On a night when the Conservative leadership election gets even more bizarre, I settle down, looking for solace, in quality work I know I will enjoy.
Oh God. I was too busy playing, and then watching, football. Will save reading about those horrors for the morning…
Glad an Echoes chapter can be a respite, though! I’m not always sure…
Sadly it was ever thus. Of course, my student days consisted of Middle Temple dinners and G&S recitals, so I don't really speak from authority.
A dying breed in the Commonwealth, I fear. Though… I don’t see why G&S
wouldn’t still be a thing? And actually, Lord only knows what happened to the Middle Temple. Hmm…
And thus the Gordian Knot (or one of the thornier issues) arises. Reform is not, as tons of historical examples (the franchise, loosening of British control of India) a one-stop shop, it's a mudslide, an irresistable tide for more and more, and a slide becomes a torrent. Brilliant writing, BTW.
Yes, exactly this. I think one of the flaws in Lewis’s strategy is that he rather hopes he can solve everything in one swoop, root and branch. Which is the result of impatience, rather than genuine naivety, so perhaps forgivable. But misguided all the same – and, at worst, outright harmful.
And thank you!
Only in Britain, in the 60s/70s (with the possible exception of Belarus) would these two feature. The false look of happiness at the seaside on what is probably a cheerless, freezing day. Gawd alive.
Brighton. October 1, 1966. Probably not the most pleasant seaside day in the world. Looks like there may have been quite a stiff breeze – although their hairstyles were more or less fixed like that, so it’s hard to say for sure.
I’ve actually cropped poor Bessie Braddock out of the picture: the three grandes dames of the Labour Party.
The one on the left looks like an Eastern European dictator's wife.
That would be Jennie ‘Lioness of Labour’ Lee MA (Edin.), LLB, the former Mrs Aneurin Bevan. Among other things, the driving force behind the foundation of the Open University.
Coming towards the end of her story arc, but not done yet. Not by a long shot.
Is that the Grand Hotel in Brighton in the background, BTW?
Yes! Well spotted.
Whether it will end up as…
infamous in the Echoesverse remains to be seen.
I was about to type, as the paragraphs of looming industrial unhappiness built up, that a mere report and some light touch action wouldn't cut it. And then this. Very striking, very shocking.
I’m was hoping it would have that impact, so thanks for the vote of confidence
@Le Jones! Wales is in for a time of it, I’m sad to say. It will come out the better for it, arguably, in the end – but it’s not going to be pretty.
Incidentally, you remind me that I made a copy of a timely article in the last issue of the LRB about Welsh political radicalism during our period. I’ll happily share it if anyone would like a bit more real-world context for the extremism on display here.
Brilliant writing, the threads of the nation's social fabric are fraying, authority is losing its grip, and things can only get worse.
The darkness before the dawn, I hope. (Admittedly, there’ll only be a whole new set of challenges waiting along with it.)
Wonderfully written, my dear @DensleyBlair
Thank you, my friend!