10 Political Leaders whose fathers were ministers

Wilson, Hawke

1. Woodrow Wilson (Presbyterian)
2. Grover Cleveland (Independent Presbyterian)
3. Chester Arthur (Baptist)
4. Aaron Burr (Presbyterian)
5. Jesse Jackson Jr (Baptist)
6. Gordon Brown (Presbyterian)
7. Theresa May (Anglican)
8. Angela Merkel (Lutheran)
9. Kenneth Kaunda (Presbyterian)
10. Bob Hawke (Congregational)

10 Uniquely Nicknamed Parliaments

1. Model Parliament 1295 (a model for later parliaments)
2. Good Parliament 1376 (due to the sincere efforts by its members to reform the government)
3. Bad Parliament 1377 (because it undid the work of the Good Parliament)
4. Blessed Parliament 1604-1610 (the view of Londoners at least)
5. Addled Parliament 1614 (it passed no bills)
6. Useless Parliament 1625 (it transacted no significant business)
7. Short Parliament Apr 1640 (it lasted only three weeks)
8. Barebone's (Little or Saints') Parliament 1653 (Praise-God Barebone, MP for the City of London)
9. Cavalier (Pensioner) Parliament 1661-1679 (overwhelmingly royalist and the longest ever)
10. Loyal Parliament 1685 (at the outset most MPs were loyal to the new king, James II)

(The terms Convention, Long, Oxford and Rump are used for more than one Parliament. Also note the Mad Parliament 1258, Montfort's Parliament 1264, Parliament of Whitebands 1321, the Wonderful Parliament 1386, the Merciless Parliament 1388, the Unlearned or Dnces Parliament 1404, the Fire and Faggot Parliament 1414, the Black Parliament 1523)

Politics

I continue to add to my Published Articles blog. This article from 1998 recently added is still relevant today.

10 Heads of State and politicians who have had Covid-19

1. Prince Charles
2. Boris Johnson
3. Prince Albert of Monaco
4. Jair Bolsonaro
5. Michel Barnier (EU Brexit negotiator)
6. Nuno Gomes Nabiam (PM Guinea Bissau)
7. Juan Orlando Hernández (President Honduras)
8. Mary Louise MacDonald (Leader of the Opposition Sinn Fein Ireland)
9. Mikhail Mishustin (PM Russia)
10. Ali Larijani (then-speaker of the parliament of Iran)

10 Leaders with their country in their name

1. Jomo Kenyatta, first president of Kenya. He took the surname (“Light of Kenya”) when in London in the 1930s.
2. Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, king of Saudi Arabia, or any of his predecessors back to Muhammad bin Saud, who ruled 1726–1765.

3. ‏Pierre Mendès France, prime minister of France, June 1954 to February 1955.

4. Solomon Mamaloni, prime minister of the Solomon Islands three times between 1981 and 1997. 

5. Alexander Dubček. First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, 1968-69. Although he was actually a Slovak.

6. Ulysses S Grant, President of the United States, 1869-77.

7. Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India, 1980-84.

8. ‏Giorgi Margvelashvili, president of Georgia.

9. Salvador Sanchez Ceren, president of El Salvador.
10. King Mswati III, and his predescessors, King of eswatini (Swaziland).

10 Examples of claims of unfitness for office

I think I've spotted a new trend. You no longer say a person is not any good at their job, you say, rather, that they are not fit to be doing it. It's a stronger statement but I wonder if it really helps. Here are ten real (though not very well documented examples).

1. We have long known Donald Trump is unfit for office. (Daily Mirror)

2. SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has said Theresa May is “not fit for office” due to her conduct throughout the Brexit process. (Press and Journal)

3. The leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn says Boris Johnson is not fit for the office of prime minister and thinks he is above the law. (BBC) "If he can't stand the scrutiny of his peers then he is not fit for office." .

4. Tom Watson. Sir Richard Henriques "By misusing his public office to recklessly repeat false allegations, and to characterise himself as a victim, he has shown that he is unfit to hold the office of MP." (The Times)

5. Trevor Kavanagh "The fact is Corbyn was never fit to be PM, even before he entered Parliament half a century ago as a Che Guevara lookalike. Indeed, he is unfit for office of any kind, not because of failing memory, a saggy eye muscle or a rumoured mini-stroke. He is unsuited because he regards all Britain’s enemies as his friends and prizes the IRA, Hamas and even Putin’s Kremlin above the interests of the country he aspires to lead."

6. "Remove John Bercow speaker of The House of Commons. He's not impartial & unfit for office" Online petition.

7. The Home Secretary Sajid Javid has proved himself to be ‘unprincipled and unfit to hold one of the great offices of state’ after turning the UK’s back on opposing the death penalty, according to the lawyer. Ben Emmerson QC.

8. Priti Patel is not only not fit to be Tory Leader, she is not fit to be trusted with any kind of ministerial office. She is unfit to serve and should be removed from Parliament. Found on a blog by a man from Crewe.

9/10. A vicar who says his disclosures about being sexually abused as a teenager were ignored by senior clerics has told an inquiry the archbishops of Canterbury and York are not "fit for office".

The Lies of the Land

I saw this new book advertised in Private Eye and after reading a sample on ebook I bought the rest of it and enjoyed being reminded of the various lies, mainly in British politics, told by politicians. I was familiar with most of the examples given although there were things I'd missed and things I had failed to get completely clear on in the past. Macqueen's final word argue against the cynicism that this sort of book is likely to fuel and makes some suggestions for reform. I'm not so sure they would make that much difference. It is important to remember that most people are willing to lie in a tight corner and sometimes do. It is a reminder to pray for pur ploitical leaders. it is not easy to keep it straight. Nicely written, although the earlier chapters read better than later ones, probably due to the subject matter.

Killed by my debt

Alerted to it existence by an article in The Times we watched the BBC 3 drama Kielled by my debt the other night. It was a disturbing drama based on real events. A the story unfolded it had all the marks of a tragedy as it trudged on to the seemingly inevitable denouement. There are many problems in society today that this story highlights including zero hours contracts, easy credit, money hungry local councils, inhumane bailiffs, low views of the worth of hman life, th failure of Christians to connect, etc. If you ever wonder why aspects of socialism are always popular with some, you need only to watch this.

10 Teams in the alternative world cup

 Read more on this here

1. Abkhazia
2. Northern Cyprus
3. Székely Land
4. Isle of Man (Ellan Vannin)
5. Felvidek (Upper Hungary)
6. Tamil Eelam
7. Western Armenia
8. Tuvalu
9. Tibet
10. Matabeleland

Tony and Dick

I have recently realised that Anthony Crosland and Richard Crossman are two different people. I've tended to confuse them, understandably

1. Both were born in the early part of the Twentieth century and died in the seventies.
2. Both were Labour MPs
3. Both served in Harold Wilson's cabinet (Crosland also briefly under Callaghan)

I think the key thing was that CRossman was on the left and CrosLand on the right (cross the R and L).

Richard Crossman OBE (15 December 1907 – 5 April 1974), sometimes known as Dick Crossman, was a British Labour Party MP and diarist, as well as a key figure among the party's Zionists and anti-communists. He served as MP for Coventry East. He occupied the cabinet positions of Secretary of State for Social Services, Leader of the House of Commons and Minister of Housing and Local Government. He was earlier Chair of the Labour Party (1960 and 61). Late in his life, Crossman was editor of the New Statesman. He is remembered today for his highly revealing three-volume Diaries of a Cabinet Minister.
Crossman cemented his role as a leader of the left-wing of the parliamentary Labour Party in 1947 by co-authoring the Keep left pamphlet, and later became one of the more prominent Bevanites.

Anthony Crosland (29 August 1918 – 19 February 1977), sometimes known as Tony Crosland, was a British Labour Party MP and author. He served as MP for South Gloucestershire and later for Great Grimsby. Throughout his long career he occupied the cabinet positions of Secretary of State for Education and Science, President of the Board of Trade, Secretary of State for Local Government and Regional Planning and Foreign Secretary. A prominent socialist intellectual, he became one of the Labour Party's revisionists on the right, as an intellectual leader of Gaitskellism. His highly influential book The Future of Socialism (1956) argued against many Marxist notions and Labour Party orthodoxy that public ownership was essential to make socialism work. He offered positive alternatives to both right and left wings of his Labour Party. He questioned the need for public ownership of the means of production – the classic socialist formulation – and argued instead for making the highest priority the end of poverty and improved public services. He led the Labour battle to replace grammar schools with comprehensive schools that did not sort students at age 11. As foreign secretary he promoted détente with the Soviet Union.
Crosland was seen as a leader and intellectual guru of the "right wing or "social democratic" wing of the Labour Party in the 1970s.

The Age of Walls Tim Marshall

I was in the bookshop the other day and spotted a new book by Tim Marshall The Age of Walls: How Barriers Between Nations Are Changing Our World. Having enjoyed his previous books on geopolitics I was eager to get this and had it read in no time. Sorry I've been a bit slow to draw it to your attention. We're all aware of Trump's talk of a wall and many of us are old enough to remember the Berlin wall. Once you bring in Hadrian's wall (no mention of Offa's Dyke - not a wall I guess) and the great wall of China you are away. It is surprising to know how many walls and fences there are out there and with a  good theme Mr Marshall manages to produce a book that is both interesting and informative and sometimes surprising.

The spiel says

“We are seeing walls being built along borders everywhere. Despite globalisation and advances in technology, we seem to be feeling more divided than ever. Thousands of miles of walls and fences have gone up around the world in the twenty-first century. At least 65 countries, more than a third of the world’s nation states, have built barriers along their borders; half of those erected since the Second World War sprang up between 2000 and now.”

Two Books by Tim Marshall

A little while aggo I came aross a book by a man called Tim Marshall called Prisoners of Geography. A very helpful book, it explained the geographical element in geo-politics - why China takes the atttiude to North Korea it does, some of the attitudes Russia shows over Ukraine, etc. It was very helpful and well written. I then noticed that he also has a book on flags - Worth dying for. I waited until the paperback came out and this again proved to be fascinating as it explained flag by flag the various flags of the nations and a few more too. Some of it read like a detective novel as he painstakingly traced the origins of some of these. I am not really a fan of politics but I like to keep up to some extent and I enjoy obscure knowlede and so this unusual little book was right up my street. (You may have noticed some lists about flags on this blog while I was readuing the volume).

Contrasting Viewpoints

Rhodri Morgan Anecdote

It has been sad this week to hear of the death of Welsh speaking Welshman Rhodri Morgan, former Welsh first minister. He was the man who gave one of my sons his degree when he graduated (Cledwyn Hughes gave me mine, Cled the Red). I like the anecdote that tells how Tony Blair once stayed at Mr Morgan's house. Apparently Tony Blair was up early in the morning and so was Morgan's mother-in-law. When she came into the kitchen an saw him she blurted out "I know who you are, You're that Lionel Blair"!. Morgan confirmed the truth of the story in an interview with David Frost some time.

Congregational Studies Conference 2017

I was with my Congregational friends last Saturday and had a very nice time. I used to see the conference advertised and think about cming along but never made it until last year when Michael Haykin was speaking. Anyway this year Digby James its convenor asked me to speak on libraries (a reciprocation for my asking him to speak for the Evangelical Library perhaps). I spoke on Libraries and their value and enjoyed preparing and speaking.

The other speakers were Paul Lusk on pluralism today a very stimulating non-Christian Institute approach to this whole difficult matter on which Paul has recently published. It being the 300th anniversary of the birth of William Williams Pantycelyn we had a fine  message from young Nathan Munday who is currently doing a Welsh PhD on the sweet singer of Wales. Great stuff.

Digby also gave us a nice presentaiton on the fifty year history of the EFCC.

The papers will be printed in due time. I just sent mine off now.

Next one March 17 in Wesley's Chapel. This one was in the Dr Williams Library.

EFCC Website here.

10 national leaders whose fathers were ministers

1. Gordon Brown (son of a Presbyterian minister)
2. Theresa May (daughter of an Anglican vicar)
3. Woodrow Wilson (son of a Presbyterian minister)
4. Grover Cleveland (son of a Presbyterian Minister)
5. Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia (son of a Presbyterian minister and missionary)
6. Lester B Pearson Canada (son of a Methodist minister)
7. Sir Charles Tupper Canada (son of a Baptist pastor)
8. Slobadan Milosevic of Serbia (son of a Serbian Orthodox Priest)
9. Angela Merkel Germany (daughter of an Evangelical pastor)
10. Aaron Burr US Vice-president (son of a Presbyterian minister)

10 Brexit Observations

1. If you give the public a free choice they may not do what you expect.

2. London is in a bubble and has little clue about the rest of the country. There is even a petition for an independent London.

3. Many people do not understand how democracy works - the SNP being one example. They don't seem to realise that the vote was about the UK leaving the EU.

4. Another example is the people who have signed the petition to re-run the referendum.

5. Many people do not really understand what they are doing when they vote.

6. The best people understand democracy and look statesmanlike when they resign or accept reality. (Even George Osborne has managed to look reasonable for once).

7. Some people hate losing.

8. Not everybody automatically likes winning.

9. People (like the SNP, Sinn Fein, many Labour MPs and the BNP for example) are often quick to take advantage of the situation.

10. People will make any excuse for violence and abuse of others.

10 Popular songs to play while thinking about the referendum

1. Don't leave me this way/Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes
2. Stay/Hollies
3. Can't live if living is without you/Nilsson
4. State of independence/Donna Summer
5. Go your own way/Fleetwood Mac
6. Movin' out/Billy Joel
7. Fifty ways to leave your lover/Paul Simon
8. Never can say goodbye/Jackson 5
9. Goodbye my lover/James Blunt
10. Making your mind up/Bucks Fizz
For the songs try here on Youtube

How politics apparently works

Tonight's news reports that David Cameron said in his speech at his party conference

 

“Thousands of words have been written about the new Labour leader. But you only really need to know one thing: he thinks the death of Osama bin Laden was a “tragedy”.

 

Right then, you think "I want nothing to do with him." But, of course, the comment is quoted out of context. Jeremy Corbyn said it was a tragedy Osama Bin Laden had been killed rather than being arrested and put on trial.

Commenting in 2011 on the killing of Osama Bin Laden he said:

 

“On this [the killing of Osama Bin Laden] there was no attempt whatsoever that I can see to arrest him, to put him on trial, to go through that process. This was an assassination attempt, and is yet another tragedy, upon a tragedy, upon a tragedy. The World Trade Centre was a tragedy, the attack on Afghanistan was a tragedy, the war in Iraq was a tragedy.”

 

Perhaps it is fair to say that thousands of words have been written about the Conservative leader. But you only really need to know one thing: he thinks people are stupid and will believe a soundbite and not check it out for themselves.

A True Story

One of my deacons suggested a while ago that we might like to give out some tracts that Roger Carswell has done on Handel's Messiah (see here) outside a performance of the piece. We tracked down one such performance to the Royal Albert Hall last night (see here). Paul then said that it might be a good idea to go into the performance which the others all agreed to do. I decided against it for various reasons.

Anyway, while I was giving out tracts last night and this couple approached me and asked if I was going in, which I wasn't. They then offered me a ticket. They had hoped their grown up children would join them but it hadn't worked out and so they had two tickets spare. I was reluctant at first, of course, but they were keen and so I went for it.

It was an excellent seat and I really enjoyed the performance. That's the third time I've seen it and I have two or three parts that I regularly listen to so I was able to really enjoy it.

I chatted, of course, to the lady who had been so kind to me. During the interval we formally introduced ourselves. Her husband turned out to be a Tory Peer and a household name in the Thatcher/Major era. He was sat next to an even better known Tory Peer of the same vintage. I almost feel obliged to vote Tory next time round. We'll see. (My attitude to Mrs Thatcher is the same as my attitude to Marmite. Not a huge fan or hugely anti-).

So there's an interesting story for me to tell. I take it as yet another little reminder from God of his caring providence that is over my life at all times. As my hands Got colder giving out the tracts and I again stressed that I was not a tout I remember briefly thinking "why am I bothering?" and immediately reminding myself that God is no man's debtor. I had not expected such an immediate and obvious reassurance. If Lord and Lady D should happen to see this - thanks again.