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14th Aug 18
peter
Above a captured screen-shot of the late great Stanley Unwin in the comedy classic “Carry On Regardless” released in 1961.
The sad fact of course is that this sorry saga has moved way beyond mere farce and is now thoroughly depressing. Many British Gazette readers are of an age where they can remember Stanley Unwin in classics such as Carry on Regardless.
It is reported in “The Times” that The Honourable Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Member for North East Somerset and Chairman of the European Research Group is preparing (with his ERG colleagues) a “positive” blueprint for a hard Brexit.
Source: https://justpaste.it/6xih6 (no paywall).
In our article of Saturday 11th August 2018 (http://www.british-gazette.co.uk/2018/08/11/oh-what-a-lovely-war-is-history-about-to-repeat-itself/) we commented upon the historical similarities between the present dangerous situation the UK is in and the one it was in 1914.
People have often asked themselves this question: “How could members of a Liberal government have sat around the table in the Cabinet Room in No. 10 and have breathed a collective sight of relief when the British Empire declared war on the German Empire?
Of course, the silly snowflakes who demand that statues of such as the worthies Rhodes and Kipling below will spout; “Because they were warmongering Imperialists who did not care about how many working people they sent to their deaths!”
This is of course utter bullshit!
These children (for that is effectively what they are) judge the world and history through their own narrow prejudiced perspective. They interpret past actions by present day political standards.
What they should do before prattling about taking down statues and portraits of Rhodes and Kipling is go to Stormont in Northern Ireland and look at the statue of Sir Edward Carson, below – chosen as it looks like a “mug shot”.
This statue was erected in the man’s own lifetime. He was one of a few people apart from a monarch to have been given the honour of a State Funeral.
If the silly snowflakes want to shout and scream and otherwise get their mascara in a mess (applies to males and females of course) they could do worse than shout and scream at Carson’s statue.
Today (http://eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=86962), the excellent Dr. North opines of the problem of “prestige” in British political discourse. This is as old as the hills but has recently got worse.
There is no doubt, no doubt whatsoever, that The Right Honourable The Lord Carson, PC, PC (Ire), Kt., KC, had prestige. He had it by the bucket load!
Carson was an Irish unionist politician, barrister and judge. The leader of the Irish Unionist Alliance and Ulster Unionist Party between 1910 and 1921, he held numerous positions in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary.
Whilst being a member of the House of Commons (just like Ress-Mogg) Carosn founded the Ulster Volunteers in 1912 to prevent Home Rule – “By any means necessary.” The Ulster Volunteers were an armed militia or to use the present Northern Irish euphemism “loyalist paramilitary group”.
Of course, at the time, given the man’s popular support amongst the Unionist population in Ulster, the UK government felt powerless to stop him.
The FACT is that planning an armed rebellion – whether one is a Muslim jihadist or an Ulster Unionist – is High Treason and in 1912 was punishable by hanging.
Therefore, whilst Dr. North laments (rightly) the precedence “prestige” gives in today’s UK one has to look back to Carson in 1912 to see an example of it’s full corrosive effect.
As with the consequences of the Hard Brexit being advocated by Rees-Mogg, the consequences of Carson and his fellow terrorists actions were vastly under-estimated. This under-estimation was across the political divide insofar as the popular press and it’s readers in Great Britain and Ireland were concerned.
Many English, Scottish and Welsh readers of such newspapers as the Daily Mail and the Daily Express did not believe or imagine that Carson and his supporters would do more than stage protest marches and demonstrations. Not only did they believe this many Irish nationalists in the Irish Parliamentary Party did not believe it either. The members of Sinn Féin however did (correctly) believe it!
In all probability, had the Liberal cabinet NOT have taken the fateful decision to declare war on Germany in August 1914 we would have seen a civil war in Ireland. With hindsight, a probable series of events can quite easily be listed:
Carson’s terrorists in Ulster would have terrorised the minority Catholic nationalist community in Ulster and armed nationalists in the provinces of Connaught, Munster and Leinster would have terrorised the minority Protestant loyalist community there. The result would have been similar to “Partition” in India and Pakistan following independence. As with Pakistan, “Northern Ireland” would have been a wholly one religion state and as would – for a relatively short period of time – have been Southern Ireland. The “North” would be Protestant and the “South” would be Roman Catholic.
Northern Ireland would have ended up much as it did in 1922 but without it’s Catholic minority.
Southern Ireland might well have ended up as “The Irish Free State” but given the expected German victory in Europe would have become the Kingdom of Ireland with King Ludwig III of Bavaria becoming it’s monarch with a Governor-General appointed on the advice of the Irish Taoiseach.
The UK would have been prevailed upon by the government of Imperial Germany to agree to “The Treaty of Dublin” whereby the six counties (or nine counties had Carson managed to “ethically cleansed” the counties of Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan) would have been formally be known as “The Duchy of Ulster” with the title, “Duke of Ulster” been bestowed upon the sovereign’s eldest son as in the case of “Prince of Wales” and confirmed as part of the United Kingdom.
The Kingdom of Ireland would have proceeded to develop as part of a Europäisch Staatenbund and thus we would have had a “hard” border across the island of Ireland.
Der Europäisch Staatenbund would have encompassed what is now the EU but would also have incorporated Switzerland, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and with Romania incorporating Moldova. It is reasonable to conclude given the close relationship the British Royal family had with the Norwegian Royal Family that Norway would not have joined it nor would the Faeroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland and the Danish Virgin Islands which the British Empire would have annexed from Denmark.
People may regard such as speculative but with the Imperial High Seas Fleet home-ported in Antwerp, NO British government could tolerate German possession of Denmark’s North Atlantic possessions – given that German U Boats would have been based in Bantry Bay!
Of course, Jacob Rees-Mogg is NO Edward Carson. However, he and his ERG mates and UKIP present a grave danger to the UK’s economic well being in their delusional portrayal of a “hard Brexit” than anything other than ruinous!
The truly WORRYING thing is that as Lord Stockton once famously said, “Events, Dear Boy! Events!”
