Above, Alexander Pope.
The British Gazette is a blog. A political blog. As with other such blogs, it tends to focus on certain issues. In our case, the UK’s membership of the EU and the area of controversy known as “climate change”. That said, we do not – unlike some others – restrict ourselves. We comment upon other issues, such as the situation on the Korean peninsular. One of the things this blog is not is a Christian or Evangelical blog. There are many out there. But again, that does not mean we never make reference to religion or a deity.
One of the things about blogs and other “political” websites is that they tend to cater for specific readerships, so in the case of the Brexit process there will be “Remainer” blogs and “Leave” blogs. Readers tend to read posts (or as we persist in calling them, articles) that concur with their own convictions. If a blog ceases to cater for this, it tends to loose readership. This fact of course is something that every newspaper editor is fully aware of! Thus things tend to be self perpetuating.
This of course is not surprising as human beings are by their essential nature, self perpetuating. We are born, we grown up, we meet Mr or Miss “Right”, the next generation are born, we retire, we get decrepit, we die and our children arrange our burial or cremation. As so it continues. Of course not all of us do all of these things, but we all do embark and complete this particular journey – from cradle to grave.
There is another thing about human beings: as well as being born, procreating and dying, we get things wrong. We make mistakes. Many of our readers are “persons of faith”. Many are not.
Whether, Dear Reader you believe in the existence of God, you must surely admit that if He exists then He must have infinite patience matched by an infinite ability to gladly tolerate fools! For there are many of them on the face of the Earth. Indeed, we would go further, we all from time to time act and behave as fools. Your Editor very much included!
Of course, it was Alexander Pope who is the author of the proverb that is today’s title. It is to be found in the poem, “An Essay on Criticism, Part II,” of 1711.
Ah ne’er so dire a Thirst of Glory boast,
Nor in the Critick let the Man be lost!
Good-Nature and Good-Sense must ever join;
To err is Humane; to Forgive, Divine.
NB: In 1711, “human” was spelt “humane”.
One of the reasons why we have chosen to discourse upon Pope and this particular proverb, is that it so well fits in with the unfolding débâcle that is Brexit!
This is because in the year that Pope wrote his famous poem, the South Sea Company (or to give it it’s full name; The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for the encouragement of fishing, was an English joint-stock company founded in 1711, created as a public-private partnership [Yes, Dear Reader, ’twas invented a long time before the Tories and the Blairites!] to consolidate and reduce the cost of national debt. The company was also granted a monopoly to trade with South America, hence its name. At the time it was created, Britain was involved in the War of the Spanish Succession and Spain controlled South America. There was NO realistic prospect that trade would take place and the company never realised any significant profit from its monopoly. Company stock rose greatly in value as it expanded its operations dealing in government debt, peaking in 1721 before collapsing to little above its original flotation price; the economic bubble became known as the South Sea Bubble.
So you see, Dear Reader, THIS is why the British Gazette has repeatedly made mention in previous articles of the South Sea Bubble. Brexit, we fear could be every bit as much of a disaster – in fact more so – than that in August 1721 when the shares in this company reached £1,000 at one point!
In 1721, £1,000 was a fantastic sum! The “fallout” of the bubble bursting was catastrophic. And yet, by comparison with the potential of a “no deal Brexit” it was not equally as bad for all. This was because at the time, the country had a very small middle class and most of the wealth of the country was held by a very small percentage of the population. The working class did suffer as many of their bankrupted employers could no longer afford to employ them.
Indeed, the case of the South Sea Company is very instructive as it should have been as clear as day to many that as our American friends are won’t to say, “This dawg ‘aint ever gonner hunt!” Of course, contributing to the disaster was the endemic corruption that was present in the corridors of power at the time. The involvement of King George I was done at arms length via the Duchess of Kendal & Munster. Today or course they prefer to use the services of lawyers in Bermuda!
This of course begs these questions: “Why are we so stupid!” and; “Why do we persist in a course of action that time and time again is demonstrated to fail!”
There is an explanation of sorts to be found in the image below.
Many British Gazette readers will remember these items. And mop up the spilt tea and milk after use. Hundreds of thousands of these useless pourers were made! Why?
Because as erring humans we constantly seek irreconcilable things from the same thing! The FACT is that these useless things will never do other than dribble whilst they pour most of the contents into the receptacle. And yet they are made and people buy them for the look! So they are wanting two things from the same object:
– that particular modern minimalist style.
– an item that will pour a liquid into a cup.
Thus in a way we can compare Madame Mayhem’s Brexit strategy with these useless items. You see, what Madame desires is a Brexit that works for the Tory party. That delivers on the “promises” made by Mr Farage and Mr Johnson and others during the referendum campaign!
This is because the claims made by these two gentlemen – of making little or no contribution to the EU’s coffers; of putting in place “an Australian style points based [it’s not!] system AND maintain the same access to the EEA’s “Single Market” whilst NOT being in the EEA – CANNOT BE DONE!
In other words, Madame wishes to achieve the IMPOSSIBLE by 11:00PM on Friday 29th March 2019!
At this point we would like to correct a certain deliberate oversight in the case of the South Sea Company: A tiny, tiny fraction of trade MIGHT from time to time have taken place. The Treaty of Assiento allowed ONE merchant ship to trade ONCE a year with the entire American continent. Now it must be understood that at the time, such ships were about the size of the average Grand Banks Trawler!
We are NOT talking of the Emma Mærsk! And that concession was generally sold off! It is possible that one ship chartered directly by the company did make harbour in South America at some point!
So that’s what it comes down to!
Wanting two things from the same source at the same time!
It is like the environmental idiots who think that you can generate clean energy from separating water into oxygen and hydrogen and using them in fuel cells instead of using such as what they abusively term, “dirty coal”!
The FACT is that it requires more energy to separate the compound water into it’s molecular components than can be got by recombining them again!
Returning to the topic of Brexit, it is to be hoped that IF it is the case that Madame and Dimwit are not engaged in a massive charade, then “the markets” will take fright at some point BEFORE 11:00PM on Friday 29th March 2019 so as to enable a “no deal Brexit” to be avoided.
It is to be hoped that IF the FTSE and Sterling crash sufficiently in value, the ensuing crisis will force a change of policy and disaster will be averted.
The FACT is that there are now a LOT more people set to loose fortunes than there were in 1721!
At this point we invite you to read another blog post. This written by a Mr David Clayton. Mr Clayton is an Englishman living in New Hampshire, USA. He is an artist, teacher, published writer and broadcaster who holds a permanent post as Artist-in-Residence and Lecturer in Liberal Arts at the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts.
His thoughts on the subject of the teapot and jug coincide with mine.
GOTO: http://thewayofbeauty.org/2015/02/why-did-they-ever-make-this-tea-pot/
Speaking the Truth unto the Nation
