I have been somewhat distracted by writing commitments, so apologies for the delay in setting the latest quiz. What I think will prove difficult questions do not always turn out to be that difficult for readers, whereas some I think are straightforward turn out to be problematic. This quiz question is, I think, a difficult one, but we shall see. This time it is just one question and the first reader to supply the correct answer will be the winner.
The question is: which politician -a leading post-war socialist – wrote the following?
“Nor is there any more validity in the case for an elected second Chamber. If the second Chamber shares power with the first there is always the problem of resolving differences between the two. Delay is the inevitable result… Allocation of distinct and separate functions to each Chamber is no solution. Lines of demarcation are not easy to define, especially in the days when, for instance, foreign affairs are inextricably bound up with economic questions. Tensions between the two legislative bodies would inevitably arise as to the decisions of the one impinged on the functions of the other. In any case, such expedients are not congenial either to the size of Britain or to the genius of the British nation. Our present political institutions are adequate for all our purposes.”
A clue: it wasn’t Michael Foot, but there is a link. Feel free to have a guess.
Just think. Abolishing the House of Lords would lead to no tensions, no stitch ups, … and 600 million cheaper over a term.
Not seen that quote before. What about EdM?
A leading post-war socialist?
Edward Heath?
Aneurin Bevan in ‘In place of fear’, 1952
Well, it’s not going to be Tony Benn! I would have to guess James Callaghan. He seems to me to have been relatively small-c conservative on parliamentary reform.
Len: Yes, you are correct – it wasn’t Tony Benn!
Congratulations to Jason Lower, who is spot on with his answer. It was indeed Aneurin Bevan writing in ‘In Place of Fear’ (Heinemann, 1952) – pp. 101-2 if anybody wants to look it up. I wasn’t expecting anyone to get it, so full marks to him.
If only we had a man the equal of Aneurin Bevan today. That would put us all on the path to a future we could look forward to.
Time to Nationalise the Utilities and Railways again, in order that the working people of this country don’t fall into the poverty immigrants from the developing world flee here to escape from.
Over the holidays I went to visit family, which was wonderful, except the drive was a total embarrassment. I took the M4 to a place not far from Longleat, and the utter mess on all the roads was appalling. What is wrong with Brits? Is it really too hard an act to take fast food rubbish home with them?
It’s time government forced those fat chemical peddling concerns to pay to clean up their own mess. Any packaging for fast food outlets should be the responsibility of the concern. The landscape of Wiltshire and Somerset looking like the slums of Mumbai is a total disgrace and proof that government has lost its way.
The other answer is, £1,000 pound fines for every car that lets it fall out of their window. Then the state could use that money to clean it all up.
It isn’t just on the Highways of Wiltshire, it is everywhere now. On the way to Surrey, Oxford or any other fast road, has become nauseating.
And this will surely make us look idiotic pigs when the Olympics are under way.
Disneyworld has millions of visitors a day, yet, the place is spotless. My relative has just returned from Japan, China and even North Korea, and guess what, the minute he hit the UK he moaned that all he could see is filth on our roads as he drove home. Whilst there, in the far East it was so clean you could eat off the floor. His words, not mine.
What is with this country? It wasn’t always this way, not when it was run almost entirely by ‘men.’ The House full of undomestic so called ‘Ladies’ has left us bereft of the desire to be clean. Couldn’t be because they live in sty’s themselves, could it?
maude elwes: Well, Aneurin Bevan and Jennie Lee certainly didn’t live in a sty; they were very particular about their furniture and their style of living.
they were very particular about their furniture and their style of living.
Fairly typically Welsh then, eh Lord Norton?
Time to Nationalise the Utilities and Railways again, in order that the working people of this country don’t fall into the poverty immigrants from the developing world flee here to escape from.
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It’s time government forced those fat chemical peddling concerns to pay to clean up their own mess.
So you think the people of Essex (put in your own chav here) should be forced to clear it up? yep. The people who litter should be forced to pay. Leave everyone else out.
So lets see how that works.
1. The idiots who caused the problem, get to have a big train set to cause more problems.
Why should giving more money to the government help, when government has run up massive debts?
Look the latest. Smart meters. You can save 8 bn with smart meters. Wooppeee, smart meters all round. Small question, what’s the cost? 11.7 bn but you know its worth it.
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Well, Aneurin Bevan and Jennie Lee certainly didn’t live in a sty; they were very particular about their furniture and their style of living.
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Easy when you are sponging off the poor.
@LB:
First, you can go on living in a sty if you wish, to save all those wonderful companies you feel so heartbroken for, if you want to. In the US, where they began this fast food insanity, they would be shut down in a minute if the rubbish mountain grew to the conditions we have here. Government is not running this country as it should be, and this is the fall out that represents it.
Secondly, government did indeed cripple us all financially with their idiot capitalist practices going haywire, in order to keep the American depravity spreading like wildfire, and yes, we are in the sheet because of it. However, that con of the public did not take place under the socialist ideas we lived with under Bevan. That all came about with Thatcher and her love affair with Ronnie and his capitalist mates. It was then expanded under the Judas Blair, only to be grown by what we see here now as a leading light.
Keep it all in proportion. And pop those responsible in real terms. Remember, Fanny Mae and Fredie Mac were set up by the US government, and then the creeps spread it across the pond so they could dip into our money bags as well. After that, they Greased Greece. And on we with on the merry go round.
Now we read the Rothschilds are getting into bed with the French banks, buying up all the shares, and setting us up for another round of fun and games at tax payers expense.
Be worried about that.
Is it really too hard an act to take fast food rubbish home with them?
Maude can volunteer to go round picking it up
in her own vicinity. Quite a few good and true people do go round, with prongs for the purpose, on a rota from the district council.
Plastic is slightly more a problem with regard to bio-degradation but even some plastic wrappers do bio-degrade these days.
If she doesn’t like the look of the paper matter, she now knows what to do. She might even get a price for what she collects, and then she can donate it to charity.
Inconsiderately disposed paper is unsightly; that is all. It is good composting matter which I would not be unhappy to have decompsing in my garden. (Fact is: I do anyway for the reasons decribed by her, but not from the M4!)
@Twm:
Obviously you have a penchant for sty living. And your offer of cleaning up for the pigs is indeed sacrificial. Asking me to join you by doing the same where I live is going against the grain. For a start, I am one of those fortunate individuals who has a Council who picks up its rubbish from large black bins twice or three times a day, including Sundays, down from what was four times a day. They also sweep streets, both by having individuals at it, as well as those cylinder brush efforts that splash along the kerb regularly. Good use of their tax payers money.
No, it’s when you find your way on the highways that’s so offensive. It is thick with more than what you call litter. You mustn’t forget the brown stuff, along with babies nappies, tampons, rubber goods, et al, and any other little human absorbant you can think of. Add to that, the dead animals, rats, bunnies, and anything else that finds its way toward the headlights as you merrily speed along, there you find you have a plethora of disease spreaders lying in wait for you.
Why has this come about so overwhelmingly during the last fifteen years or so? Could it be because immigration from countries who are steeped in this form of art has been relentless and it is our way of making them feel at home. Or, could it be too many women in both Houses of Parliament not out there doing there bit on the domestic front?
What do you think?