Sunday 4 September 2016

I will be asking questions


Right, that's it. I am no longer going to show any support for Jeremy Corbyn at all. He has - through his incessant mouthpiece, Diane Abbott - called for a ban on after-work drinks in the pub. Next thing you know, he will be doing an Oliver Cromwell and banning Christmas.

Corbyn is a Tee-Totaller, so this decree means nothing to him. The state of British politics today means that we have a choice of him on one end of the spectrum and Nigel Farage or his successor on the other. It's enough to drive you to drink.

It is the 350th aniversary of The Great Fire of London, and they have been re-reading Pepys's diaries on the event. I was reminded that London Cabbies have not changed in hundreds of years, and used to have rants like mine above ever since private hire was introduced to the City.

He persuaded a waterman (London transport was mainly by conveyance on the Thames in a row-boat) to take him up river at the height of the fire, but only by paying double fare. Something else which hasn't changed.

During the trip, the waterman put foward the conspiracy theory that the fire was started by the Dutch, the French, the Papists, or all three, and would not be convinced that it began in a baker's shop in Pudding Lane due to an untended oven.

Whenever anyone asks me which period of history I would like to be re-born in, I always answer 'post-plague (and post-Cromwell) 17th century England' - i.e. the second half of the 17th century.

Everything was in transition in those Restoration days of enlightenment, but the old magic was still in place alongside the new science, and you could still bump into the King out for a stroll in St James Park.

It really shows something when you learn that King Charles the Second - on hearing that many home-owners refused to allow their doomed houses to be pulled down to make fire-breaks in the city - went into town with the Duke of York, payed the home-owners compensation in coin, rolled up their sleeves and began pulling down houses themselves, alongside ordinary members of the public. That is true kingship.

The historian Dr Lucy Worsley was recently asked which period of history she would prefer to be born in, and she lamely answered, 'Any time after the invention of anaesthetic'.  What kind of anadine world must she live in?

Which period of history would you like to be born in?

22 comments:

  1. Well Tom, I asked this question on my latest post ..... Not many people had a favourite period ...... I would like to take parts of many periods in history but with today's modern conveniences.
    My post obviously doesn't much up to your beloved Lucy Worsley !!!!!!!!! XXXX

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am not allowing a pick and mix choice with this, sorry. It is fine to go back to the days of Jane Austen simply becuase you like the awful clothes, but you will have to put up with the detistry.

      I think the unwanted image of her wincing when having her leg amputated put me off a bit. Somehow I had never thought of her in this way before.

      Delete
    2. Jane Austen had her leg amputated?

      Delete
  2. Possibly between the 1st and 2nd German wars; most of France's most interesting painters were still in the Paris phone book, and could be easily contacted. That would have been fun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good choice. Also a lot of the competition had been erdicated, especially if you were a poet, making it easier to shine as well as having a wider pick of the womanhood.

      Delete
  3. Tom, I am too ignorant of historic eras to choose an alternative. I will just hold on to 1950, when I learned to read, began school, helped take care of cute puppy, liked to play with my dolls, roller skate with my friends, help an elderly next door neighbor pick wild strawberries, and lived a sweet, uncomplicated, innocent life.

    Best wishes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I am from that era too, but hated school. I did pick wild strawberries, though. Good choice.

      Delete
  4. Watermen sound like modern day bloggers!

    I kind of agree with Dr Lucy, plus modern day dentistry and a decent midwife. Could have handled Boudiccea's era if that trio were around.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bloggers on the move - or stationary bigots...

      And spend your whole life fighting the Romans? Still, she did give them a proper thrashing when she caught them off-guard. She is rumoured to be buried under one of the runways at Heathrow Airport.

      Delete
  5. I think I just need to be born into the next generation and roll up my sleeves and start again on all the battles we fought back in the seventies. Equal rights for women and their bodies have eroded, not been solidified.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes - the latest generation of girls favour heavily engineered bras as well, and cannot bear to think of their grandmothers without them. I know that is a bit of a flippant thing to say, but it does indicate an underlying change of attitude which can easily be exploited by men in suits.

      Delete
  6. I think it all depends on what economic status I would have been born into. At no point in the past would I have wanted to have been born poor. I think the turn of the 20th century might have been nice...provided you had means to live a comfortable life.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well you say that, but in the 17th and 18th century, the Church and its parishioners helped any poor families with a dependent or elderly relative who needed looking after. Village life had its drawbacks, but before the family and social system was put in the lap of the State, people would go to prisons every day to feed their criminal family members or loved ones. These days, they just drop drugs over the wall from drones.

      Delete
  7. About now really, then I could begin all over again - although I would probably still make the same mistakes, or similar ones - or on second thoughts perhaps not - the future all seems a bit uncertain I think.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooh (hisses through teeth), are you sure, Weave? This decade is shaping up badly for young people right now, and - as we all know - you cannot take it with you.

      Delete
  8. Could someone please ask me the same question - or answer it - 194 times? Thank you in advance.

    ReplyDelete
  9. And another thing, not only do we have corbyn at one end and Farage at the other, but we have Teresa May, Jeremy Hunt & Co in the middle.
    I am with Lucy Worsley about the anaesthetic, I'm afraid. Call me a dullard if you will.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The time during which the series 'Outlander' takes place. And I have to end up in Scotland surrounded by some manly men. But despite your restrictions, I AM taking my dental plan and my hair dryer with me. Just need to find a socket to plug it in.

    ReplyDelete