tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39452195037979949352024-03-05T09:15:31.972-08:00Gladstone BagWilliam Ewart Gladstone's commentary on the third Millennium.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger131125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-83288318283211235122011-07-12T08:15:00.000-07:002011-07-12T08:15:42.116-07:00Tides of opinionWhen one is very elderly one slumbers a great deal. Indeed a simple snooze can last for weeks. Sometimes I stir and have a sense that centuries have passed. Can it be a little more than a year since I hailed the prospect of a new Midlothian?
I cannot condemn Mr Clegg for aligning himself, in defeat, with the forces of Toryism. Indeed much that is Liberal is being achieved.
Indeed I am allUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-42011434437090715542010-04-18T18:55:00.000-07:002010-04-18T18:55:35.870-07:00Midlothian again!Am I excited? By gum, I am flying over the moon. Not since Midlothian, has a Liberal so captured the mood of the nation as has young Mr Clegg. In the space of just two, he has gained many years in wisdom and gained even more in public stature.
I would say more but my scribe continues to inform me he is far too busy running around after Mr Clegg to spare time to jot down my ancient ramblings. I Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-52419486098658061342009-12-30T03:51:00.000-08:002009-12-30T04:03:15.747-08:00Images from the birthday partyCouncillor Gary Millar, of Liverpool City Council, declaims to the crowd assembled in front of my statue in St John's Garden, Liverpool;Councillor Hazel Williams, deputy Lord Mayor of Liverpool, prepares to lay a wreath;detail of wreath;display from bicentenary exhibition in St George's Hall, Liverpool;detail from the magnificent statue erected by the good people of Liverpool in my honour.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-12562506422163271432009-12-29T10:27:00.001-08:002009-12-29T12:31:21.401-08:00Birthday celebrationsThe last time I spoke in public it was to a crowd of some 7,000 in my home city of Liverpool when I took the opportunity to denounce the massacres of the Armenians. Today a gathering a mere one per cent of this size gathered to join me in my 200th birthday celebrations in this great English city - but it was a large and warm enough crowd to cheer the heart of an elderly gentleman. I do wonder Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-69423420663100291202009-12-29T00:49:00.000-08:002009-12-29T00:58:46.367-08:00Remember the opium warsThe account of the sad,mad gentleman who has been deprived of life by the Chinese authorities for the carrying of substantial amounts of narcotic substances is distressing.Nevertheless it ill befits ministers of Her Majesty's government to treat the matter as of diplomatic importance or as an affront to British pride, or even to British values.For it is barely some 150 years since this nation, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-62954593362159012072009-12-29T00:01:00.000-08:002009-12-29T00:01:00.652-08:00My birthday!It is now 200 years since the date of my arrival in this world. It's my birthday!
WEGUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-314496210094658482009-09-17T12:56:00.000-07:002009-09-17T12:56:33.057-07:00Mr Clegg sets out his stall Mr Nick Clegg continues to make his admirable argument that it is time for the great Liberal Party to be restored to its place in British politics. His new pamphlet is available here.
As for me, I spent the summer months walking in the mist of the Welsh mountains, an entirely pleasant experience. However my scribe declined to accompany me and, indeed, continues to state that he has Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-4672834922362177932009-08-09T05:24:00.000-07:002009-08-09T05:30:02.541-07:00Carnival in HawardenI am delighted to hear that the good people of Hawarden are participating in my birthday celebrations. Indeed the Hawarden Carnival would appear to be the merriest event of the year.Thanks and compliments are owed in abundance to Mr John Butler, who has produced the attached recording as part of John Butler's "Gladstone - 2009 bicentenary Film Archive Project".WEGUnknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-79734118856486380192009-07-18T13:38:00.000-07:002009-07-18T13:38:42.219-07:00A new party!Young Mr Nick Clegg has delivered a most inspiring and hopeful speech on the occasion of an event that passed me by some 150 years ago.According to the historians, the parliamentary Liberal Party was formed on this occasion when Palmerston, Russell, Bright, Hartington and others met at Willis's Rooms, a little before today's date, for the meeting was on June 6th. I do not think I was present as IUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-54702370351649853922009-06-21T05:15:00.000-07:002009-06-21T05:56:22.163-07:00The desperate state of the CommonsThe Speaker of the House of Commons upholds the nation's liberties; the Speaker, it seems, is also now charged with upholding the honour of the honourable members of the Commons.Tomorrow Great Britain is promised a fresh start, a clean sweep, by those who would blame the departing Speaker, Mr Martin, for the crisis that has enveloped the House. This, to my aged eyes, does not seem a likely Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-7442863612383422422009-06-07T14:34:00.000-07:002009-06-07T14:42:12.044-07:00UnimaginableNever in the wildest of my dreams did I envisage sitting with my friends and a jug of ale, receiving the declaration of elections to a Parliament of the whole of Europe. I am only dismayed that in this unimaginable future so many of the British people seem to wish not to participate in this great Parliament, either by the recourse of failing to cast a ballot or by indicating a preference for Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-28896511045412014202009-05-30T13:47:00.001-07:002009-05-30T14:25:07.837-07:00A Liberal futureYou spy the swallow but it may not yet be summer. The appearance of the swallow offers me a pretext to lay out a grand narrative; even if it provides inadequate support for such a narrative.I have been wondering for some time if the British people will ever put right the mistakes made a century ago, when the great Liberal Party appeared consigned to oblivion. Tomorrow it seems an opinion poll of Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-23463862814878552952009-05-26T14:06:00.000-07:002009-05-26T14:25:42.331-07:00Deja vuI am suffering from a bout of what we came to call deja vu. So little changes in British politics.It is apparent that one party calls for reform - and the other calls for reform when it is convenient. It has been said that the only institution, which the Conservative Party truly wishes to conserve is the Conservative Party. There was a time when I felt otherwise and believed that the party had Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-62590582963434974082009-05-20T12:59:00.000-07:002009-05-20T12:59:51.457-07:00Stand up for the concert of Europe!I am astounded to learn there is a party contesting the current elections with the sole purpose of removing the United Kingdom from the concert of Europe. Indeed my current estimate is that this party may well collect as much as a two fifths or one half of the votes that are cast, such is the present mood of public anger at the political classes in Westminster.
Indeed it appears that the main Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-89035907819883837552009-05-09T10:00:00.000-07:002009-05-09T10:24:46.991-07:00The Glory of the Land laid low!The Glory of the Land is laid low! The mother of democracy's purity is tarnished, like a Jezebel.For a while words failed me; I was stuck dumb, like the father of the Baptist, but not by the sight of an angel, no by the venality, the greed of those who now purport to represent the British people.Odysseus served his King for ten years with nothing but a sword and a shield by his side; Our Lord Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-46798814180550437452009-04-30T11:28:00.000-07:002009-04-30T11:49:56.822-07:00Living in LondonIt seems to be that living in London is as costly and awkward now as it was some 150 years ago. In those days, young MPs from the provinces benefitted from the hospitality of generous benefactors. Indeed it was necessary to be a gentleman of independent means in order to sustain a career in parliament.On this occasion, as on others, it is necessary to note that times have changed. Not only are Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-83334940869531119682009-04-22T03:39:00.000-07:002009-04-22T03:39:42.283-07:00Big day
A budget debate in the parliament of Great Britain is always a great occasion and, as I observed last year, it is flattering that my red box continues in use. If I were there today, I would rather be in the shoes of Mr Vince Cable than in those of Mr Alistair Darling, who has a task as unenviable as it is invidious. It is apparent there will be no answers and that the ship of state would be Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-90542856713898806672009-04-17T07:15:00.000-07:002009-04-17T07:29:44.817-07:00Shades of Peterloo?It is my recollection that even as a schoolboy in the privileged cloisters of Eton I was disturbed by news of the Peterloo massacre in Manchester; later in life I considered it a special honour to speak in the Free Trade Hall in remembrance of those much-maligned agitators for democracy.Indeed a poet coined these words:Shades, that soft Sedition woo,Around the haunts of Peterloo!That hover o'er Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-61613036235022401302009-04-10T07:33:00.000-07:002009-04-10T07:53:42.124-07:00Appalling headlinesA delightful English spring, best viewed from indoors in view of the light drizzle permeating the nation. I had planned a gentle Easter dozing in front of an English hearth, in the words of the poet, throwing another log on the fire, Thaliarchus, and pulling out a fine Sabine wine.Sadly I have been jolted awake by the headlines in the news bulletins issued by the state-funded broadcaster. I am Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-23351291392995695502009-04-05T05:48:00.000-07:002009-04-05T10:23:15.873-07:00The Khyber PassThe Queen's ghillie would commit several thousand more troops to the troublesome Pathans. For what purpose?It is a sound principle of foreign policy that a nation should be reluctant to join itself to an ally that oppresses its own people. It was once the case within this century, I am told, that the conquest of Afghanistan could be claimed as a liberation, and a necessary liberation as the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-55819146098342629152009-04-03T15:21:00.000-07:002009-04-03T16:49:19.638-07:00Risks in political economyThere are many things to be said about the present financial crisis; much has been altered in our knowledge of political economy since the writings of Mr Adam Smith.I note that Mr John Maynard Keynes was a great liberal and that his analysis of a great financial collapse some 80 years ago influenced much of the last century. Indeed I hear he continues to influence the present British Prime Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-39669483408650583982009-03-29T05:58:00.000-07:002009-03-29T07:07:16.957-07:00An inner light?During the latter weeks of the winter I have been perusing an account of myself written by a Mr Osbert Burdett and published quite recently, in 1927, by the publishers Constable.Mr Burdett, I presume, is a member of the Burdett family, which, it should be noted, moved in an opposite political trajectory to myself, moving from the cause of reform to that of reaction.Mr Burdett's proposition is Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-21245948170162229692009-03-28T11:59:00.000-07:002009-03-28T12:03:15.192-07:00GrumblesMy scribe has been grumbling that I ponder too long on these jottings, that I may be a little elderly to pass comment on a century removed so far from my own, that there is little time to scour an appopriate quotation from Horace, Homer or Virgil. I confess there is much to research and consider when deliberating the plight of the world's finances or the perils of Afghanistan; I will endeavour toUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-11106856629515621232009-03-08T11:38:00.000-07:002009-03-08T12:38:06.632-07:00Mr Clegg banks on nationalisationHarrogate - I have been astonished over the course of the weekend to hear both Mr Vincent Cable and Mr Nick Clegg, the present leader of the Liberal Democrats - as the party is now known, advocate that the government should take over the banks, taking what I understand to be 100 per cent of the stock.These were astounding statements but Mr Clegg moved to reassure me that these are indeed Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3945219503797994935.post-33443071440185707452009-03-08T01:41:00.000-08:002009-03-08T01:53:39.401-08:00A liberal debateAs was intimated yesterday in the course of my jottings, it was my intention to spend a pleasant afternoon watching Liberals debating the management of schools. It was the choice of the Assembly in Harrogate to devote much of their time and energy to the question of church schools.To my mind this was regrettable; it was a matter we settled in principle in 1870. There appears to be a case for Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0