The rabbit-hole looms - Edward in Blunderland awaits its first and final performance.
A comment I now can’t unsee. You are a bounder and a cad, TBC!
A comment I now can’t unsee. You are a bounder and a cad, TBC!- 1
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Seconding, and might as well throw in Cunningham and Mountbatten for good measure.
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At this stage of the narrative RV Jones probably does not count as being well-known - heavens at any point in the narrative, but perhaps he might make an entry later on?
I believe Harris is busy setting up the South Rhodesian Air Force at this point while A. Cunningham is bobbing around the Med commanding the destroyer flotilla. J. Cunningham is one of the Aide-de-Camps to the King, which is not as relevant as it first sounds as it's more of a "holding pattern" job than anything else. While they will all (probably) go onto greater things later, right now they are mid-level officers with no particular insight on the matter beyond what is gossip or in the papers. Of course if @Le Jones wishes to prove me wrong and make something amazing out of it, I will not complain.
Mountbatten however was Principal Naval Aide-de-camp at this point and that did give him an excuse to hang around the King quite a lot, not that he really needed one in the first place, so he probably does have an interesting perspective on things.
A scene in a pub with RV Jones and Tommy Flowers sharing some pints and comparing notes on the vissitudes of public opinion and the unfairness of one's contribution being ignored in favour of fashionable dilettantes. They are occasionally throwing peanuts at the back of Turing's head.
Conceded that they're not particularly prominent or high-ranking now, but it might make for an interesting update or two to see how the fallout from the ongoing crisis is affecting the day-to-day affairs of the business of Empire more generally.
A scene in a pub with RV Jones and Tommy Flowers sharing some pints and comparing notes on the vissitudes of public opinion and the unfairness of one's contribution being ignored in favour of fashionable dilettantes. They are occasionally throwing peanuts at the back of Turing's head.
I do like Tommy flowers.
This does sound a lot like engineer sour grapes over theorists getting all the cred.
Here I was thinking you meant Jock Cunningham of SCW fame, who if anything probably would make for an interesting update right about now.
More annoyed that the entire code breaking effort gets reduced down to one person who had a tragically convenient post-war life.
As this is not an engineer thing you could pick one of the dozen other academic/theorists who had a bigger impact on code breaking (Bill Tutte, Dilly Knox, etc), you could pick Hugh Sinclair who brought Bletchley Park with his own money and got things going pre-war when the the government weren't taking it seriously, you could pick Strachey who managed to break Japanese codes despite not speaking or reading Japanese! Any of them are more deserving of fame than Turing.
I was unaware of the SCW Jock Cunningham, but I am delighted to see he was almost exactly what I expected - A committed communist who got utterly betrayed by his own movement for baffling internal reasons, probably involving ambition and obscure points of doctrine. He never founded his own left wing party or provoked a split, so he does lose points there. But he gains points for the Jamaica Mutiny, it could have just been him making a scene, but as he did get one other solider involved it did get classified as a mutiny. Admittedly one that had no effect on anything at all, bar getting them both sent to prison, but that is just the sort of pointless and self-destructive gesture I look for in my left wing figures. Thank you for bringing him to my attention.
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The british love tragic convience.
Yes, yes, we've already had the big discussion on how impressive Bletchley park and its staff were. The most impressive thing is probably how effectively the intellgence was used in practice by the Allies though, since just having all the information doesn't mean jack if not used properly. But that leads on to a wider discussion on how effective allied intelligence and counter intelligence was in general, and how fortunate the world was that the germans were so bad at both.
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It has occurred to me - as regards to RV Jones - that there is a route "in" for him. Jones was the protege, in many ways, of Frederick Lindemann, who was very friendly with (and something of an advisor to) Churchill. Lindemann himself might well be an interesting character to pop up here and there regardless.
Well once the King has published these interviews he really is over the cliff edge, he must "win" (whatever that means) or the establishment will outmanuver him with ease.
It all depends on how the public receive his sentiments. A victim of his disloyal government or a laughing stock controled by his wife?
It all depends on how the public receive his sentiments. A victim of his disloyal government or a laughing stock controled by his wife?
The woman I love and I wish to be married but THEY won't let me
is a fairly good first shot and difficult to argue against. The gov would have to say that the king is right they are trying to stop him, and then explain why. Though their reasons may (are) good, that doesn't really matter in terms of aesthetics. As soon as they respond with
Yes, but-
Public opinion shoots to the kings side. At that point, with the media, and presumably quite a bit of outside attention on the crisis, the gov would have to be pretty strong to power through with their plans. Sure, they hold all the cards. But if they don't make it popular before they force an abdication, they're in serious danger of creating a lost cause movement, or even worse, a rallying cry for any political outsider or movement to claim the former King as their own.
Nah I'm not seeing the King's position being popular with the public, not with 1930s attitudes. You are under-estimating the level of religious belief at the time, 60/70% of the population are church members of one sort or another and ~50% believe the "anointed by God" part of the coronation ritual has a deep and real spiritual meaning and significance. On top of that there is pride in the Empire, once it comes out that the Dominions are against it that is another nail in Eddies coffin. Some sympathy for him as a man, perhaps, but not for him as a King.
Baldwin did not get to the top and stay there through the Depression by being an idiot. He knows how to read the public and play the press. He will not lead with "Yes, but". The response will be something like "The government, together with the opposition, the governments of the Dominions and the major church leaders, have reluctantly concluded that they cannot support the King's choice in this matter. It would be incompatible with his coronation oath and his duties to the country, to the Empire and to God. The Prime Minister has resigned, the opposition leaders has made it clear he will not serve, and we all beseech his majesty to reconsider and follow the example of his illustrious father in putting the needs of his people and his Empire first in his considerations."
Really lay it on thick about how Eddie is abandoning the country and his duties by being a selfish idiot. Throw in as much stuff about religion as the Archbishop of Canterbury will let you get away with and a reference to KG V (who is still deeply popular) and just absolutely hammer him hard.
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If I was Baldwin, I'd be quite worried about pulling the morals and standards card as an excuse as to why the king is out of order. Especially bringing up the Church, goverment and parliment in the same breath. It could well encourage the king to try to take as many people as possible down with him by opening up about the many cheaters, sexual predators and pedophiles there are in the Church and state hierarchies. Open up every bit of hushed up indiscretion, crime, hypocrisy and backroom deal of which he is aware (which I imagine is an extensive amount), smear every name he can, open every can of worms...
He could do some real damage if Beaverbrook lets him.
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...At the risk of alienating any of the moderates in his own camp who might still be hoping for some sort of dignified resolution to this whole mess (and who may have friends of their own caught in the fallout. Edward's own friends in the Belvedere set almost certainly aren't squeaky-clean themselves...)
And, also, the fact that the Establishment's next reaction will undoubtedly be "Where's your proof?" Unless the King has something genuinely ironclad he can put before the British people to substantiate his allegations, even if they're essentially an open secret to those "in the know," that sort of meltdown is going to play right into the hands of those wishing to portray him as short-sighted, unstable, and unfit for "the demands and the dignity of the office of kingship."
He might still end up winning, but that sort of victory could end up being a very bitter and Pyrrhic one, perhaps even to the point of damaging the dignity and legitimacy of the Crown itself as an institution. (Not to say that that's coming out of the present situation unscathed anyway, but still...)
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I'm not saying its a good idea, just that if and when the writing is on the wall and he's lost, or when he starts to get desperate, someone is going to have to talk him down from trying this. Because he clearly doesn't care much for the institution of the crown, and would probably try to enact vengeance or at least a great deal of annoyance upon his enemies before they kick him out.
And after he's gone, he could be a security and political nightmare. Now every potential whistle-blower of scandal or failing within the state has a ready made outlet to go to, and over time Edward if he kept to it could do a lot of damage with both personal accounts and evidence from people within the establishment.
It probably won't happen, but he could try it at least, and he'd only have to succeed once to cause a lot of problems.
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Probably not, as that’s a lot further down the slippery slope than the image of the sad and wronged monarch seeking understanding and sympathy for himself and the ‘woman he loves’. And if he doesn’t care that much about the institution - or at least his personal role within it (which seems to have been the case) why go nuclear? Just abdicate and shuffle off (which is what ended up happening) rather than having the peccadilloes of Wallis and both their mooted pro-Nazi sympathies and even connections used in a counter strike, which would probably have come next.