The Oath Of Allegiance…And Other Nonsense

Posted on July 12, 2024 by fitzjameshorse

29th September 1969. Seems a million years away.

My first job as a Clerical Officer with Belfast Corporation as it was then called. The new recruits were sitting in the Council Chamber and a lady called Sandra put a small piece of paper in front of us.

There was text on either side. Facing up was an oath to GOD but on the other side was a simple “promise”. Such was the dreaded oath of allegiance to “Her Majesty the Queen Her Heirs and Successors”.

The Catholics among us knew enough not to bring GOD into this nonsense, An oath made under dress or as an inducement is not a valid oath.

I do not think GOD will hold this against me.

Nor will GOD hold it against my two co-workers who later became prominent in the Republican Movement. Which makes it strange that one of them got a longer sentence in prison as he did not recognise the Court.

Sometimes you can take a principle too far.

Is there a time when Republicans would recognise the Court? Well yes…if a Republican is involved in a car accident and has some whiplash….he or she will break all records to get into the witness box. “Hand me down that Bible, your Honour”.

Famously Sinn Féin MPs when elected to Westminster, do not take an oath of allegiance and use this allegedly principled stand as a stick to beat the Social and Democratic Labour Party (SDLP)…..the (in Sinn Féin eyes) the Stoop Down Low Party.

I …a pan nationalist….am at ease with both Sinn Féin and SDLP stances.

I watched the swearing in of MPs to the new Parliament.

Claire Hanna did her party piece about Reconcilation and Peace. And she took the oath in Irish.

Colum Eastwood prefaced his swearing in by announcing that he was speaking this “empty formula”, “under protest” and that his loyalty is with “Derry” and “Ireland”.

All of this swearing in and oath of allegiance is a nonsense, Nothing to get worked up about. Yes Sinn Fein make a point of not taking an oath and Colum Eastwood scores better by standing in the Commons and telling them to their face that he does not give a tinkers curse.

But it is a farce. Only a few Labourites had the guts to say that they owed loyalty to the people who sent them to Westminster. Gavin Robinson spoke Ulster-Scots, some from Cornwall spoke in Cornish (as unconvincingly as me speaking Irish) and Plaid Cymru spoke in Welsh.

My wife and I played a game guessing who would take an oath and who would merely affirm their loyalty.

The Christians get to choose the Bible….King James (for the Protestants). Jerusalem (Catholic) and simply New Testament (usually liberal Catholic). They get the Bible handed to them.

Of course other people of Faith get to choose the Torah or the “different” Torah, Qoran, Gita, and so on. A lot of people seemed confused by the Holy Books spread over the Clerks table….it was like a sale table at Waterstones. Some seemed to have difficulty in remembering what religion they are supposed to be.

Interestingly the people from non-Christian faiths picked up their own Holy Book. Is there some kinda sensitivity that these books should be handled only by people from that faith,….

All good fun.

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The Incredible Shrinking “United Kingdom”

Posted on July 12, 2024 by fitzjameshorse

How many constituencies are in the “United Kingdom”?

Well if we look at Wikipedia, an impeccable source for everything…it is 650.

But I dispute this. There are in reality just 643,

Seven constituencies elected a MP who will not be going to Westminster. They are for the record, all in Norn Iron, and the people elected Sinn Féin. It could be argued that at the next election Sinn Féin could be defeated in one, some or all of these constituencies. But this seems unlikely…more likely that a MP from these constituencies will ever actually go into Westminster again.

Indeed there is 50-50 chance that one more will be added next time around….and a reasonable chance that at least one more will join the list within a decade.

It is a strange tradition that TV election coverage begins with 650 seats and a reminder that 326 is the number required to form a new government.

Sinn Féin’s non attendance is of course about the Oath of Allegiance to Charles Windsor.

But they are a tad inconsistent. They maintain an office and actually claim expenses.

I applaud this. My philosophy has always been to take every penny I can get off the Brits. I wont condemn Sinn Féin for taking their lead from me.

I find it interesting that the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru do not at least think about the same tactic.

Moreso, the election of some Palestine supporting Independent MPs leads to the prospect of some boycotting Westminster at a future date.

The DisUnited Kingdom will never survive the weight of its contradictions.

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It Was Eighteen Elections…Not One…And Ninety Proxy Elections.

Posted on July 12, 2024 by fitzjameshorse

The General Election. The Headline

Well, it was actually eighteen different elections ….and the British one and it does not really matter.

As a spectator sport, it was of course great to see the Conservatives get humiliated, But in the aftermath everyone seems to be appreciating the greatness of being British includes the transfer of power. Britain loves tradition, even the stupid traditions,

I voted in my constituency at 7.15 am Thursday morning….fifteen minutes after opening time. And I am usually there for the doors to open. I suppose it was a sign that I was a bit disinterested. I am after all 72 years old. I am not in the best of health….and there was no real point in voting in my constituency, Upper Bann as the result (DUP victory) was pretty certain.

So I came home, showered had breakfast and got the bus to Belfast. I like to spend election days visiting polling stations, especially in constituencies which will be close. I like to engage with canvassers and leafleters outside polling stations,

As they say “please vote for Alliance”, I reply that I always do vote Alliance (a lie of course) but I cannot vote Alliance on this occasion. This conversation works equally well with DUP, UUP and anybody who approaches me.

Disappointingly, there was very little engagement.

Of course, the Labour Party is now the British government. I offer two cheers only…its Labour (hooray) and the Conservatives were totally humiliated (second hooray). But it is a BRITISH government (so…..booooo!)

It was a landslide of historic proportions. But was it?

Well Yes it was….and no it wasn’t.

There are 650 constituencies in the House of Commons. (actually I dispute that figure and will elaborate in another post).

The candidate who gets most votes becomes MP. And the system is known as First Past The Post. Typically around six candidates and the result might be that the winner gets (maybe) 35% of the vote and the other five get 30%, 20%, 10%, 4%, 1% of the votes cast.

Is it a fair system? Winner takes all? In the example above 35% of the electorate voted for the winner but 65% voted against the winner.

The British system is built around three main political parties, Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat…with Scottish National Party in Scotland and Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalists) standing in Wales. And of course there is the marginalised Green Party.

Norn Iron…is of course different. More of that in another post. This post excludes Norn Iron.

So to have an understanding of the 2024 General Election, we have to look at the 2019 General Election which seems a lifetime ago.

The figures for 2019.

Conservative Boris Johnson 365 seats 14,000,000 44%

Labour Jeremy Corbyn 203 seats 10,000,000 32%

SNP Nicola Sturgeon 48 seats 1,200,000 4%

Lib Dem 11 seats 3,600,000 11%

DUP 8 seats 250,000 0.8%

Sinn Féin 7 seats 180,000 0.6%

Plaid Cymru 4 seats 150,000 0.5%

SDLP 2 seats 120,000 0.4%

Alliance 1 seat 135,000 0.4%

Green 1 seat 870,000 2.7%

So in 2019, where the driving force was Brexit and Immigration as well as Boris Johnson being a charlatan and Jeremy Corbyn a left wing fire-brand, the Conservatives won easily. In part they knocked down the so called Red Wall of Labour heartland seats.

Labour is of course a “progressive” political party. Alas, this is not necessarily true of all of the working class that votes Labour. indeed the Tories were able to persuade a lot of Labour supporters that Labour was “soft” on immigration and too “woke”.

The great success of Conservative politics (as in USA) is to persuade working class people to vote for something that is NOT in their interest.

But note that vote share bears no relation to seats won. Notably the Lib Dems are not helped by building up third places in England, Scotland and Wales (11 seats from 3,600,000 votes) while the Scottish Nationalists get 48 seats from 1,200,00 votes….all of course in Scotland.

So Johnson forms his Tory government which would confront the outworking of Brexit, deal with COVID, face allegations of corruption, Johnson’s resignation, Liz Truss six weeks as Prime Minister and …Rishi Sunak in Downing Street.

Corbyn also resigned as Labour leader and Labour began the process of change. led by Kier Starmer, a comparative novice in party politics.

The British people wanted the Tories out but the results are stark.

Labour Kier Starmer 412 seats 10,000,000 34%

Conservative Rishi Sunak 121 seats 7,000,000 24%

Lib Dem Ed Davey 72 seats 3,500,000 12%

SNP 9 seats 725,000 2.5%

Sinn Féin 7 seats 210,000 0.7%

Independent 6 seats 560,000 2%

Reform UK 5 seats 4,000,000 14%

DUP 5 seats 170,000 0.6%

Green 4 seats 2,000,000 6.7%

Plaid Cymru 4 seats 200,000 0.7%

SDLP 2 seats 90,000 0.3%

Alliance 1 seat 120,000 0.4%

UUP 1 seat 95,000 0.3%

TUV 1 seat 50,000 0.2%

So in round figures, Labour got the same number of votes as in 2019 and it was only a 2% increase in vote share. The real story is the Conservatives lost 7,000,000 votes (a drop of 20%) and lost votes to Labour, Lib Dems and Reform UK.

Labour gained 211 seats and the Tories lost an incredible 251 seats, including the Red Wall seats from 2019.

Liberal Democrats moved from 11 seats to 72 seats, its best result in over a century. SNP vote collapsed, in part due to scandals in the party. The movement for Scottish independence is damaged, probably for a generation.

Reform…is essentially a right wing party. With origins in the short lived Brexit party and UKIP party it is perhaps not unlike MAGA-Trump movement in United States. Some elements of the Conservatives are attracted to Reform but the more moderate “one nation” Tories are appalled by it.

Reform (5 seats from 4,000, 000 votes) and Greens (4 seats from 2,000,000 votes) can call foul. The people who voted for them are very under-represented.

That disconnexion is a ticking time bomb.

The Tories were humiliated. Several of their big names, including ten cabinet ministers, lost their seats. Sunak will resign as Tory leader after a leadership contest takes place…a leadership battle involving “one nation” Tories on one side and “toxic” right wingers on the other side.

British governments are formed in the House of Commons and theoretically a government party with 412 members should be safe for the duration of Parliament (five years). Already, the cabinet is formed….22 members including a member of the House of Lords (the Leader of the House of Lords).

Yet within the headlines, there are other stories. In a handful of constituencies, the Labour vote collapsed and the winners were Independents who are from the Muslim community and stood on the single issue of Palestine-Gaza.

Of course a landslide victory is a good thing for Labour…or is it?

A government is not just 22 Cabinet ministers heading up Departments. There are another 60 or so “junior” ministers. And that means Labours landslide has produced a lot of backbenchers which will not be easy to control. And of course a lot of those backbenchers are relative newcomers to politics and a lot never really expected to get elected.

Indeed the number of newcomers to the House of Commons is extremely high.

That must produce problems.

Of course there is a routine to electoral politics …promises and lies. Usually there is no consequence. This time is different.

The two party system of Conservative and Labour cannot survive.

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Can I Start Blogging Again?

Posted on June 13, 2024 by fitzjameshorse

I have unfortunately been ill over some months. Energy levels are not good. And so much has happened and continue to happen that I wish to jump back in.

Not so sure that I can cope with it all.

But the GEneral Election seems like a good (re) starting point.

Let’s see how it goes.

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From Empire To Brexit

Posted on February 18, 2024 by fitzjameshorse

Yesterday I wrote that the big mistake unionists made was BREXIT.

Before looking at BREXIT it is necessary to look at the evolution of the Common Market thru various manifestations to the the European Union.

It was born in the post World War Two years, initially as a co-operation between Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands. and forming the Common Market with France, Italy and Germany…the original Six.

What did those Six have in common? …western European nations that were devastated by the War. And all members of NATO.

Britain, Ireland and Denmark spent most of the 1960s applying to join. French President de Gaulle had a healthy animosity towards the British. Famously he said “Non!” The feeling at the time articulated by my late father was that Britain would never join a club that it could not rule.

Britainnia may have ruled the waves…But Britain waives the rules.

And this is a genuine point. Britain, Denmark …and Belgium, Netherlands, France, Italy and Germany had all lost their empires and needed new markets. Luxembourg and Ireland had no empires to lose. Britain had a self image of defending Europe from barbarism when Europe was divided between fascist Germany and Italy and “impotence” in face of fascism.

Of course Britain’s self image has no place for Americans and Russians, especially that those countries won the war.

A key part of the European project was the re-distribution of wealth which British conservatives could tolerate as long as wealth was also created. In any case the re-distribution meant seven countries giving wealth to Ireland and Italy to bring them up a common European standard.

But then…there were Ten…Greece. Hardly an empire in modern terms but on the southern fringe of Europe and no land border with any other member. Why Greece? Well it was perceived that Greece had just emerged from a fascist military junta and needed the backing of mainstream Europe to foster Democracy and of course Greece replaced Ireland as the poorest country in the Bloc and needed economic help.

And then…there were Twelve. Spain and Portugal. Why? Well they also were also emerging from the fascism of Franco and Salazar. And former imperial powers. More “poor countries”. And more attempts to level up Europe.

And then… there was Fifteen. Enter Austria, Finland and Sweden. All three prosperous and all three neutral, meaning that there was new dimension as Europe expanded.

Essentially there was a two tier Europe. Most countries could be said to be contributors to the Budget and four were beneficiaries…Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal.

In 2004…Europe really over-reached itself. I said so at the time. Emboldened by the collapse of the Soviet Bloc. Ten more countries….Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania had been part of the USSR. Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary had all been part of the Soviet Bloc, Slovenia part of the old Yugoslavia and Cyprus and Malta both former British colonies.

Re-distribution….well Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal had all benefitted enough for years to become net contributors to the Budget rather than beneficiaries. It is a bit like the Monty Python sketch where the masked highwayman “Dennis Moore” (John Cleese) robbed from the rich and gave to the poor…but then had to rob from the poor to give to the rich.

But I still think the expansion from 15 to 25 countries made Europe difficult to co-ordinate. We should not think of the newcomers as a single entity. Estonia and Latvia might have been Russian but easily fitted the Scandanavian model, Lithuania slightly more difficult. Czech Republic had good democratic tendencies but Poland, Slovakia and certainly Hungary were a mixed bag. Hungary is still the bad boy with a dictator not really signed up to the great project and still an ally of Russia.

Slovenia escaped easily from Yugoslavia and is democratic and Malta and Cyprus seem semi detached from mainland Europe.

Two tier….economically and politically and made worse by Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia joining.

The original Six/Nine were mainstream western Europe, democracies, economically viable, and Christian or post-Christian (Catholic and Protestant). The accession of three countries newly democratic and in one case (Greece) Orthodox moved the dial and three neutral countries moved the dial again.

A key part of the European project is Freedom of Movement.

There was always free movement between Britain and Ireland. Ireland was after all part of the United Kingdom until independence. But Freedom of Movement from Ireland to Britain included “nice” people like doctors and nurses and “not so nice people” like labourers and navvies.

And just how much is Freedom of Movement real if North London rental properties excluded “Blacks, Irish and Dogs”. In European terms, the only people from mainland Europe looking for work in England were the Irish.

And no real problem with western European nations from Finland to Greece and from Sweden to Portugal. At worst the occasional Europeans from France, Spain and Italy brought out xenophobia. Any animosity to foreigners was not actually racist….and besides, not many Europeans wanted or needed to work in Britain.

Exceptionalism?

It is a word we only associate with United States. But maybe it is appropriate here in the context of Britain as a more polite word than “Imperialism”. It is a “legacy” word…born of isolation and a history of military victories. In this context, Britain sees itself as superior to those nations who were so weak that they allowed themselves to be colonised and also superior to those empires (France and Spain for example) who were defeated by their former subjects.

Nations who consider themselves exceptional do not feel bound by rules. Well…..maybe that is unfair. Britain (in this case…England) is actually divided between people who carry a certain guilt and shame about its imperial past and people who have a defiant pride in it all.

But Britain entered the Common Market with only economic motives. There was no mission to unite Europe politically and Britain was constantly divided between economic interest and the (admittedly) sneaky project to form a single European entity.

Euro-sceptics…a hard core of mostly Conservative politicians resented “Europe”. Aided and abetted by powerful media interests, it hopped on a bandwagon of anti European rhetoric. The good British “pint” (of beer) would be replaced by a litre. Good old fashioned pounds, ounces would be replaced by kilograms. Miles replaced by kilometres. And so on. Not a lot really happened.

The possibility of a joint European currency…the Euro eventually introduced in 2002 was maybe the defining moment.

The British attitude to foreigners is interesting and the changing nature of Europe saw Britain move from lazy stereotyping thru xenophobia to downright racism.

The British could tolerate the Irish…and happy enough that the Dutch, Germans, Danes and Swedes did not want to move to Britain to take advantage of Freedom of Movement, the right of every European citizen to live in any other European nation. Just like someone from Illinois has a right to live in Texas or someone from Ohio has the right to live in Georgia.

The problem arose when folks from Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia…and especially Romania and Bulgaria used their new freedoms to exercise their right to live and work in Britain.

At a pinch, Dutch, Germans, Danes, Swedes and even the Irish LOOK like the British. Maybe even SOUND like the British…but the migrants from southern and eastern Europe…not so much.

Freedom of Movement within Europe works pretty well until people actually decide to exercise their freedom to move.

Conservative Party leaders always had malcontent Euro sceptic backbenchers. David Cameron first elected Prime Minister in 2010 sought re-election in 2015 needed to find a way to deal with the toxic euro-scepticism in his own party.

If elected in 2015, Cameron promised to re-negotiate the relationship with Brussels. He would make a great show of wringing concessions and then have a one-off Referendum …a decision to stay in or leave the European Union.

What could possibly go wrong?

TO BE CONTINUED

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Where Do We Go From Here?

Posted on February 5, 2024 by fitzjameshorse

4th February 2013. I fly off on a trip of a lifetime. The History School at a university in Texas. Hosted by an influential professor who was impressed by some of my writings before and after this blog (Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia) started in 2011.

I was asked to talk to some post graduate students on the subject of Norn Iron.

I only went to university in 2005 at the age of 53.

I am a shy reserved man. Getting a degree aged 57 in 2009 empowered me. As did this Blog. To my surprise I found that I could actually speak in public. I really enjoyed speaking to the post grads. No point in going into detail about my lecture,

But for those of you interested, there are You Tube videos of the rehearsals and if you want a link, I am happy to provide it.

Later this year, I will be returning to Texas. And of course I have been thinking how well did that lecture in 2013 hold up but more so what has actually changed …what would I say to those post grads in 2024.

Well…we have had BREXIT….both Sinn Féin and DUP have withdrawn from the Assembly/Government and yesterday 3rd February the Assembly and Executive was re-booted thanks to a deal between the British Government (Tory) and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

The story of the post-Brexit years is that things have moved. And I don’t think that was supposed to have happened. For all its achievements, stagnation was baked into the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. We needed Peace and that is what we got,

Conflict Resolution happens at the end of wars. Take United States in 1865. The Peace was imposed by the Northern victors on the South and was effectively rolled back after about ten years and Reconstruction was ended. Peace came in Germany and Japan in 1945. when those nations were totally defeated.

Is Peace always imposed? Can it ever be negotiated?

The Peace on Good Friday was negotiated. We needed it. It is hard forty and fifty years after the the bloody years of 1970s and 1980s …it is very hard to contemplate just how bloody it all was…Ballymurphy in 1971 (where I lived), McGurks, Bloody Sunday, Bloody Friday, Claudy an arc of atrocities committed in less than a year…I was 19 and 20 years old and that arc brought me to be the person I am today.

Much has happened since 1972…at random, La Mon, Darkley, Loughinisland, Enniskillen, the Shankill Butchers, Tebane, Miami Showband, all tragedies. And the injustices, Birmingham Six, Guilford Four and Maguire Seven in England and the local calumny and perjury and collusion between so called “security forces” and sectarian loyalist killers. But nothing that has happened since 1972 has really changed me as a person.

Essentially violence…the worst of it had abated by the mid 1990s and we were inching towards ceasefires first and then Peace.

On Good Friday morning in 1998 my wife and I were going to work listening to the radio news. Would a deal be reached. About 8.45am, the local BBC said it was happening. We lived thru it…that’s what we said.

Others did not live thru it. In the mid 1960s there was no way of knowing that two classmates would die on “active service”, another from the same class would die in a drive by shooting, that my sisters schoolfriend would be tortured and killed, that my wife’s cousin (a young woman) would be shot dead. Necessarily schoolfriends are from our (Catholic) community. But later I would work with people from the Protestant community who were also killed.

No. When I say “did not live thru it”, I am thinking of my father who died in 1986, Uncle Jackie in 1985, Uncle Charlie in 1988…natural causes. But these people prayed for peace and they never saw it,

The narrative around the Good Friday Agreement was that we had all suffered and we were all to blame. It is convenient. But is it true? There is no analysis just a mathematical equation ……it was 50-50. But can that be true?.

Were Germany and Poland equally responsible for the Second World War?

The Good Friday Agreement was a victory for Creative Ambiguity. It was sold to unionists as a series of obstacles to a united Ireland and sold to nationalists as stepping stones to a united Ireland.

The vote in the 1998 Referendum endorsing the Agreement had a 75% approval. As far as can be gathered it was supported by 95% of nationalists and 55% of unionists so nationalists clearly saw the Agreement as stepping stones to Irish unity. Unionists did not buy fully into the narrative aimed at them.

But post-1998, two things happened. The first was that nationalists started to abandon SDLP party of John Hume’s successors and gradually move to Sinn Féin, unashamedly associated with IRA. And the relatively moderate UUP was overtaken by the extremists in the DUP.

Surprisingly perhaps when the DUP and Sinn Féin became the leaders of their tribes, Rev Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness seemed to work well together and exuded a bonhomie which led detractors to refer to them as the Chuckle Brothers.

But having agreed that everyone had suffered and was to blame…the problem arises when moving beyond doing nothing…set up power sharing Executive, reform Police, Release prisoners, de commission weapons (all done)….prosecute crimes by security forces, compensate victims, deal with legacy (all parked for 26 years now).

There are three rather than two tribes.

Nationalists want to move towards a united Ireland.

Unionists want to move to Norn Iron being more part of the “United Kingdom” than it already is.

And LetsGetAlongerists ..a faux middle ground that proposes closer co-operation between unionist and nationalist but key to that is accepting a status quo that is really just a form of a better type of unionism.

Both sides were happy with Stagnation. On the unionist side, there was a feeling that better understanding of each other would de-fuse the constitutional issues. Nationalists put our faith in the Demographics.

There is an annual game…The Wall Game …played at England’s most prestigious school…Eton College. The rules are a bit bizarre but all the students are divided into two teams and push a ball along a wall. Hundreds of players are involved and nobody actually scores. The last time somebody scored a goal was in the 1920s.

And really that’s a great metaphor for Norn Iron politics. Two tribes line up and push for years. Nobody scores.

It is something I have long believed. We are in a (peaceful) conflict that Nationalists and Unionists cannot win….but one or other can lose it. All it takes is one mistake and that mistake was BREXIT

TO BE CONTINUED

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Remembering To Forget…Forgetting To Remember

Posted on November 12, 2023 by fitzjameshorse

In Britain…..there is Remembrance Sunday. And now we seem to have Armistice Day.

There has always been Remembrance Sunday where the Queen of England laid a wreath on behalf of British citizens. Followed by the British Prime Minister, Opposition Leaders and prominent politicins. And a grand march past of veterans.

But Remembrance Sunday is a bit like Christmas…..it seems to start a few weeks before the actual day. Poppy Season starts ain October. It is a sign of respectability to wear one. They are now often made of metal rather than flimsy cardboard and while metal poppies do not disintegrate or blow away, real enthusiasts for Remembrance buy a new one every year. The money goes to the “Royal” British Legion and to support veterans.

As an aside, there now seems to be a second ex-service charity called Help for Heroes, very much the new kid on the block.

There is much rhetoric about the “going down of the Sun” and “we will remember them” but the Remembrance Sunday thing had been going on for years and the British population barely noticed.

Essentially it is associated with the aftermath of the First World War and the myth/legend of “lions led by donkeys” and regiments of old pals from the shires and cities joining up en masse at recruiting offices and duly getting slaughtered en masse shortly afterwards.

In reality it always had a Saturday Night, Sunday morning feel to it. When I was a child and we only had two TV channels and the BBC would duly show the Festival of Remembrance live from the Albert Hall on the Saturday night and at 11am next morning show the wreath laying at the Cenotaph.Of course, natonalists like myself were never much bothered by the TV showing Remembrance. We could happily stay in bed unaware it was taking place and few of us would have been bothered by ceremonies in town squares in Dungannon, Newry, Banbridge or wherever.

I don’t mind being offended by British militaristic commemorations but I draw the line at getting up early just to be offended.

The whole tradition was happily dying out. Veterans of World War One marched past first. They were old but in many cases still sprightly. And then the World War Two veterans, in middle age, then the Palestine Mandate people, and the Korean War, Kenyan, Cypriot and Malayan veterans of anti “terror” conflicts. And of course the veterans of Norn Iron Troubles.

It was all very generational. In 2023, there are no surviving veterans of the First World War and very few from the Second World War. Veterans from Norn Iron are now at least middle aged and there are new veterans from Iraq and Afghan wars.

I blame John Major. As a humble backbench MP, he stood on the platform at Huntingdon Station and was irritated that there was no little or no information about delays to th train service. So he invented citizen “charters” which wasall part of back to basics.

And he re-instated Armistice Day into British national life.

The first such “new” Armistice Day was 11th November 1993…a Saturday.. I know this because I was working on assignment in London.

I took the short “Tube” journey to Covent Garden and frankly not many people, Londoners or tourists bothered to stop and stay silent for two minutes.

In 2023, it is better established. It is an odd thing. There are no World War One veterans or not many World War Two veterans so the oldest are Korean and the unpopular late colonial wars in Malaya, Cyprus and Kenya….where good and bad is more problematic.

And the Troubles in Norn Iron were of course an embarrassment. And with Iraq and Afghanistan, bodies were repatriated to an RAF base near London and the British Legion turned up along the road and flower petals showered on the hearses as they drove thru the nearest village to the air base.

THis courtesy was never extended to military deaths in Norn Iron or for that matter the Falklands/Malvinas war.

I do not much care for Britain but certainly up to thirty years ago, it was relatively free of grotesque military spectacle.

The takeover …hijacking of what should be a solemn occasion by the “Far Right” yesterday in London. By any standards a basket of “deplorables” is entirely predictable.

I am already looking forward to 11th November 2024…a Monday.

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That Knock On The Head Was Good For Me

Posted on November 11, 2023 by fitzjameshorse

Six weeks ago, I had an accident. Or more precisely an “incident”.

I was outside a supermarket waiting for my wife. Off and on I had felt dizzy. All of a sudden. I collapsed fell to the pavement and banged my head. I passed out. When I regained consciousness, the overall feeling was one of embarrassment, helplessness and …..a very sore head.

Two lovely girls from the supermarket phoned for an ambulance and were debating my age. “we think he is in his 70s” they told the ambulance dispatcher. I wanted to protest. Well yes, I may be 71 but surely all reasonable people might look at me and say that I was in my early sixties.

So I was in hospital for a couple of days and treated really well. Scans revealed nothing and blood tests were mostly ok.

Age is NOT a number. We all know that cliché. But I think Age is a “zone”. I am 71 but I think at around 1pm on 29th September I was in a zone and the knock on the head has put me in a different zone. I am suddenly aware that I am by any standards ……..OLD and aware of my frailty.

It concentrates the mind.

This Blog has been neglected for two reasons. One is that I am writing a memoir…a grandiose term for recording a lot of anecdotes. History is made up of Footnotes…that’s what we are. And I am blessed or cursed with a good memory. Life was NOT about the Troubles. There was a life before August 1969 and a life after Good Friday 1998.

We had Church. We had Schools. We had neighbourhoods. We had jobs

We had Football and Television.

Most of all, we had families. That is the important bit.

The second reason that this Blog is neglected is that I was spending far too much time on Slugger O’Toole. I am naturally polite…at least I thought I was. But being polite on Slugger is a waste of time.

The LetsgetAlongerists who cling to the unlikely belief that the Troubles was all 50-50. We are all equally bad. That’s a mathematical analysis. And should not be tolerated by serious students of History and Politics.

Unionists and Nationalists think they are “right”. It is possible that one tribe is right and the other wrong. Again on Slugger, the bizarre need that unionists have to be “understood” and even “loved” is only worthy of derision.

I recall the sketch where comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb …dressed in WW2 German uniform considered the possibility that “we are the baddies…are we the baddies?”

Unionists…the nice liberal ones do not seem to have considered the possibility that in 800 years of Anglo-Irish history, we….the Irish are the goodies (who have on occasions done bad things) and the British are the baddies (who have on occasions done good things).

Anglo-Irish History and Norn Iron Politics is not exactly rocket science.

Of course this has not stopped people making it more complicated than it actually is. Did I read somewhere that the demographic inevitability of a Catholic nationalist majority and a successful border poll is being undermined by caged hamsters putting stuff in our tea to stop us breeding?

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History Is Not Dead…But Politics Probably Is Dead

Posted on August 5, 2023 by fitzjameshorse

So it turns out that Francis Fukuyama was wrong. History has not ended. I am not sure I ever wanted to believe that. It always seemed to me that there was just too much unfinished business in the world…the Middle East, post-Soviet World, India-Pakistan.

But is Politics over?

Politics is about Choice. But surely it is also about Consequence. But there seems no relation to the choice of Brexit and the Consequence to Brexit. No relation to the Election of, Defeat of Donald Trump. And the Consequence.

Indeed Failure is almost a form of Empowerment.

Surely that is not supposed to happen.

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Three Co-Options And An Election

Posted on May 11, 2023 by fitzjameshorse

So congratulations to Sian Mulholland, Stormont’s newest MLA. co-opted by Alliance to replace Patricia O’Lynn in North Antrim.

Ms Mulholland has had and is having an interesting career.

Previously Sian O’Neill, she is a former caseworker for Naomi Long. She is from Crumlin and stood once for election to Antrim-Newtownabbey Council.

In 2015 she was co-opted to replace Laura McNamee for Ormiston DEA in Belfast City Council. Ms McNamee suffered abuse as a result of the “Flegs” Dispute in 2012. I think she had to leave her home.

In November 2018, Sian O’Neill married Kieran Mulholland who is a councillor in the Causeway and Glens Council….for Sinn Féin. According to the Irish News, they already had a child. There is no obligation to live in the DEA that a councillor represents, merely an obligation to be accessible. There are travel expenses. I do not know where the couple lived in 2019 when Sian O’Neill defended the Ormiston seat

The Wikipedia entry for Ms Mulholland indicates she now has two children. Maternity Leave and a second child would understandably account for an attendance record in Belfast that was often below 100%. Apologies have been recorded for some absences.

After the election of David Honeyford for Alliance in Lagan Valley last year, Ms Mulholland was co-opted for his newly vacated seat on Lisburn-Castlereagh council. The Kiluntagh DEA is bordering on her hometown of Crumlin so she would be very familiar with the area. Kiluntagh is centred on Glenavy, which is less than five kilometres from Crumlin.

But last month on the resignation of Patricia O’Lynn MLA, the vacant Stormont seat went to co-opted Sian Mulholland. The resignation of O’Lynn was announced in February and in April Ms Mulholland was reported on BelfastLive as the replacement and reported as living in Glenavy in the KIltunagh DEA/Lagan Valley constituency..

So …will Mulholland move into North Antrim or are the Alliance members, staff and more importantly the voters happy about this?

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