Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Aughey prophet of unionism
You remember the phrase “campaign in poetry, govern in prose?” Arthur Aughey professor politics at the University of Ulster is neither quite a campaigner nor a professing poet but he comes close to both as a writer. Aughey is an apologist – that is, an explainer – of the elements not only of Ulster unionism but of what Gordon Brown call “Britishness,”. a far more complex and imaginative entity than is usually discussed along the twisty tramlines of structural analysis and identity politics. For the Constitution Unit and many others, Arthur is one of the principal guides through the journey that the UK – and Ireland – are going through to arrive at a still uncertain destination. In the modern debate England is the new kid on the block and Aughey is well placed to lead it. His ideas may have traction in the gloom of recession because they draw out the best of British rather than bemoan its worst - in the jargon, they have a confidence building effect. Despite the rise of English and Scottish nationalism and the confused (but clarifying?) picture in our own corner, the future according to Arthur is one in which the parameters of the United Kingdom will survive.
Here is Arthur Aughey reviewing A Floating Commonwealth: Politics, Culture, and Technology on Britain’s Atlantic Coast, 1860-1930
“Harvie’s brilliant work shows that life was indeed elsewhere outside the Home Counties and it is a life where Belfast was not the dismal background for cultured melancholy but really was (to use that old Ulster Unionist, self-enhancing, phrase) the ‘heart of the British Empire’.
“Harvie’s brilliant work shows that life was indeed elsewhere outside the Home Counties and it is a life where Belfast was not the dismal background for cultured melancholy but really was (to use that old Ulster Unionist, self-enhancing, phrase) the ‘heart of the British Empire’. Not only did the ships, ropes and engines of the city help pump the commercial lifeblood of that Empire but also the intellectual influences of the city contributed as much to the character of the country as did the playing fields of Eton. And for Belfast also read the other ‘provincial’ cities of the United Kingdom from Glasgow to Swansea, from Hull to Hartlepool.”
Harvie and Aughey chime together in a threnody for a richer, higher working class culture than today’s – and where more than with…
.”those shipyard workers of Harland and Wolff and Workman and Clark about whose achievements Harvie is so eloquent. That street has a bookshop that formerly sold religious commentary, the immense dusty variety of which was shifted to the attic as the shop became a circulating library for the aristocracy of labour, dealing in popular novels but also books on history, arts and sciences, a localised version of Belfast’s famous and radical Linenhall Library. Slowly but surely the books began to disappear, like the shipyard itself, to be replaced mainly by videos, cds and dvds and with them, it seems, a whole mentalite (as Harvie would describe it). That this decay - of a spiritual life of religious, political and cultural ferment - represents a real loss is something which Harvie’s book recalls to mind. It is not, of course, confined to Belfast”
While Arthur has his sharply analytical side his vision of Britishness sometimes reads as a throwback but with a contemporary twist.
“Though Ulster Unionists get the accustomed bad press, the ‘geotechnic’ of the Atlantic coast he describes shows more clearly than before how right they were to opt out of the Irish nationalist dream (see especially the lame argument of G B Shaw on page 173 that Ulster was needed to save the Irish nation from its own worst self). Times do change, though, and the reverse is now true (Harvie, like all Scottish nationalists, makes much of the experience of the Celtic Tiger). The Belfast Agreement of 1998, however, allows the citizens of the Irish republic to veto unification and if Ulster Unionists were not altruistic enough to sacrifice their interests for Irish unity at the beginning of the last century then the same is probably true of the Southern Irish at the beginning of this century.
Whether or not you accept Arthur Aughey’s standpoint, he has done much to give articulate voice with imaginative power to the general unionist case, just at the time when it has never been more under threat. The greatest weakness of unionists in all GB parties is that until Gordon Brown, they never had to explain themselves so never acquired the knack. Coming from the edge of the union has given Arthur Aughey the edge in explaining unionism to unionists afresh, not just as a system but as a rejuvenated idea.
Brian Walker @ 07:02 PM
Nevin,
Here’s another one to get your hackles up:
“England and India launch sustainable biofuels joint venture”
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/fco-in-action/casestudies/india-uk-sust-biofuels
More of that famous flexibility? Or just the mask slipping?
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 01:00 PMHorseman, I prefer clarity and accuracy, where possible, but I can live with a bit of flexibility. Paul appears to be more of the hackled warrior :)
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 01:10 PMEngland - John
Scotland - Paul
Wales - George
Norn Iron - RingoPosted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 02:03 PM“Horseman, I prefer clarity”
Nev, old chap, I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds that coming from you very amusing. :)
All AAsholes, duck waddling Sinners and readers of the Daily W**ker and the Maranatha Memorandum might know what I mean.
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 02:11 PMPhil Mac Giolla Bhain,
’ I wonder how the Americans will deal with their slide from the top spot this century? ‘
Not good to judge from the past 8 years of neo con nuttiness and extreme right wing corruption at all levels of this administration .
‘Presumably the folk hit hardest in terms of self-esteem will be the rednecks. They have the best record in volunteering for the military.’
Indeed - Lump them in with the large African American and Hispanic contingents and that should go a long way to reducing the numbers of the ‘poor and undereducated ’ clamouring for social justice and ‘equality ’ in the USA .
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 02:18 PMDave ,
‘That is their (Unionists ) fault: you can’t have sovereignty without self-sufficiency. ‘Complete and utter bollocks . Name a single country world wide that has a developed economy and that is ‘self sufficient’? Even the USA is dependent on foreign oil /energy supplies . There are approx 200 countries world wide -are we to believe that none have sovereignty because none are self sufficient ?
You may want to revise your definition of and use of word ‘sovereignty ’ You seem to be confusing others as well as yourself .
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 02:28 PMAre you still producing the Daily W**ker, Br Slarti? Murphy and Robinson would provide you with some excellent wipes ;)
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 04:05 PMThe odd time, Nev. This is the latest
Good to see your old wibble again. You’ve been missed on that other place, which has gone to hell. How have you been getting on?
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 04:24 PMGreenie, where you buy your supplies shouldn’t be confused with the power to buy them. To argue that no country is self-sufficient because every country imports goods from other countries is to confuse the separate issues of interdependency of international trade and sovereignty. Sovereignty is the authority to buy and self-sufficiency is the means to buy. Unless you have the means to buy, you’ll find that you don’t have the power to buy. Therefore you can’t have sovereignty without self-sufficiency: they are interdependent. In so far as that relates to NI, unless a country can be self-sufficient (i.e. generate the revenue to meet its liabilities), then it can’t be sovereign. It’s the same reason your parents keep you in the basement, GF: if you can’t pay your own pay, you are dependent on the charity of others (and their surplus resources) and cannot determine your own affairs, i.e. exercise sovereignty. Did that clear it up for you or will I get out the coloured blocks?
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 05:01 PMDave
It’s the same reason your parents keep you in the basement, GF
LOL! Terribly unkind but terribly funny.
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 05:27 PM“Little Arthur’s finest moment still has to be his comparison between David Trimble and Prince Don Fabrizio Salina from Gattopardo, Il.”
Dosser,
Burt Lancaster played the role of Don Fabrizio in Visconti’s 1963 movie adaption of Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s novel. I wonder, who would be best to play Trimble? Any suggestions folks?*
*Any suggestions that include the names of actors “no longer with us”, such as the late Lon Chaney Jr., however appropriate had they still been “with us”, will not be entertained (although possibly entertaining).
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 05:38 PMRory
Tom Cruise. Don’t laugh. With the right pair of specs he’d be a dead ringer, and I suppose mentally he’s ‘no longer with us’.
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 05:51 PMTom Cruise! Christ, Trimble will be well chuffed if he reads this thread, Maggie. You’ll have him dreaming of his chances with Nicole (who, because of her ethereal sense of a deep spirituality is, of course, already contracted to play Irene R in a remake of Inherit the Wind set in Ballymena).
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 07:11 PMDave ,
‘unless a country can be self-sufficient (i.e. generate the revenue to meet its liabilities), then it can’t be sovereign.’
So at 9 trillion dollars in debt and rising, the USA economy is thus ‘sovereign’ and ‘self sufficient ’ and not dependent on Chinese , Japanese and other buyers of US Treasury Bills etc etc as much say NI is dependent on the UK Exchequer ? I’d hazard a guess that NI might just be more solvent if the plug were pulled .
Determining whether a political entity is sovereign and or self sufficient is often predicated on to what extent a country has been able to ‘disguise’ it’s dependence on foreign borrowings . If the Chinese , Koreans , Saudis and a dozen other nations cashed in their excess dollars for ‘real ’ money next week would the USA be sovereign , self sufficient or just broke ?
Of course being a neo con you would make the point that as long as the USA can keep forking out 500 billion dollars a year in interest payments to the ‘holders’ of it’s debt it’s still sovereign and self sufficient and the fact that it squeezes the ‘interest ’ payments from it’s already emisserated middle and working class is fine .
BTW - when you lose the next EU referendum you can always go into comedy :). Could I suggest a certain basement in the Leeson St area .
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 07:25 PMslartibuckfast,
‘Things are’nt black and white here that’s just back in Kansas ’ said a spokesman :)
LOL-
glad to see you’re still at it :)
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 07:34 PMBoring - let’s get back on the US election….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 07:45 PMThere’s never a dull moment in Moyle, Slarti, what with the resurrection of the garbage truck and the yellow poncho.
The DRD wibble factor is on the increase/decreases(?) as the contents of the DRD website’s intestines are exposed to closer examination.
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 09:45 PM
