The things that occur to one, in amongst pondering that, as one accepts the Hanoverian monarchy de facto in the absence of the Royal House of Stuart, so one accepts that monarchy's Mandate of Palestine de facto in the absence of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.
In amongst pondering that, it has also occurred to me that those defeated fighters in Homs must have been English. The winning side kindly laid on a bus to take them home, so they got on it without any fuss, and off they went.
Congratulations on the most Politically Incorrect blog post ever.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, and good night.
ReplyDeleteThe Royal House of Stuart? You mean the one that established a Continental-style absolutist autocracy before the Glorious Revolution?
ReplyDeleteOh for the good ole days when Kings could pack the judiciary, Parliament, Universities and regulators with their supporters.
Oh, for the good ole days when Kings could maintain a massive standing army to keep their people down.
You are a good laugh.
It's wasted on you, luv.
ReplyDeleteOne of your protégés will soon be on TV. Tune into Sunday Politics on 23rd June. But don't Hex-ham, I mean him. Ahem. The power of your advice and guidance will be in full view.
ReplyDeleteHe is no "protégé" of mine! And he is going to be a superb MP.
ReplyDeleteThe eventual heir to the Royal House of Stuart is at school in this country. He will also be heir to the Principality of Lichtenstein, where he will have a veto over all legislation and not a theoretical veto, a real one. Better to stick with the Saxe - Coburg –Gothas, I think.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, the occasion of the change of name from Saxe-Coburg- Gotha to Windsor led to one of Kaiser Wilhelm II’s few jokes. Upon hearing of the change he said ”Well, I am now going to see that old Shakespeare play, The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. “
George V and George VI were never Kings of Palestine, as under the mandate sovereignty resided in the League of Nations with a High Commissioner. I fail to see your point about Homs.
The State of Israel is not the heir to the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, even though it often feels as if it is, if you are a westerner living there. It is heir to a very very different tradition, one that is hardly mentioned today.
We tend to forget how abysmally the Tsars treated the Jews. State encouraged pogroms and drafting into the Tsarist Army for 25 years and the Pale of Settlement. Late 19th century young Jews needed an outlet and some left for America but others joined Poale Zion, the Marxist based Russian Zionist organisation and others the Jewish Bund, a non-Zionist socialist grouping who were part of the Russian Social Democratic and Labour Party who later split into a faction labelled the majority and a faction labelled the minority. The Bund joined the minority and later split off from the RSDLP altogether. The Russian word for minority is Menshevik and the Russian word for majority is Bolshevik. Poale Zion later split into Marxist and non- Marxist socialist groupings and formed the basis of two parties who dominated Israel until 1977, the Mapai and the Mapalm.
At first the Bolsheviks sought to trump the Zionists by giving he Jews a homeland near Manchuria, Birobidzhan but Stalin, who was in many ways a traditional Russian (despite being Georgian), lapsed into anti-semitism and virulent anti- Zionism.
In truth, the Bolsheviks had detested Zionists since the beginning and purged them. The idea that Jewry and Bolshevism were one was always a dangerous and ludicrous fallacy.
However, it has always been one of the greatest ironies that The State of Israel is basically a socialist state. In fact, it is probably the most successful socialist state in the world.
It has not been for at least a generation, and it is now anything but.
ReplyDeleteThe old flag of Palestine looks pretty British to me, as does that red postbox with GR on it.
The State of Israel certainly does not feel like the heir to Latin Kingdom to the Latins, or to the Christians generally, who are living there. Just ask them.
I suspect that you got your first tow paragraphs from old posts on here. They have certainly each appeared here several times.