Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[The Larch]

By the more medieval oriented mythology you mean all the Charlemagne stuff?

A bit later. The whole thing about Wilfred the Hairy painting the Catalan coat of arms with his own blood.

But there was lots of truly random stuff. My favorite might be trying to derive the name "Catalonia" from the battle of the Catalaunian plains.

Ah, ok, I thought you meant Charlemagne because at some point during the current crisis some bigwig politician, don't know if it was even Puigdemont himself, hyped up the Catalan people's credentials for Europeanness as part of being able to trace their roots to the Carolingian Empire when Charlemagne established the Marca Hispanica in the VIIIth century.

There's a minor mythical figure - Otger Catalon - who'd have served under Charlemagne and is credited (in legend) with conquering the territories of the Marca Hispanica alongside the 9 barons that would then rule the Catalan counties. The myth conflates stuff that happened 3 centuries apart, but it's one of those XIXth myths that didn't "stick".

The first big personality in the Catalan nationalist pantheon is Wilfred the Hairy, who would have created Catalonia when he was granted part of the Marca as inheritable fief in the Xth century - the legend says that as a reward for defeating a muslim raid. The legend then goes that he was mortally wounded in the battle, and when asked to chose a coat of arms for his new dinasty, he painted four stripes on a golden shield with his own blood.

Yup, I was familiar with that part of the Catalan legend, I was just wondering if these more recent claims of greater "European-ness" because of those Carolingian links have been added to it.

[celedhring]

I think that was just opportunism. The whole carolingian thing plays absolutely no part in the construction of the Catalan "national heritage".

[Sheilbh]

If one's really interested in these matters there's a "fun" exercise to be had looking at the emergence of nationalisms in the XIXth century and the different competing mythologies at the time, and the ones that ultimately stuck and "won". For example the very first Catalan nationalists tried to tie the Catalan nation to Heracles of all people, claiming that Barcelona was founded by him, and through him a Greek heritage while the rest of Spain was tied to the Roman tradition. The very first landmark Catalan romantic poem - "Atlàntida" - tries to portray that. But ultimately a more medieval-oriented mythology "won" (although the whole Greek thing is still invoked from time to time). I think it was just more relatable to regular folks.

Interesting because in Britain the Medieval Scots and English were big fans of the ancient/classical connection - the English from Brutus of Troy, the Scots (and Irish) from Scota daughter of the Pharaohs. But then as you say what happens is a version of national origin that's based on a cod Medievalism is what wins out which is, probably, as fake as the Medieval classical world myth was

Part of the focus on the Wars of Independence was that it was perceived that Edward I and II had somehow been the hammer and anvil from which Angles, Picts, Gaels, Norse, Norman and Briton were forged into Scots. But the other part is the great Victorian trick in the UK of huge reforms and innovations, that they coated in fake Medieval pageantry. Not a million miles from Sir Walter Scott's orchestration of George IV's visit to Scotland which saw Lowland nobles and the royals dressing in kilts - which Scott pitched as "garb of the Gauls".

In Scotland I think Scott is key, and I feel like it's driven by the boom in novels - and his novels are incredibly popular. I think he creates a lot of the fictional image of the Medieval world that the English-speaking world still has, and I suspect Edinburgh Waverley train station is the only major terminus in a capital city named after a fictional character.

In a way it's not a million miles away from 20th century fictional depictions of Tudor England creating a big part of perceptions around English history. Maybe we're just always looking back roughly 500 years - maybe it's the point history sort of becomes myth - so this century we'll finally see the 17th century get its due

Then there's the whole thing about building the national mythology around defeats and the fatalism of the Catalan "national character" (but yet we endure!) - which seems a bit similar to what you point out about the scots.

I've always blamed Scottish fatalism on their Reformation

[Sheilbh]

Putting this here because it's more British than purely climate but a tweet from the English Green Party about France thinking of banning short-haul domestic flights:

Heavy investment in national rail networks is what made this possible.

This is the climate leadership we need to see!

The Green Party are, of course, opposing high speed rail in the UK because of "ancient woodlands" as well as opposing every other infrastructure project I can thnk of

[Tamas]

Putting this here because it's more British than purely climate but a tweet from the English Green Party about France thinking of banning short-haul domestic flights:

Heavy investment in national rail networks is what made this possible.

This is the climate leadership we need to see!

The Green Party are, of course, opposing high speed rail in the UK because of "ancient woodlands" as well as opposing every other infrastructure project I can thnk of

The nerve on them WTF

[Josquius]

Its like the far right and their very vocal opposition to (muslim) paedophiles despite being crammed with sex criminals themselves.

[Sheilbh]

Oh and latest from the FT reporter on the Greensill story - I've been noting for a while the civil service element of this. It gets worse:

Jim Pickard
@PickardJE
Mar 31
Bill Crothers controlled £40bn of annual UK state procurement
- he also set up Crown Commercial Service
- in 2016 he left to join Greensill
- in 2018 it won Gov contract
- but @ft can reveal he never obtained permission from lobbying watchdog Acoba
Eric Pickles, ex Tory cabinet minister & now Acoba chair, said last week that the body was toothless:

"I'm not aware, in the past 30 years, of a single sanction being imposed . . . there are no sanctions,"  he told an inquiry by the committee on public standards.
and now officials from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) have written to the Cabinet Office asking why no application was made when Crothers was appointed a director of Greensill Capital in August 2016.
reaction from @RachelReevesMP
"Yet more rules on lobbying and transparency have been broken and the Conservatives have nothing to say.

"These new revelations drive the need for an urgent investigation into just how far this damaging web of cronyism and deceit goes."

Bill Crothers was eventually Chief Commercial Officer but previously was Chief Procurement Officer. His role largely would have been heading the department responsible for the civil service/government's procurement and outsourcing on big projects. In terms of political management he would have been reporting into the Cabinet Office and Francis Maude was the relevant minister at the time.

As I say the biggest corruption here are the jobs you can get after your time in the civil service/public life.

[Tamas]

Yeah one thing I have been thinking about: is this a unique thing or just an especially badly executed one and this is common practice? Because I know in Hungary what Cameron has done is absolutely normal way of doing things nowadays (and to some degree probably always have been).

[celedhring]

Yeah, over here it's pretty common for former presidents/cabinet members to get cushy jobs in the private sector which are obviously given to them to exploit their political contacts rather than, say, their profound understanding of the challenges facing the energy sector.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah one thing I have been thinking about: is this a unique thing or just an especially badly executed one and this is common practice? Because I know in Hungary what Cameron has done is absolutely normal way of doing things nowadays (and to some degree probably always have been).

So it's fairly normal - but they normally end up at more blue chip establishments and often set it up so any remuneration goes to their charitable foundations. I think it says something about Cameron and his status with business that he ended up advising a chum's slightly dodgy supply chain finance company.

Sir John Major went to Credit Suisse, the National Bank of Kuwait (for services rendered in the Gulf War no doubt) and the Carlyle Group, Blair to JP Morgan Chase, Brown to Pimco.

I think May is still at the speaking circuit stage of her career and you can't take up a new role for the first two years. I think most ex-PMs now rake in about £1 million a year on speeches at assorted global conferences, at American universities or for various investment bank away days.

And their advice is normally pitched as advice on leadership/global strategy/geopolitical risks rather than being about the sector. I think it's a little bit more legit with the other ones because I doubt JP Morgan Chase or Pimco need Brown or Blair to make connections with the UK state.

Edit: And yeah I think it's similar everywhere - see Schroeder at Gazprom or Sarko with Accor.

Edit: Also I think the civil service angle is interesting/unusual. Greensill were apparently someone Jeremy Heywood became aware of when he'd moved to Morgan Chase (after being a civil servant and before he was headhunted back) and he made the connection.

[Tamas]

I mean, for the Hungary example I meant politicians getting business for companies and people for a cut/kickback.

And this whole thing with "going for their charities" is also clearly a way to syphon some or most of that money for personal use.

[Sheilbh]

The charity thing here is normally that they are appointed to be Presidents of various charities that are already established. The personal charity thing is something that started with Blair and was directly inspired by the Clintons.

[Sheilbh]

Bit like that law in France - shockingly the Police Federation wants their leadership and government to stop people sharing footage of the police on social media:

Met Police Federation
@MPFed
Metropolitan Police Federation calls on government and force leaders to tackle social media firms that enable footage of officers dealing with incidents to be shared.

This is because, yet again, the Independent Office for Police Conduct has recommended "no action" following a complaint. Police are, apparently, sick of "trial by social media".

[Tamas]

Bit like that law in France - shockingly the Police Federation wants their leadership and government to stop people sharing footage of the police on social media:

Met Police Federation
@MPFed
Metropolitan Police Federation calls on government and force leaders to tackle social media firms that enable footage of officers dealing with incidents to be shared.

This is because, yet again, the Independent Office for Police Conduct has recommended "no action" following a complaint. Police are, apparently, sick of "trial by social media".

TBF the US police would have had far less trouble with executing blacks if people stopped sharing footage of it

[Sheilbh]

So on Greensill the government managed to vote down a Labour motion to set up a Parliamentary Select Committee inquiry - which seemed like a win as it would just leave the internal civil service investigation. But then the Treasury Select Committee which had previously announced quite a narrow investigation announced they would launch a broader investigation, as did the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee - apparently they're now merging that to be one investigation but one with a lot more powers (if not teeth) than the civil service one and it'll be public

In addition the Cabinet Office are clearly worried they don't know how many senior civil servants have side-hustles. MPs are required to register this and it's publicly available, but there's no register for senior civil servants (though they need to seek approval). They've apparently sent an email around the entire civil service that they want people to inform by end of today on what other appointments they have - from companies to school governors or church wardens.