LETTER FROM LONDON AUGUST 31st 2013
On Friday morning, after
the vote in the House of Commons on Thursday, a vote preventing any military response to Assad’s
use of chemical weapons, a line of poetry from Louis MacNeice lodged in my
head:-
‘And so Thursday came
and Oxford went to the polls
And made its coward
vote
And the streets
resounded to the triumphant cheers of the lost souls.’
It comes from Autumn
Journal and describes the Oxford By-election in the fall of 1938 which resulted
in the victory of the pro appeasement candidate Quinton Hogg, later to become
Lord Halisham. It is, some might say conveniently, forgotten now how popular
appeasement as a policy was, true in the absence of accurate opinion polls the
exact scale of that popularity is difficult to gauge, but no serious historian
doubts the widespread popularity of the policy.
Crowds Cheer Chamberlain after Munich |
When the British engage in
activity that is cowardly or shameful, such as Munich or Suez they dress it up in high moral tones and
congratulate themselves on their moral common sense and responsibility. Thus it
was after another coward vote on another Thursday, for make no mistake this
decision was popular and my own views, demanding action, very much a minority
position.
On Channel Four news they
interviewed Syrian refugees who expressed themselves perplexed by the decision
of the British parliament. “Do our children,” one woman asked “not matter?”
I felt ashamed and
couldn’t help wondering whether if it had been little Norwegian or Spanish
children who had been shelled, rocketed and finally gassed, the British
Parliament would have adopted such a careful and measured tone?
To be fair the Labour
party leader Ed Miliband’s position was much more nuanced than has been
reported, specifically not ruling out the use of military force. This was however
drowned out by the cheers of the appeasers, and who now believes that such an
option remains on the table?
The vote has some
interesting implications, not least for the British constitutional settlement
in the form of the royal prerogative. It is not perhaps widely known, certainly
not outside this country, that Cameron did not constitutionally need a
parliamentary vote. Under what is known as ‘the royal prerogative,’ that is the
consequences of living in a monarchy, the prime minister enjoys the following
powers:-
Make Orders in Council
Declare War
Make Peace
Recognise foreign
governments
Sign and ratify treaties
Grant Pardons
Grant Charters
Confer Honours
Confer patronage
appointments
Establish commissions
These powers, once the
sole prerogative of the monarch have now been passed, with the consent of the
monarch and on the understanding that the monarch is consulted, to the Prime
Minister. As you can see these powers are very substantial indeed and ought to
give anyone with concerns about the vibrancy of our democracy pause for
thought.
Now one of these powers
has been severely curtailed by parliament, for who now believes that any Prime
Minister could take Britain to war without a parliamentary vote in the
affirmative? So though I abhor the decision, the manner in which it happened
feels like progress towards something that feels more like healthy democracy.
It is long past time that
we took a good hard look at our constitutional framework and dragged further powers
away from the anachronism of this settlement.
However if anyone believes
that the Queen would watch passively whilst the fiction of her purely
ceremonial function became a reality, then they are very much deluded. The Queen
and her idiot son will fight viciously to hold on to their constitutional
authority.
Carnival was fun as on the
final day I flew the anarchist flag and gave the V for victory sign to the
massed dancers below, who blew kisses and waved back. Carnival, like revolution
a space were anything is possible, even magic.
I started with MacNeice so
will end with him. Autumn Journal, is a wonderful panoramic view of the fall of
1938 and is one of the finest poems of the 1930’s. Not even Auden better
captures the flavour of the ‘devils decade’
‘And you, who work for
Christ, and you, as eager
For a better life,
humanist, atheist,
And you, devoted to a
cause, and you, to a family,
Sleep and may your
belief and zeal persist.
Sleep quietly, Marx and
Freud,
The figure-heads of our
transition.
Cagney Lombard, Bing
and Garbo,
Sleep in your world of
celluloid.
Sleep now also, monk
and Satyr,
Cease your wrangling
for a night.
Sleep, my brain, and
sleep, my senses,
Sleep, my hunger and my
spite.
Sleep recruits to the
evil army,
Who, for so long
misunderstood,
Took to the gun to kill
your sorrow;
Sleep and be damned and
wake up good.’
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