I just had a really nasty thought...

[fpb]

...an air accident such as that which beheaded Polish society yesterday would do next to nothing to Britain. It is impossible for me to feel that the country would greatly miss any of its leading politicians, bureaucrats, military commanders, etc. Perhaps a few of the private people who were on the flight - relatives of the Katyn victims, celebrities such as the woman who started the Gdansk strike of 1980, etc - and perhaps one or two of the more impressive businessmen. And the Queen, if she was there. But personally I could witness the beheading of the military, the police, the legislative, executive and judiciary powers, and the media, with complete equanimity.

My God, what kind of a country in this, in which there is not a single leading figure worthy of respect?

Comments

Just out of interest...

[pathology-doc.livejournal.com]

While you're busily watching the pruning of the upper echelons of British society (the prunability of which I'm not intending to debate - you're there and I'm not), would you try to spare this fellow (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/danielhannan/)?

We have a similar problem here - the Government is the equivalent of a ballroom dancer with two left feet, and the Opposition has no strong suit in finance and economics (one of the leading lights retired; the other crossed the floor to vote with the Government on a matter that split his party and saw him dumped as leader).

I'm not sure I could watch them all go to the block with equanimity, but I'm frighteningly close to believing that political parties should be obliged by law to preselect their candidates on the basis of being vocationally trained to fill particular Cabinet positions one day, if not actually supporting the concept of a meritocratic oligarchy.

I mourn the decline of Britain.

(BTW, my icon is in reference to the craziness of the situation, and should not be implied as referring to yourself or your viewpoint.)

Re: Just out of interest...

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I am radically pro-European, like most of my countrymen, and the glee of the British and American right every time there is a remote chance that something might go wrong with the process of European union disgusts me. So, no, Mr.Hannan is not one of my favourite people, although I will give him credit for not being an empty suit like nearly every other British politician. That is why he stands out. Having said that, I feel like the great Italian patriot Carlo Cattaneo, who, having fought all his life in the front line for a free and united Italy, died in exile in Switzerland because he could not stomach the means by which Italian union had been achieved. The European institutions are both inefficuent and undemocratic, and their leadership is disgracefully unwilling to shoulder the responsibilities of a rising superpower.

Re: Just out of interest...

[pathology-doc.livejournal.com]

I can see your viewpoint, and I respect it even if I disagree. The EU seems to have become a monster; and if you think that it is inefficient and undemocratic, then as it lies, maybe it deserves to fail (hopefully only in a bureaucratic manner - we've had quite enough European wars between 1792 and now, thank you!). This doesn't mean the concept isn't worthy, but if the execution is so terrible then maybe "hoping for failure" isn't uniformly a bad thing.

Personally, I suspect that Europe (even Western Europe) is so culturally and politically diverse that anything more than a blanket free trade and defence agreement and a common currency is asking too much.

Re: Just out of interest...

[fpb.livejournal.com]

You might say the same about Italy. If you had any idea of the immense difference between Venice, Piedmont, the Rome area, Abruzzo, Naples, and Sicily (to mention only a few), you would wonder they could be together for ten minutes. And it will have been 150 years this autumn.