…it was a fun week….
Quite interesting, the British way of transitioning governments. [ * taps forehead, shakes head and rolls eyes ]
(btw, not to nitpick but will people stop referring to Great Britain or United Kingdom as just England? Brown himself is Scottish. Rather odd for a Canadian to get this wrong, seeing as ol’ Queenie is also their sovereign)
^ Yup.
No colonies, Hong Kong was the last but there are still 14 British Overseas Territories, plus the Channel Islands & Isle of Man who aren’t quite the same but are called Crown dependencies. I had to look them up, I could only count 9 off the top of my head. But they have their own governments. Kinda. :-|
lol Simon, yeah, it did seem like what you described for a day or so.
I’m impressed by how quick and civilized the change of government was. No tea-party protests of leftist socialists (Democratic Liberals), no filibusters of Parliament against insufficiently conservative appointees, no holds put on cabinet nominees by a member of the House of Lords in order to extort earmarks for his or her district. And their election cost about one tenth (per capita) of what ours do. I think we have some lessons to learn from our friends across the pond.
Thought it was only Quebec that didn’t like the idea of the British monarch being Canadian head of state? (For the obvious stroppy French reasons).
Wasn’t there a joke about an American and a Canadian comparing their respective Heads of State… The American said that electing a President stopped a complete moron getting to be head of state simply because he happened to be the eldest son of the previous complete moron to have held the job.
The Canadian simply said “George Bush”….
As the coalition was annonucedbetween the Libs and THEM, the noise of protest from Liberal supporters behind a barricade forty or fifty yards away it was so loud it stopped Clegg and Cameron from properly being heard. These were the Liberal supporters and grassroots party activists who were ferociously angry that their party will now evermore be seen as Tory and fear a backlash from those who wanted the Libs to be a left-leaning alternative to an obnoxiously right-wing Labour Government.
You-tube up the BBC press reports and listen to what I mean… I’ve not heard such a loud, angry, sustained protest since the Poll Tax. This is a slow fuse in the Libs that won’t go away. For the price of a little bit of government allied to a right-wing party, Clegg may well have split his own.
As a disillusioned former Labour Party member, I’m going to have to think long and hard before giving the Liberals my vote again - at least my New Labour MP lost six thousand votes on last time!
OmqR-IV.0 almost 14 years ago
…it was a fun week…. Quite interesting, the British way of transitioning governments. [ * taps forehead, shakes head and rolls eyes ]
(btw, not to nitpick but will people stop referring to Great Britain or United Kingdom as just England? Brown himself is Scottish. Rather odd for a Canadian to get this wrong, seeing as ol’ Queenie is also their sovereign)
Simon_Jester almost 14 years ago
Brown’s exit puts me in mind of an old Andy Capp cartoon.
Andy is halfway out the door to his house, with a suitcase propped on his shoulder, and he’s saying….
“It’s no use Flo, I’m leaving and nothin’ can stop me. If yer begged me to stay on bended knee –QUIT PUSHING!”
OmqR-IV.0 almost 14 years ago
^ Yup. No colonies, Hong Kong was the last but there are still 14 British Overseas Territories, plus the Channel Islands & Isle of Man who aren’t quite the same but are called Crown dependencies. I had to look them up, I could only count 9 off the top of my head. But they have their own governments. Kinda. :-|
lol Simon, yeah, it did seem like what you described for a day or so.
Bluejayz almost 14 years ago
I’m impressed by how quick and civilized the change of government was. No tea-party protests of leftist socialists (Democratic Liberals), no filibusters of Parliament against insufficiently conservative appointees, no holds put on cabinet nominees by a member of the House of Lords in order to extort earmarks for his or her district. And their election cost about one tenth (per capita) of what ours do. I think we have some lessons to learn from our friends across the pond.
CorosiveFrog Premium Member almost 14 years ago
Up here, we have our own constitution (since 1982, sheesh!) but we still have the queen although she doesn’t belong here if you ask me.
AgProv almost 14 years ago
Thought it was only Quebec that didn’t like the idea of the British monarch being Canadian head of state? (For the obvious stroppy French reasons).
Wasn’t there a joke about an American and a Canadian comparing their respective Heads of State… The American said that electing a President stopped a complete moron getting to be head of state simply because he happened to be the eldest son of the previous complete moron to have held the job.
The Canadian simply said “George Bush”….
As the coalition was annonucedbetween the Libs and THEM, the noise of protest from Liberal supporters behind a barricade forty or fifty yards away it was so loud it stopped Clegg and Cameron from properly being heard. These were the Liberal supporters and grassroots party activists who were ferociously angry that their party will now evermore be seen as Tory and fear a backlash from those who wanted the Libs to be a left-leaning alternative to an obnoxiously right-wing Labour Government.
You-tube up the BBC press reports and listen to what I mean… I’ve not heard such a loud, angry, sustained protest since the Poll Tax. This is a slow fuse in the Libs that won’t go away. For the price of a little bit of government allied to a right-wing party, Clegg may well have split his own.
As a disillusioned former Labour Party member, I’m going to have to think long and hard before giving the Liberals my vote again - at least my New Labour MP lost six thousand votes on last time!