A Search for a Modern Cromwell?

 The largest problem for British people is, unfortunately, the collective bad memory of voters both young and old. Along, of course, with the politicians of both major Parties who crave our votes, and then go on to ignore everything which was promised.

We used to have a political class which could be relied upon to govern, along with a battery of (so-called) Whitehall Civil Servants who used to carry out the policies of the Ministers seated in Governments of the Day.

I would place the demise of this demi-paradise time in the Mid 1930s when, to the best of my knowledge, the first large scale process of lying to the ordinary British voter began. George 5th was on the throne, he had been a good Monarch, but a poor parent; and the Nation suffered because he refused to bring his eldest Son and Heir, Edward, the Prince of Wales, to heel and to obey the social norms of that time; which, to put it bluntly, was to court and marry a suitable single lady of good birth to ensure the Line of Succession, instead of a series of strong flirtations with other men’s wives. 

The Lie? Not a single British newspaper ever carried any stories about the louche and lascivious life with which the Heir to the Throne behaved. The regular exposes regarding the Prince being printed with almost clinical details of his love affairs printed in many American newspapers were ignored with a stony silence in Great Britain. The statements made by senior Church of England Bishops regarding the total unacceptable liaisons with married and divorced women were, again, masked and ignored by the British Press. The State Broadcaster, the BBC, also kept a stony silence regarding the louche and lascivious crew which surrounded the Prince of Wales.

So it was to a startled and stupefied British public that the news eventually slammed on to the headlines and newsprint front pages that the future King was planning to marry a twice-divorced American woman, and, almost as an afterthought, the news that both of her former husbands were still alive.

The single redeeming fact which probably saved the whole idea of a Monarch from being smashed by the wilful stupidities of a Royal Prince was, after the Abdication of a King in waiting; to be produced by the Accession to the throne of the Duke of York. Cursed by a bad stutter, he was literally thrown into the life he and his wife had avoided before his Accession, into the various and multiple public appearances necessary to Royal life; but indeed was rescued and educated to relieve the stutter by an Australian speech therapist named Lionel Logue.

Many historians acknowledge Winston Churchill as ‘The Man who Delivered Victory’, but this brilliant but volatile politician was, in my own view, happy to be seated in the shadow of King George 6th, whose remarkable and steadfast service during the whole of the War made him the true leader of a tired but triumphant Nation.

Unfortunately, that same service during those War years placed a heavy burden upon King George 6th, he underwent an operation to remove a cancer-riven lung, and he never really recovered his strength; as he continued to smoke cigarettes which were yet to be diagnosed as being so dangerous: dying as he did when I was still a schoolboy.

His eldest daughter, Elizabeth, became Queen on the day her Royal father died, and was, for the decades of her rule, loved, admired and respected; mainly for one golden rule. Apart from set speeches, to Parliament or to State functions, she kept silent, she never commented on either Government politicians or what they had either said or done. Elizabeth 2nd was indeed the perfect Constitutional Monarch.

Unfortunately, the eldest of her sons, Charles, was blessed with the loudest voice in Britain, and during the many years waiting to inherit the Throne, made sure that we, the patient British public; knew exactly what he believed in: because, again unfortunately, every “Cause of the Day” became yet another item which the future King made certain that he would promote once he became King. Again, unfortunately, Charles has inherited at least one of his late Uncle David’s attributes, which was a startling lack of appropriate behaviour towards women: other men’s wives.

It is, unfortunately, true that he betrayed his young wife Diana almost immediately after his marriage: and continued this liaison with another man’s wife. The BBC’s Martin Bashir concocted a series of forged documents which gave the impression to Diana that Charles had in fact kept his young wife under surveillance after their separation; and this lie led to Diana’s famous tv interview with the devastating phrase “There were three of us in that marriage.” 

Charles 3rd’s reign has been nothing short of a disaster for GB&NI, with the looniest of ideals taken up by a man who knows virtually nothing of how his ‘subjects’ live. His acceptance of the silliest ideas, such as ‘Climate Change’ gave a Labour Government the impetus to initiate the ‘War on Man-made Carbon Dioxide’, and this was of course compounded by the Tories’ Theresa May with her ruinous Net Zero insertion into Law.

As for the future, from my perspective it looks exceedingly dim, with Prince William of Wales firmly embedded in the ‘Net Zero’ camp, with all its financial follies.

My final thoughts?

It may sound slightly hysteric, but, sometimes, I long for a day when a modern Oliver Cromwell could arise, and sweep all the thieves and vagabonds away, secure our borders and MEAN IT, and bring an honest rule to these unhappy British Isles.