Gove is clearly a Blackadder character in a poor disguise.
Of course Blackadder bloody belittles Britain as it was a century ago. It was the hideous results of the policy of promoting officers for accomplishments on the field of primogeniture that made both World Wars last long enough for America to step in. The British Empire was potentially capable of outproducing Germany's pillage-based economy without breaking a sweat.
When I drove across country (US) a few years ago, I had a moment of disjointedness when I realized I was more than 50 miles from the sea. It was weird for me. Only once in my life had I ever lived that far from the sea. Britain is an island. No matter where you are, you are within reach of the sea. It has many people, great engineers, and, at the time of the first World War, a comparatively high level of industrialization, but it is still an island with all the mental, emotional, and physical issues that involves
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"When I drove across country (US) a few years ago, I had a moment of disjointedness when I realized I was more than 50 miles from the sea. It was weird for me."
It's always a treat to me when we go out to one of the coasts for a vacation. I do live in what's often called the third coast (The Great Lakes are basically gigantic freshwater seas), but there's something about the ocean and the smell of salt in the air.
It's funny, I don't go to the beach much. I went more when I lived in Quincy, MA, but I'm just not a beach person. Yet there was still a moment of almost claustrophobia from realizing that I would be over a thousand miles from the sea for several days.
I adore the great lakes and definitely would consider them acceptable substitutes.
Given that none of the people working on the situation was me, you're probably spot on.
Increasing military pay scales to equal civil-service pay scales, and providing a lifetime pension amounting to 2.5% of your pay for every year you stay in the armed forces, does not seem to anybody else to be obviously just.
One of the more interesting and morbid outcomes of WWI for the British is that the professional army was destroyed by it. It took most of the 1920s and early 1930s for it to come up to the levels needed to administer and protect the Empire.
Terry Pratchett observed the Pals Brigades that they allowed an entire generation of a village's population to be wiped out by the same artillery barrage.
Of course Blackadder bloody belittles Britain as it was a century ago. It was the hideous results of the policy of promoting officers for accomplishments on the field of primogeniture that made both World Wars last long enough for America to step in. The British Empire was potentially capable of outproducing Germany's pillage-based economy without breaking a sweat.
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It's always a treat to me when we go out to one of the coasts for a vacation. I do live in what's often called the third coast (The Great Lakes are basically gigantic freshwater seas), but there's something about the ocean and the smell of salt in the air.
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I adore the great lakes and definitely would consider them acceptable substitutes.
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Increasing military pay scales to equal civil-service pay scales, and providing a lifetime pension amounting to 2.5% of your pay for every year you stay in the armed forces, does not seem to anybody else to be obviously just.
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