatus now because of the death of the Queen.
Thoroughly enjoying this regular read.
"That was saddening to people all around the world (excluding those with a chip on their shoulder about the Queen being responsible for colonialism, the 19th century Irish famine or some other things she had nothing to do with)"
How incredibly insulting. While she was widely admired in some places, there are in fact people who disliked her for perfectly legitimate reasons, and I imagine a vast number who feel nothing.
You sound like Piers Morgan.
Many people around the world have never heard of the Queen.
Many people around the world don't care about the Queen, or British monarchy, or Great Britain.
And blaming the Queen for colonialism is not about "chip on their shoulder" - when she took the throne, colonialism was going strong. She didn't realize that it was wrong: the countries had to fight for their freedom to decide their own affairs - actual freedom, not the impossible sovereignity (nobody tells me what to do) of the Brexiters. And during that struggle that lasted for decades the British Empire committed atrocities, e.g. Mau-Mau rebellion.
She, as Queen, was officially the Head of the whole Empire during all that time. That she practically had little power, and was partly a prisoner of a broken system, doesn't change that she was the boss, so she bears not only the glory, but also the blame.
And even after, she didn't officially or otherwise apologize, or even recognize, that the actions of GB during colonialism in general and in particular were wrong and morally bad.
Since parents and grandparents of people who had to fight for their indepence and suffered for it are still alive, of course people are angry at how she's lauded now.
Colonies of course also include Ireland: she wasn't personally responsible for potatoe famine, but the actions of England during the troubles go back to never apologizing or acknowledging that the dismissal of Irish people by the English as inferior leads to regular cruelty and injustice during history.
I would tend to agree with you Nick that the situation is ever more desperate.
I believe it is comparable to the situation that has grasped the United States where there is a deepening division in society. We find ourselves in an era where society is constantly exposed to a generally melancholic media and baseless Government spin.
Are we able to cope? Is our ability to question and dissect truth from lies lost with a preference to take the easier populist route? Brexit could be the poster child on which to reflect on that question!
Trump/Boris have fueled a divide that has split Republicanism and Toryism respectively; Labour had already been divided by the Corbyn/Keir saga. So as Frank Sinatra once sang; "What now my Love?". Who to believe? Are party policies that disparate from each other that political change would lead to a resurgent Britain?
I worry that Liz Truss for all her mercurial and inconsistent decisions sees herself as a born-again Thatcher. There were parallels in her campaign such as her pledge to take on the Unions, suggesting British workers needed more graft, contemplating cuts to sales tax, reversing the National Insurance rise and cutting business rates. None of which will help the millions of low to middle income earners saddled with increasing mortgage payments and energy bills. It's alarming given the looming crisis that she promoted ideological loyalists over seasoned officials; how the crisis is handled is likely to be a measure for public dissent that might prove her early downfall.
I remember watching some of the desperate scenes from Secret Millionaire showing the desolation and depravity in some parts of Modern Britain, it was backed up with first hand experience of a 65 year old cancer survivor who had to find a job in order to support her husband who had to be homed some years before due to a progressive illness. It was all to try and avoid having to sell her house. Those are just two examples, none of which have gone away, and indeed have probably worsened in the last 10-15 years.
Indeed God Save the King, and eternal rest to the Monarch but there are troubling times ahead!