28 Comments

The Royal Family "occupying" Scotland and Northern Ireland is a hell of a take, and all the more notable for Colin ignoring Wales. Why does he think the Welsh should continue to be oppressed by their English overlords?

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Went down an unlikely Wikipedia rabbit hole (it began with a celebrity dog) to discover the Cornish nationalism movement, which had its very own lightly terroristic paramilitary organization. Exactly how many once and future countries are in this small island nation?

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Literally just got back from two weeks in Cornwall. On our last night, we dined at a restaurant that suffered a bin fire a few years ago. Cornish Nationalists claimed it was their work, which I very much doubt.

An amusing recent independence group is the Northern Independence Party, founded by an academic who lives and works on the South Coast, and who are so badly organised they didn't register as a party in time when they stood in a byelection, so their candidate had to officially stand as an independent. She lost her deposit.

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Was it one of Rick Stein’s places? Because that’s how I got here (can now confirm that the dog in question was exceptionally cute).

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It was one of the restaurants he sold at the start of the pandemic. I can confirm that Chalky's Bite, the beer named after his dearly departed dog, is very nice.

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Ironically of the three Wales probably has the strongest claim to being “occupied” and has the castles to prove it.

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Sep 17, 2022·edited Sep 17, 2022

The Tudors came from Wales so who "occupied" who?

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Oh yes don’t worry I think the idea that any of the nations are “occupied” is ludicrous. Owen Tudor was a top lad.

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Absolutely Sam. I didn't intend my remark to sound like a rebuke, just a comment on the convoluted path of history on which no one has a monopoly.

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Some seemingly very valid points from Colin. You know who still won't even apologize for the harms of their colonialism is Spain. The president of Mexico was going to invite them to come celebrate the 500 year anniversary of the fall of Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City) and asked them to apologize for the death of the indigenous population and they were offended at even being asked. One of their politicians said that Mexico should be grateful that they came and stopped the Aztecs from committing human sacrifices (ironically by murdering them and destroying their cultural artifacts). One of the major artifacts missing from Mexico is the headdress of Montezuma, a priceless artifact made entirely of green queztal feathers. It was stolen and trafficked to the Weltmuseum Wien museum in Austria, a facility with stolen artifacts from a multitude of countries. Here in Mexico City, in place of the real headdress sits a replica. There are 8 million people in Austria who might visit the museum. There are 22 million people in Mexico City who could have the right to view a cultural treasure but look at a fake instead. The museum refuses to return it because they assert (without providing expert anaylsis) that it couldn't survive the journey back to Mexico. In my 5 years of living in Mexico, I've found it to be a wonderful place with kind people who are happy to welcome you into their country and share their incredibly beautiful culture with you just like you're one of them. They deserve to have the headdress returned. Spain not apologizing is just kind of funny because they have more to benefit from relations with Mexico than al contrario. Oh, and it was Independence Day here yesterday, so I'll close with an emphatic Viva México, cabrones!!

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Sep 17, 2022·edited Sep 17, 2022

It would be great to speak with historian Andrew Roberts as he's really be able to provide chapter and verse. Occupying Scotland?? The royal family is descended from the Stuarts of Scotland; James VI of Scotland became King of both Scotland and England (James I) after the union of the countries in 1603. So, if anything, the Scots "occupy" the English throne. Northern Ireland is Ulster the arrangement agreed by the Irish Government (Irish government led by nazi-sympathizing DeValera incidentally if we're going to be truthful) which then through political machinations claiming betrayal by Michael Collins started the Irish civil war that no one likes to discuss. Northern Ireland is nine counties where mostly Scottish protestants settled centuries ago, the descendants of whom still wish to be under British rule...and, the minute they don't, I'm sure Britain will breathe a sigh of relief. Incidentally the tories also started as a Scottish movement so, again, occupation?? Of course some would say in the US we are occupiers but, as Ayaan Hirsi Ali would say: "It's settled history" Move on.

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I feel like The Smiths' Barbarism Begins at Home should be on the playlist, same as Los Lonely Boys' Heaven.

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author

Oh that Heaven song is pretty good! Guitarist can play a bit.

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Los Lonely Boys have been a favorite of mine for a while now, really talented group with a good sound

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Late addition: REM's It's the End of the World as We Know It

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Thank you for waking my simple mind up from its depths of false consciousness Colin, however will I repay you?

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Would politely disagree about the royals occupying Scotland--the wrong way round, James VI/I and all? Conduct of the Scottish parliament until Union is hardly anti-royal (e.g. King Charles of Scotland *1649*-1651). Likewise, the whole Jacobitism thing muddies waters about idea they're a put-upon colony. Scotland absolutely central to all the empire stuff--Glasgow the second city--and hardly the victim, despite excellent PR in recent decades. Scotland's 'anti-colonialist' SNP seem pretty happy to chummy up to the royals & I don't think is republicanism is a major part of the independence movement, though republicanism on the rise amongst electorate.

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Sep 17, 2022·edited Sep 17, 2022

I just learned one of the queen’s corgis is named Muick (pronounced Mick) and I thought that was an interesting choice

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founding

I looked at the list her corgi and dorgi names and found one with my last name 😂

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The dorgi! I fell down a rabbithole when I saw corgis are bred with a bunch of other dogs https://www.boredpanda.com/corgi-mix-cross-breeds/

Might be a good first episode for Moynihan’s rabbithole series. Just saying.

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The corgi-greyhound is a very confusing creature

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No playlist of songs about the Queen is complete without this groundbreaking classic: https://youtu.be/DJU5x67Sz1o

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author

Sadly not on Spotify!

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I liked Matt’s interview with Chris Stirewalt. Chris is an interesting person. He is a man of the right who has been open about criticizing Republican B.S. about elections and voting and provides explanation for his positions.

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In fairness, when independence came to a vote, the Scottish said “yeah... never mind”

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Sep 17, 2022·edited Sep 17, 2022

Even for that vote on independence the plan was to still keep the Queen. It's Westminster they had/have a problem with, not the constitutional monarchy.

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Thank you Colin!

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Sep 18, 2022·edited Sep 18, 2022

I really wanted what Welch said about Giuliani and sanctuary cities to be true (and maybe it is, and I'm misreading this), but:

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3459498&page=1

Giuliani: "If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you're one of the people who we want in this city. You're somebody that we want to protect, and we want you to get out from under what is often a life of being like a fugitive, which is really unfair."

Very close to "We want you, illegal immigrants, to come here", no?

(The reason I want this to be true is that I'm at my folks', and last night they had some friends over, one of whom mentioned the people sent to Martha's Vineyard and laughing at the fact that they were, apparently, eventually bussed somewhere else, and mocking the idea of sanctuary cities.)

ETA: although, the fact that it wasn't just "liberals" who supported the concept is still useful knowledge.

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