THE MAN WHO WOULD BE PRESIDENT

Prince Charles 'compared Russian action to Nazi's' BBC 



 I think I have already made clear my view about comparing Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler, see http://alextalbot.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/russia-and-crimea-danzig-of-ukrainian.html. Hitler was a psychopath who having gained supreme power in Germany set about exterminating Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and the mentally ill. He invaded Poland, Ukraine and Russia with the sole aim of depopulating the region by starvation and mass murder to create ‘lebensraum,’ i.e. living space for the German population who would rule this vast colony, keeping a few Slavs as slave/servants. Whatever the similarities there are between Putin’s annexation of Crimea and his attempts to destabilise Ukraine and Hitler’s behaviour in 1938-39, and there are some, Putin is no Hitler. Which leads me to the Idiot Prince.  
The Prince it seems wants to make the monarchy more active in public life, indeed he is said to want to make the role more ‘presidential.’ To that effect he has already lobbied for those policies that President Windsor wishes to see implemented, though as mere ‘subjects’ we are not being permitted to see the letters he has written outlining his policy preferences. The Attorney general has forbidden their publication on the curious grounds that to do so would expose the Prince as no longer politically neutral and consequently unfit to be a constitutional monarch.[1] Well excuse me for being picky but isn’t that precisely a definition of the public interest?
We are constantly sold the monarchy on the grounds that the Queen is above politics, stands aloof, outside the fray, regal and beyond reproach. Whether you buy this model or not, and I don’t, this is what we are sold, constitutional monarchy, an arrangement  that dates back to the Bill of Rights in 1689 and has evolved slowly over the centuries since, as the idea that the monarch should hold political power was buried. That is anyhow what we are sold.
Charles it seems is unhappy with this settlement, hankers for the days when the Kings opinions held sway and the frustrated dauphin rails against the inadequacies of an age that does not see things his way. Now we have the same crowd who have hitherto sold us the silent apolitical monarchy rush to Charles’s defence. The man, they say has a right to an opinion and to express it boldly. Well having your cake and eating it may be an attractive proposition but in this case it is not a persuasive argument.[2]
Already the man who would be King/President has interfered in the political process by lobbying for his pet causes and now stumbles from gaff to gaff like a drunk in a nightclub. As a man of course Charlie has a right to his opinions, and I for one would fight for that right. He is also entitled to harbour fantasies about becoming president, though for that to happen we would have to become a republic and he would have to go about the tedious process of getting himself elected. Which gives me an idea. Set Charlie free, free the Windsor one. Let him abdicate, express his opinions loudly for anyone in the bar still listening and let him put his name down to become first President of the Republic of England and Wales, (Scotland and Northern Ireland may want alternative arrangements). I have to say though I don’t fancy his chances.
Addendum
I see that members of the LGBT support groups have welcomed the Princes remarks. For myself I would find the Princes concern for human rights more convincing if it extended to the medieval theocratic dictatorships run by some of his royal Middle Eastern friends. Regimes not noted for their LGBT policies.


[2] Though I did hear one defence of Charles on the radio yesterday that he was ‘still learning the constraints of the role.’ Prince Charles became Prince of Wales in 1969, if he were learning the piano at this rate he would have yet to fully master chopsticks.


Having visited this page I would be grateful for your feedback, either tick one of the boxes below or make a comment via the comments button.

Popular posts from this blog

NESRINE MALIK AND THE UNSUNG VIRTUES OF HYPOCRISY

Image
As I write this a 27 year old woman, Mariam Ibrahim, has just had a baby in a Sudanese prison, ‘the condition of the mother and baby is not known as Ibrahim's lawyer and her husband, a US citizen, had been denied access to her. Omdurman women's prison has a basic clinic, where the child is thought to have been born. Ibrahim has been shackled since being imprisoned.’ [1]   Mariam also has an 18 month old child who is also being held in prison with her. The ‘crime’ for which she is imprisoned is apostasy, for which she has received the death sentence. She has also been sentenced to 100 lashes, for the additional crime of having sex with her Christian husband. Although she has been a lifelong Christian her father was a Muslim, Sudanese sharia law forbids women to marry outside the Muslim faith, men needless to say can do as they please in these matters. Mariam Ibrahim and her husband.  Nineteen countries punish their citizens for apostasy, and in 12 of those countries
Read more

INTERVIEW WITH TOM VAGUE

Image
Tom Vague At the top end of All Saints Road there is a refuge, an enclave in which a local Bohemian culture retains a foothold, this is the Book & kitchen , a cafĂ©/bookshop with adjoining terrace. Here the bustle of the nearby market gives way to conversation, conversation in the presence of images of the recent, and not so recent, past. The past of an area that has contributed so much to the life and culture of the city. I was there to meet local historian Mr Tom Vague a man intimately familiar with so much of this history. What Tom doesn’t know about the recent history of the area probably is not worth knowing. With Tom’s energy and effort Colville Community Forum, supported by City Living Local Life, recently held a gathering at The Book and Kitchen to celebrate this rich history. February 16 6-9 Pm, with Film Screening and Readings Exhibition February 16-26 2016. Featuring 30 Classic Westway Photographs and Posters. This represents one of a number of initiatives of t
Read more

VOLINE AND TROTSKY

Волин и Троцкого A Footnote in Russian History In April 1917 the Russian anarchist revolutionary Voline* and Leon Trotsky were both stranded in New York as the Russian revolution broke out in Petrograd , inevitably coming into contact with one another. Voline stated that he felt that the Bolsheviks, given their ruthlessness and single minded determination, would ultimately come to power. They would then begin eliminating their opponents, amongst whom of course were the anarchists; this persecution would end with the Bolsheviks shooting the anarchists “like partridges.” Trotsky was dismissive, they might have their differences but they were comrades in arms, they had different interpretations of the revolutionary process but shared the same goals. It was nonsense to speak of Bolsheviks shooting revolutionary comrades, “we are socialists, comrade Voline! So we are not your enemies….” [1] In December of 1919, whilst gravely wounded Voline was captured by the Bolshe
Read more