Castle Aching

[Edwardian]

14 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

(BTW, see my post of several days ago forecasting that particular conspiracy theory)

 

 

Yes, I had that in mind, as well as my own prediction that the Donald would take his own 'beating the China Virus' to double-down on his irresponsible down-playing of the threat.

[Nearholmer]

Our own dear PM was "off on one" yesterday too, talking about "Britain beating-off every alien invasion for the past thousand years." when talking about the virus.

 

I reckon he spent too long reading Dan Dare comics, and not long enough reading about The Black Death, when he was a kid.

[BlueLightning]

1 minute ago, Nearholmer said:

Our own dear PM was "off on one" yesterday too, talking about "Britain beating-off every alien invasion for the past thousand years." when talking about the virus.

 

I reckon he spent too long reading Dan Dare comics, and not long enough reading about The Black Death, when he was a kid.

 

He's obviously never heard of William of Orange

[Edwardian]

1 minute ago, Nearholmer said:

Our own dear PM was "off on one" yesterday too, talking about "Britain beating-off every alien invasion for the past thousand years." when talking about the virus.

 

I reckon he spent too long reading Dan Dare comics, and not long enough reading about The Black Death, when he was a kid.

 

Rather than the classics, he should have read the prologue to the Decameron, great description of the plague in Florence (and all the bawdy stories would be right up his alley).

 

Alternatively, he could have watched the 2011 flick, Contagion, which seems chillingly prescient in its details and whose researchers clearly spoke to the right people, who clearly knew what to expect. 

[Edwardian]

4 minutes ago, BlueLightning said:

 

He's obviously never heard of William of Orange

 

Nope, much as I'd love to puncture Bozza's over-inflated Churchillian balloon, I'm not sure I can let you have that one!

 

Billy Boy was invited over.

 

The invasion was that of the Stuart formally known as James II after he'd had second thoughts and the French had lent him an army!

 

It's somehow typical that we have statues to James II, one of our worst Kings, and Mr Washington, rebel and slave owner, both in Trafalgar Square (National Gallery), while Old Warty (genocide (Ireland), regicide (England)) is memorialised outside Parliament. And they single out Churchill as the controversial choice.

 

Can't actually think of a statue to Dutch William, though I'm sure there must be one somewhere.  

[Compound2632]

Thousand Years eh? That'd be since 1020. Now let me think...

[Compound2632]

And what does he mean by Britain? I can certainly think of parts of the archipelago, or even of the island of Britain, that have been repeatedly invaded and subjugated by the English state.

[Nearholmer]

What does he mean by any of it?

 

He's got the ability possessed by some politicians to make something sound stirring and meaningful, when it isn't either. I remember being at a huge rally that Neil Kinnock spoke to in Trafalgar Square, where everyone, myself included, was utterly swept-up in the tide of verbiage, cheering to the rafters (not that there are any rafters over Trafalgar Square). It was only a couple of hours afterwards that I realised that I could barely remember a single thing he'd said, and the odd snatches I could remember actually made no sense whatsoever.

[Edwardian]

1 minute ago, Compound2632 said:

Thousand Years eh? That'd be since 1020. Now let me think...

 

Brilliant!

 

Yes, it's a bit like Tom Lehrer's ironic mid 1960s omission of WW2 with the lines

 

Once all the Germans were warlike and mean, but that couldn't happen again

We taught the a lesson in 1918, and they've hardly bothered us since then

 

1 minute ago, Compound2632 said:

And what does he mean by Britain? I can certainly think of parts of the archipelago, or even of the island of Britain, that have been repeatedly invaded and subjugated by the English state.

 

Well, in fairness, England v. Scotland saw plenty of invasions by both sides.  

 

I think Scotland invaded a time or two during the 'golden age' of mediaeval Scotland, not to mention the constant raiding practised by both sides. In the century prior to the unification of the Crowns, the English victories Flodden (1513) and Solway Moss (1542) were both defeating invading Scottish armies. 

 

Scotland was never subjugated, of course (only partially and temporarily by the Romans, never by the English).  The Scots King unified the two Crowns, though the Act of Union was a century later, after Scotland had effectively destroyed its economy by trying to found its own Scots trading empire in the Americas. Another century passed before formal union with Ireland (with subsequent partial disengagement in 1921).

 

The English did, however, do a good deal of subjugating in Ireland and Wales in the meantime. 

 

But, yes, your point is sound; there has only been a Britain in the sense of the modern nation (or nations) state since 1801, and before that, and certainly for most of that 1,000 years, its various constituents engaged in a good deal of scrapping. 

 

So, yes, another reason why the speech was b0ll0cks. 

 

 

[Edwardian]

5 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

What does he mean by any of it?

 

He's got the ability possessed by some politicians to make something sound stirring and meaningful, when it isn't either. I remember being at a huge rally that Neil Kinnock spoke to in Trafalgar Square, where everyone, myself included, was utterly swept-up in the tide of verbiage, cheering to the rafters (not that there are any rafters over Trafalgar Square). It was only a couple of hours afterwards that I realised that I could barely remember a single thing he'd said, and the odd snatches I could remember actually made no sense whatsoever.

 

Mr Kinnock was another politician who fell victim to the 'thousand' flourish.  One answer to his question why he was the first member of his family to attend a university in a thousand generations was undoubtedly that, a thousand generations ago, there weren't any universities. Even in Wales.

[Compound2632]

It was really Wales and Ireland I was thinking of. The English have been subjugated to the Scots for many years - Blair, Brown, Cameron...

[Hroth]

Just to throw in an antidote of levity, though its rather....

 

 

politically incorrect on so many levels nowadays!

 

 

[sem34090]

2 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Just to throw in an antidote of levity, though its rather....

 

 

politically incorrect on so many levels nowadays!

 

 

You beat me to it!

[Caley Jim]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

Thousand Years eh? That'd be since 1020. Now let me think...

Isn't 1066 less than 1000 years ago????

 

On DJT, I have a theory - he will lose the vote, but play the 'fraudulent postal voting/covid stopped me campaigning properly' cards and take it to the Supreme Court, which he has loaded with his lackeys and who be reminded on which side their bread is buttered.  As a result he will gain a second term.  He will then try and do a 'Putin', trying to amend the constitution to get himself unlimited terms of office.  When (if) that fails he will shoehorn in one of his sons/sons-in-law as a candidate in 4 years time, ensure he gets into office by whatever means are necessary and so continue to pull the strings.

 

But then what would a cynical, retired, hewer of enamel and drawer of roots, well past his best before date, know?

 

Jim

[Nearholmer]

Quite a bit I should say, reading that.

 

He definitely gives all the signs of intending to cling on to the door posts.

[BlueLightning]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Nope, much as I'd love to puncture Bozza's over-inflated Churchillian balloon, I'm not sure I can let you have that one!

 

Ah go on, Parliament would let me have it, after all, an invitation to invade is still invading

 

https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentaryauthority/revolution/overview/invasiondesertion/

[nick_bastable]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

 

 

Can't actually think of a statue to Dutch William, though I'm sure there must be one somewhere.  

knew I had seen one 

 

 

Great seafood  although cream teas make me very ill

 

Nick B

 

[Edwardian]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Rather than the classics, he should have read the prologue to the Decameron 

 

 

 

Suddenly realised that the whole aim of Boris and his egregious chums was to de-Cameron the Conservative Party.

[drmditch]

29 minutes ago, nick_bastable said:

knew I had seen one 

 

 

Great seafood  although cream teas make me very ill

 

Nick B

 

 

Hope the wind is in the right direction!

[Compound2632]

4 minutes ago, drmditch said:

 

Hope the wind is in the right direction!

 

35 minutes ago, nick_bastable said:

knew I had seen one 

 

Great seafood  although cream teas make me very ill

 

Nick B

 

 

Him too, by the look of him.

[Adam88]

... and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_William_III_Statue2,_Petersfield.jpg

[simonmcp]

Apparently my family line was traced all the way back to William's right hand man, Fido (faithful) that's why so many dogs were called it. Remember there's " Lies, damn lies and statistics" and I think it may be pertinent that the office for National Statistics pulled their graphs of death rates a while ago.

[Northroader]

There’s one of him as a Roman in Hull

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

On DJT, I have a theory - he will lose the vote, but play the 'fraudulent postal voting/covid stopped me campaigning properly' cards and take it to the Supreme Court, which he has loaded with his lackeys and who be reminded on which side their bread is buttered.

Interesting idea, especially as it probably wouldn’t work: Supreme Court judges are appointed until they die, or choose to retire. They owe no one any favours once approved, and they don’t care on which side their bread is buttered. They generally don’t take well to being reminded of that, either. The whole point of this is that once there, they are free of any favouritism, and can - and sometimes do - act in unexpected ways. The tenure, and the influence on future decisions, is why their appointment by the President (and Congressional approval) is such a big deal.

[webbcompound]

52 minutes ago, Northroader said:

There’s one of him as a Roman in Hull

Ah, yes, the elaborate lid to the underground public toilets