Not to say, standards.
The MBE, OBE and CBE were invented for trade union leaders and Labour Councillors.
The Trooping of the Colour, like Buckingham Palace Garden Parties, has always been assiduously attended by Labour Councillors and MPs.
But you are right, those of you who say that they are "like something from the nineteenth century".
The same is true of the English, Scots and Welsh Radical and republican traditions, and that is a good thing.
The same television coverage as is enjoyed by Royal and similarly grand occasions ought to be extended to such events no less colourful, so to speak, as the Tolpuddle Festival and Rally, the Durham Miners' Gala, and yesterday's Northumberland Miners' Picnic.
All of those are also utterly British, in exactly the ways that annoy the enemies of all things utterly British.
Bringing us to Thatcherite or to Militant Tendency-type hostility to either or both traditions. That hostility belongs to the benighted 1980s, and therefore also to the Blair years.
The same television coverage as is enjoyed by Royal and similarly grand occasions ought to be extended to such events no less colourful, so to speak, as the Tolpuddle Festival and Rally, the Durham Miners' Gala, and yesterday's Northumberland Miners' Picnic.
All of those are also utterly British, in exactly the ways that annoy the enemies of all things utterly British.
Bringing us to Thatcherite or to Militant Tendency-type hostility to either or both traditions. That hostility belongs to the benighted 1980s, and therefore also to the Blair years.
Leave it there.
It is amazing they think things like this are normal but things like the Gala are quaint and funny. The biggest event if its kind in Europe and it is never even mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI know.
ReplyDeleteBoth traditions are also guarantees of our sovereignty and liberty.