Saturday, May 06, 2023

THIS ENGLAND

 Oh to be in England now that spring is here. 

And for the Coronation of King Charles III. 

There is nothing about Primogenitures that seems correct to us. 

Except for England, the first and we would argue the greatest Democracy, it works. 

This England, who stood alone in 1939 when the rest of the free world looked the other way as the dark curtain of Nazism descended across Europe. 

This England, who stood in the breach firm, bending but not breaking, and saved the world from tyranny.

This England, whose verdant fields and rolling hills beckon. 

This England of Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Kipling.

This England of Nelson, Montgomery, Disraeli, Churchill, and Queen Elizabeth II. 

This England, where a Pub and a Pint are all a man or woman needs for a night when the rain is incessantly falling. 

Things did not go well for Kings Charles the I, who during the era of Make England Great Again (MEGA) was tried and convicted of high treason, and executed in 1649. The Monarchy was abolished, and the Commonwealth of England was established. But MEGA did not (thankfully) last long, and his son Charles II ascended to the throne and was coronated in 1660 (a mere three hundred years before the birth of the NY Mets!). 

London is the only city we know of, where emerging from the theater, we will overhear a gaggle of teenagers, their hair purple, green and pink, their face dotted with various metal studs, earnestly discussing whether the Othello they just saw was a good as the one the saw the year before. 

England is culture, and history, and beauty, and tradition. England is permanence. There will always be an England, a throne, a realm, and a people, who sing of their freedom. 

And of course, there are these famous words, from Shakespeare, in Richard II:


This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,



18 comments:

  1. They are asses. They both look like clowns with the crowns on their heads. All of the so-called "Royals"need to get a real job.

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  2. Rumple in Colonel Blimp mode again, confusing Britain for the hereditary aristocracy that desperately holds on to power there. Just remember, when you praise the King you are praising a system that holds true to an established religion (that why Meghan Markle had to convert before marrying into "The Firm"). As a Presbyterian, I'm considered a "non-conformist" and not eligible to be part of the ruling class. God knows what happens to Catholics and non-Christians with these pigs, but that's who you're praising when you post this nonsense. In this country, one of the first things we did (First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution) was to eliminate any possibility of an established religion.

    And don't forget the little problem of white supremacy that your precious aristocracy personifies. Notice how the front rows of the "invited guests" at the investiture looked like the inbred pasty white crowd at a Boston Celtics home game, only dressed in very expensive clown costumes? And don't give me that "they've grown beyond their racist past" B.S. In my lifetime (1960s) the British crown literally committed genocide on the Mau Maus in Kenya, because they wanted to protect their monopoly on their "colony's" copper supply. Add that to their horrible history of racist genocide in the Caribbean, Guyana, India, Australia, and Ireland (the original colony), and the British aristocracy has committed racist atrocities on every populated continent in the world. Oh yeah--I almost forgot the Hitler sympathizers (including King Edward VIII) who tried to keep the U.K from fighting the Nazis in WWII.

    Charles III is the figurehead and symbol of a system that has outlived its usefulness by about 300 years. Be honest, if he was a candidate for an honest and fair election, would you vote for him over any other conceivable candidate (including Trump and any other American candidate you choose to put up against him)? He would be a horrible leader if he had any real power, other than the billions of pounds his ancestors stole from the British people. Contrary to your post, Oliver Cromwell was the best thing to ever happen to Britain, because he at least began the diminution of the monarchy's political power that later Parlimentarians consumated.

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  3. Bring me my bow of burning gold
    Bring me my arrows of desire
    Bring me my spear, oh clouds unfold
    Bring me my chariots of fire
    I will not cease from mental fight
    Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
    Til we have built jerusalem
    In England’s green and pleasant land

    Also something about dark satanic mills, but that’s for another day

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  4. Sometimes the thing that scares us the most, winds up being the best thing for us.
    -Yoda

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  5. Happy Revenge of the 6th Day on the King's Coronation Day.

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  6. Longest con in history. How do people still support this ?

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  7. Less we forget the King was crowned sitting in King
    Edward 1’s wooden throne from the 13th century. In 1290 Edward I Rex Britannia , issued an edict that expelled all Jews from England. That edit was law in Britain for 350 years

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    Replies
    1. Lest we forget our constitution once considered blacks 3/5 of a human being and for over 100 years did not allow women to vote- just sayin’

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  8. Well, it was more like a guideline than a law.

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  9. Dear Saturday, May 06, 2023 12:39:00 PM

    Some of us, like myself support the monarchy. The Monarch has a less formal role as 'Head of Nation'. The Sovereign acts as a focus for national identity, unity and pride.


    The King also has a number of official parliamentary roles:

    Appointing a government - the leader of the party that wins a general election is usually called to Buckingham Palace, where they are invited to form a government. The King also formally dissolves a government before a general election
    State Opening and the King's Speech - the King begins the parliamentary year with the State Opening ceremony, where he sets out the government's plans, in a speech delivered from the throne in the House of Lords
    Royal Assent - when a piece of legislation is passed through Parliament, it must be formally approved by the King in order to become law. The last time Royal Assent was refused was in 1708
    In addition, the monarch leads the annual Remembrance event in November at the Cenotaph in London.

    The King also hosts visiting heads of state - such as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa - and regularly meets foreign ambassadors and high commissioners based in the UK.

    For his first state visit, Charles visited Germany, where he became the first British monarch to address the German parliament.

    The King is also head of the Commonwealth, an association of 56 independent countries spanning 2.5 billion people - and head of state for 14 of these, known as the Commonwealth realms.

    And to Saturday, May 06, 2023 7:23:00 PM--- some of us, who are from those countries that you mentioned - Caribbean, Guyana, India, Australia, and Ireland, still remain loyal to the British monarchy. Need I remind you the children whom were born out colonialism. Descendants of both unions, whether it was the British with the Caribbean, Guyanese, Indian etc, we still exist. Dont lump us into one boat thinking that all people who were ruled by the British hate the monarchy. We dont!

    Sincerly,
    Rumpy's #1 Fan

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  10. "London is the only city we know of, where emerging from the theater, we will overhear a gaggle of teenagers, their hair purple, green and pink, their face dotted with various metal studs, earnestly discussing whether the Othello they just saw was a good as the one the saw the year before."

    Ole Londontown is only ~40% ethnic British, and will be perhaps one-in-five ethnic british within a few decades. Even presuming your anecdote (which sounds dubiously like 1978, not the 21st century) is true, your children won't hear passionate argument about Shakespeare when they visit.

    They won't likely hear the English language.

    The transformation of London into a dominantly middle eastern, african, and islamic city may be for better or worse... but anyone championing nostalgia for churchill, teas, and pints had better recognize they are talking about a museum, not the UK. And anyone objecting that immigration limits are trumpian racism had better not simultaneously tell us how great London was in their youth. The baby boomers decided to definitively change Western Europe's composition, and it's a decision you should own.

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  11. I say, Charles, don't you ever crave
    To appear on the front of the Daily Mail
    Dressed in your Mother's bridal veil?

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  12. I think that unlike our American experience, the revolution against the monarchy in the UK removed the power of the king and then found no need to remove the existence of the king. Just as we here no longer feel hatred for the monarchy or view it as despotic.

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  13. I have met them at close of day
    Coming with vivid faces
    From counter or desk among grey
    Eighteenth-century houses.
    I have passed with a nod of the head
    Or polite meaningless words,
    Or have lingered awhile and said
    Polite meaningless words,
    And thought before I had done
    Of a mocking tale or a gibe
    To please a companion
    Around the fire at the club,
    Being certain that they and I
    But lived where motley is worn:
    All changed, changed utterly:
    A terrible beauty is born.

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  14. Rumpole, I can't believe you let 9.58 (twice!)'s disgusting entry remain on the blog.

    The anti-monarchy tropes like 7.23's were themselves racist and elitist ("inbred pasty white crowd at a Boston Celtics home game" for example).

    I have been aware forever that England is frankly anti-Semitic in attitude, and I know the history of the exclusion of Jews. In the intervening centuries, just as we have in the US, they have learned better, and in general behave better.

    And the one who (correctly) noted that Edward VIII was openly pro-Hitler, chose to omit the distressing influence of the American hero Charles Lindbergh from the list of those who were oh so wrong. (Lindbergh was a noted and much-followed and widely-publicized "America Firster," fiercely opposed to the US's entry into WWII.)

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  15. I’m sorry about the offending comment. My intern didn’t read it carefully. It’s gone

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  16. Say what you want about colonialism. My grandfather was in the British army and was in India when it was still under British rule.

    He met and fell in love with an Indian woman, my grandmother. We all have our opinions on the subject but I stand with the monarchy.

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