Damian Green entirely matter-of-factly sets out that how and why Conservatives should and mostly do support the EU, and the total lack of the slightest interest in any "Anglosphere" anywhere else.
With his tongue firmly in his cheek in parts, such as the suggestion that Nigel Farage might have become Prime Minister in 2020, Freddy Gray details the transatlantic flirtation that has led to UKIP's ongoing disintegration before our very eyes.
Meanwhile, what of the Queen's speech in Germany?
Churchill was on his mother's side part of the American Anglophile WASP elite, while on his father's side he was part of the Whig oligarchy, descended from Malborough and related to the Spencers.
Which is posher? They are about as old as each other, both products of very much the same historical trends, the trends that slightly later bequeathed us the parvenus in the Palace. No wonder that they were, and sometimes still are, given to marrying each other.
Churchill was therefore brought up to treat Britain and America as more or less one country. Just as some people now treat Britain and, say, Pakistan as more or less one country. And just as the Royal Family treated Britain and Germany as more or less one country until almost into the present Queen's lifetime.
The importation for marital purposes of American "dollar princesses" and of actual German princesses (or of little more than nominally Danish, and purely nominally Greek, princes) more than a little resembles the importation of spouses from Pakistan.
Especially since the "dollar princesses" were sometimes related to their new husbands, while the German princesses were always related to theirs. Just as the nominally Greek Prince of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg is his wife's cousin.
But Britain and, say, Pakistan are not more or less one country. Britain and Germany were not more or less one country. Britain and America were not more or less one country. Britain and America are not more or less one country. Britain and America never will be more or less one country. Any more than Britain and Germany, including under the aegis of the EU. Or any more than Britain and, say, Pakistan.
Anglospherism and European federalism alike are alien both to the British national interest and to mainstream British opinion. As alien as, say, the braderi system is. And for very much the same reason.
With his tongue firmly in his cheek in parts, such as the suggestion that Nigel Farage might have become Prime Minister in 2020, Freddy Gray details the transatlantic flirtation that has led to UKIP's ongoing disintegration before our very eyes.
Meanwhile, what of the Queen's speech in Germany?
Churchill was on his mother's side part of the American Anglophile WASP elite, while on his father's side he was part of the Whig oligarchy, descended from Malborough and related to the Spencers.
Which is posher? They are about as old as each other, both products of very much the same historical trends, the trends that slightly later bequeathed us the parvenus in the Palace. No wonder that they were, and sometimes still are, given to marrying each other.
Churchill was therefore brought up to treat Britain and America as more or less one country. Just as some people now treat Britain and, say, Pakistan as more or less one country. And just as the Royal Family treated Britain and Germany as more or less one country until almost into the present Queen's lifetime.
The importation for marital purposes of American "dollar princesses" and of actual German princesses (or of little more than nominally Danish, and purely nominally Greek, princes) more than a little resembles the importation of spouses from Pakistan.
Especially since the "dollar princesses" were sometimes related to their new husbands, while the German princesses were always related to theirs. Just as the nominally Greek Prince of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg is his wife's cousin.
But Britain and, say, Pakistan are not more or less one country. Britain and Germany were not more or less one country. Britain and America were not more or less one country. Britain and America are not more or less one country. Britain and America never will be more or less one country. Any more than Britain and Germany, including under the aegis of the EU. Or any more than Britain and, say, Pakistan.
Anglospherism and European federalism alike are alien both to the British national interest and to mainstream British opinion. As alien as, say, the braderi system is. And for very much the same reason.
Brilliant. I mean, simply brilliant.
ReplyDeleteOnly to add, the braderi system is mainstream in Pakistan, Royals with Royal relatives were always unusual among ethnic Germans across Europe and WASPs at all, never mind East Coast elite WASPs have been a small proportion of the American population since the mid nineteenth century.
Upper crust Anglophilia and so any "Anglosphere" concept have nothing to do with normal American culture or normal American politics. It is a foreign country.
In different ways Germany and Pakistan (an English-based Common Law jurisdiction) are as foreign to each other as both are to Britain. In its own ways America is as foreign to Britain as it is to Germany or Pakistan.