Gordy's gone bye byes and Adam Boulton's gone nut-nut, following Kay Burley's spectacular on-air meltdown on Saturday while covering the takebackparliament protest
( Read more... )
WE DO NOT ELECT PRIME MINISTERS IN THIS COUNTRY. WE VOTE FOR THE PARTY NOT THE PM. THIS IS NOT AMERICA. WE DO NOT HAVE A PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM. REPEAT - THIS IS NOT AMERICA. WE DO NOT HAVE A PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM. YOU VOTE FOR THE PARTY, NOT THE PRIME MINISTER.
Actually, we don't vote for the President, either, though most Americans think we do. There's the popular vote and then there's the Electoral College vote. After the popular vote, state-appointed electors cast their ballots for whatever candidate prevailed in their state.
So basically, we vote for the people who vote for the President and Vice-President.
I never heard of Helen Duncan before, but the notion of a witch trial in 1944 is fascinating. I want to know more about this woman!
I get extremely irritated when people misrepresent for political/religious reasons the trial of Helen Duncan as a witch trial. She was tried under the 1723 Witchcraft Act which repealed all earlier witchcraft statutes in Great Britain and which was essentially an early trade practices act which allowed people who posed as witches, wizards, faith healers or mediums to extract money from the gullible (and, in the cases of the relatives of those who perished on the Hood) the grieving to be prosecuted for fraud.
an early trade practices act which allowed people who posed as witches, wizards, faith healers or mediums to extract money from the gullible (and, in the cases of the relatives of those who perished on the Hood) the grieving to be prosecuted for fraud.
I think you just gave me an idea for a Dresden Files story set in Edinburgh.
And thank you. I didn't know any of that. (Well, obviously.)
Oh yeah. I mean, it wasn't a witch-trial so much as they dusted off an old piece of legislation to deal with her because she was making a bloody nuisance of herself and possibly undermining that all-too-precious abstract wartime commodity - morale.
I think it's fairly safe to say that when the post-war government housecleaned such ancient laws and brought in the Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951 they had Hellish Nell very much in mind.
They wanted to do her under the Official Secrets Act, because it was clear Someone Had Blabbed. She was clearly an exceptional cold reader and cold reading wasn't exactly within the purlieus of the Official Secrets Act. So the brass yelled, "Get the bitch on something and get her now!" some junior Treasury Counsel found the Witchcraft Act 1723 and was terribly proud of himself (bless!) and Churchill found himself being sniggered at by the Allies - de Gaulle and Roosevelt - and yelled, "What fuckwit thought of that! I want him on the streets by nightfall!"
Meanwhile, one of the Pagan traditions who wanted to claim a (somewhat dubious) continuous link to Teh Heriditarye Crafte, As Practisede for Centuryes, pointed to the Witchcraft Act of 1723 as the reason why there was no evidence of said tradition, and Hellish Nell's trial as evidence of ongoing persecution.
Actually, we don't vote for the President, either, though most Americans think we do. There's the popular vote and then there's the Electoral College vote. After the popular vote, state-appointed electors cast their ballots for whatever candidate prevailed in their state.
So basically, we vote for the people who vote for the President and Vice-President.
I never heard of Helen Duncan before, but the notion of a witch trial in 1944 is fascinating. I want to know more about this woman!
Reply
Reply
I think you just gave me an idea for a Dresden Files story set in Edinburgh.
And thank you. I didn't know any of that. (Well, obviously.)
Reply
Reply
I think it's fairly safe to say that when the post-war government housecleaned such ancient laws and brought in the Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951 they had Hellish Nell very much in mind.
Reply
Meanwhile, one of the Pagan traditions who wanted to claim a (somewhat dubious) continuous link to Teh Heriditarye Crafte, As Practisede for Centuryes, pointed to the Witchcraft Act of 1723 as the reason why there was no evidence of said tradition, and Hellish Nell's trial as evidence of ongoing persecution.
Reply
Leave a comment