Blogroll Me!
Queen Elizabeth's Parliament ...
This coming Tuesday, 17th May, sees the Queen's annual 'parliamentary' speech -- wherein she announces 'her' government's plans for 'our' future.
However, it's important to understand, the possessive use of "her" is extremely misleading in this context. In reality, it's her government only in the same way it's my government, or yours. It's the political party in power that holds all actual 'power'. It is their government deciding, implementing and enforcing. As a 'figurehead,' the Queen is probably no more informed than her subjects are - before she receives her script.
Consider the reasonably recent revelations of Paul Burell, the late Princess Diana's butler. When, in the aftermath of her untimely death, he requested [by proxy] and was granted, a private audience with the Queen.
"Paul," he claims she said. "There are forces at work in this country, of which 'we' know nothing." Pointedly, this particular Burell claim was never denied. Nor has it ever been. Neither by the Queen herself, nor by the much wider officialdom of 'The Palace'.
All State occasions, like the upcoming opening of parliament, are presided over by the reigning monarch in a purely traditional and ceremonial way. Great wealth & privilege, and pomp & ceremony ... yes. Influence & respect ... maybe. But true, legal power ... no; our monarch has none. Indeed, since the mid seventeeth century and the English civil war[s] and ensuing revolution, neither has any other British monarch. Oliver Cromwell saw to that.
( ** Incidentally, it never ceases to amaze This old Brit, exactly how overlooked, or forgotten, or even unknown -- the English revolution, still is. Almost every Briton knows, to a varying degree, at least something of the American, French and Russian revolutions -- yet, little of their own. ** )
Today, Blair's third New-Labour government's latest plans make extremely interesting reading. What the current monarch thinks of the plans she is set to announce, isn't known. She'll merely do her duty. She'll simply read aloud, in public, a speech prepared by the politicians. What others think, remains to be seen.
The link below offers a taste of what's set to come to this country. A good insight too, into the intended further Americanization of this Britain; this green and pleasant land; this sceptered isle; this Blair's-Britain.
So much for Blair's brand of socialism.
Radical changes? This old Brit certainly thinks so. Desirable and/or acceptable changes? Judge for yourself.
Click for a preview and analysis of the Queen's forthcoming speech. And, God save us all. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4539675.stm
posted by Richard at Sunday, May 15, 2005
11 Comments:
Richard, I see many pieces of our Patriot Act included in what is expected in the Queen's speech. I also see several moves toward Privatization as well as what looks like proposed reductions in National Health Care.
Looks like an awful lot of stuff copied from the NeoCon agenda in the U.S. -- almost every item in the proposed list looks familiar: consolidating schools, raising retirement age, school "choice", tighter immigration restrictions, National ID cards, and so on. Much of the language used is identical, including references to "fighting Terrorism."
By the way, what is the current official retirement age for pensioners? Raising it to age 70 is very excessive when just finding a job when one is over 50 is almost impossible.
Another question: Britain is not running a huge deficit like the U.S. is, or is it? I had assumed the finances were in better shape there.
Currently, it's 60 for women and 65 for men, Rosemary. As for getting a job when aged over 50, it's exactly the same here - fat chance!
The US is way out on it's own, deficit wise. We've had a good run for several years but, house prices have peaked and consumer spending has been dropping for sevear months now. Christmas past, was the first time since I don't know when, that records weren't broken.
Alarm bells are suddenly ringing in many quarters here. 'Recession' is already being whispered. Time will tell, no doubt.
I saw her reading the list off, it was obvious she'd never seen it before and had no idea what she was reading. Are we sure she's not related to Junior?
BTW, what a time for PF to be down. I hope this is not IT.
Heh, Who knows, Doug? After all, wasn't there a time big, bad Babs was claiming family connections there -- way back when?
And, after all, HIS dad WAS there at Westminster Abbey, at HER mother's funeral. ;^)
As for Tapa being down, I have to admit I too thought the worst at first. I hope not. Fingers crossed.
I think I remember that claim. They deserve each other. Boy, what an exciting day, huh? Getting late at night where you're at. Congratulations!
I hope they're just doing a restart on PF.
Exciting is right, Doug. It's a long time since I felt like this. I have to say it's a good feeling though.
You're right about the time but, as the wife works at the hospital tomorrow and leaves me home alone - to have a sleep in - heh - I may stay up another hour, catching up on so many things. Honestly, you wouldn't believe what a day it's been.
As for Tapa, yeah, lets be positive; it's probably just a repack/restart/whatever.
The ghost of the Lord Protector of England was one of the attendees at the American COnstitutional Convention in the 1780's. The former British subjects gathered in Philadelphia were very much afraid of a corn-fed version of the archetypal "man on horseback" demagogue seizing all power and setting himself up as dictator as Cromwell had already done, and, later, Napoleon was to do in France. Hence their brilliant design with balance of powers, the weak executive, &c.
I'm surprised that more British don't know how far ahead of the game they were in the monarchy-decapitating popular-revolution game. The British revolution was 100 years ahead of the American and French revolutions, 200 years ahead of the German and Italian ones, and 300 years ahead of the Russian and Chinese revolutions.
And if the damned Puritans had just stayed in England and been patient enough to wait for Cromwell to take over, they mightn't have instead brought their violent fundamentalist utopianism to Massachussetts, and thence to Kansas, Florida, Ohio, Texas... and DC. *sigh* Every Thanksgiving day I wish the bastards had stayed home. Maybe we'd all be speaking Spanish or French and we wouldn't have crazed jeezo-maniacs running the place.
America: invaded by armed lunatic ascetic utopian religious fanatics in 1620-- and the fuckers are still in charge.
Any American who sneers at the Taliban or Saudi's or Iranian mullah's reveals a deep ignorance of his country's own history-- indeed of its own present (cf. Kansas monkey trial).
Pfui.
Well, pFui, that IS impressive. Thanks so much for your insight. Perhaps, between us, we'll encourage some others to further their personal "history" educations. I hope so.
Richard, read "A People's History of America 1492 - Present" by Howard Zinn. Dr. Zinn is one of America's foremost historians as well as one of our foremost civil rights radicals. In his history he looks at history from the "other side". Rather from Columbus', he takes it from the Carib Indians... rather from the English, he takes it from the French and Indians and so on and so on and so on all through American history. One GREAT read and a very telling look at America from the tender white underbelly. Being half Cherokee, it gave me a very different perspective on history than the canned one from the "White-man-good" one in our mainstream history books. I HIGHLY recommend it!
Thanks for the reccomendation, Julie. I'll add that one to my 'must read' list. Problem lately though, is that the list, like Topsy, just grows & grows.
I understand! I'm just glad that I was able to get a lot of reading done before they putme on the morphine! Now I'm lucky if I can keep my attention on something for longer than... isn't that a pretty those damn trucks out side my window... should be damn... my ears itch, weren't we?
What were we taking about? OH YEA! Now I rememb... ZZzzzzzZZZZzzzzZZZZzzzz
Post a Comment
<< Home