Picto Diary - 27 September 2019 - Brexit update.
Above: Loch Lomond. Scotland. 27 September 2019.
Out and about at Loch Lomond.
TIMDT channels the song.
By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes,
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond,
Where me and my true love were ever wont to gae
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.
Chorus:
O ye'll tak' the high road, and I'll tak' the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland a'fore ye,
But me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.
'Twas there that we parted, in yon shady glen,
On the steep, steep side o' Ben Lomond,
Where in soft purple hue, the hieland hills we view,
And the moon coming out in the gloaming.
Chorus
O braw Charlie Stewart, dear true, true heart,
Wha could refuse thee protection,
Like the weeping birk on the wild hillside,
How graceful he looked in dejection[5]
Chorus
The wee birdies sing and the wildflowers spring,
And in sunshine the waters are sleeping.
But the broken heart it kens nae second spring again,
Though the waeful may cease frae their grieving.
Chorus — with Margaret Taylor at Loch Lomond Shores.
Above: Bannockburn (mid range). 27 September 2019.
Out and about in Bannockburn.
Image from Stirling Castle parapets.
1314. Mid distance. Bannockburn. Robert the Bruce and his men lay in wait to attack Edward I and troops on way from London to break Scottish siege of English occupied Stirling Castle.
Bruce carries the day. Battle of Bannockburn..
Thence begins a 400 year run of Scottish independence and a lineage (Stuart) that carries forward into today's British royal family.
Robert the Bruce gets revenge for mentor William Wallace's brutal drawing and quartering by Edward I seventeen years previously following the Scottish loss to the English the Battle of Stirling Bridge. — at Bannockburn.
Above: Church of the Holy Rude. Stirling, Scotland. 27 September 2019.
Out and about in Stirling.
James VI became King of Scotland in 1567 as a thirteen month old infant when his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, was thrown out of her Scottish Queenship more or less for holding fast onto her Catholicism during the peak of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland.
When Elizabeth I, the English "Virgin Queen," died in 1603 sans heir, Mary Queen of Scots' only son, James VI of Scotland, by distant lineage became King James I of England, as well as James VI of Scotland. Thereafter, England and Scotland remained united in one form or another until the present day.
England's literary age thrived under James I...Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, John Donne et al.
James I, a learned fellow himself, is the James behind the King James Bible.
When I visit an important historical spot I try to envision the actual occurrence legitimizing the site. It is, in a way, moving to channel an ancient coronation that underlay a human, cultural movement having, ultimately, such impact on the world. English/Scottish culture, sparked in no small way by the event that occurred at this stone where I am standing, spawned so much...Shakespeare, the industrial revolution, The Raj, even the American Founders who resisted the oft heavy handed way of the Crown.
And what of James I's mom, Mary Queen of Scots? How strange it seems that an infant can be taken from a mother's possession and crowned King as she is kicked out of the job herself...and out of her son's life.
Following her ouster, Mary Queen of Scots repaired to England to seek comfort from her cousin English Queen, Elizabeth I. Since Mary was in line two or three times removed to succeed to the English throne, Elizabeth I never trusted Mary. Elizabeth held Mary more or less under house arrest for fifteen or so years, after which she decided Mary was too much of a bother and had her beheaded.
Speaking of Mary Queen of Scot's beheading, Hoops and I were discussing the violent nature of Europe in the Middle Ages. William Wallace, after finally being defeated by English King Edward I, at Falkirk in 1298 was subjected to a horrific execution...hanging and being drawn and quartered.
Included herewith is the Wikepedia description of punishments in medieval England:
To be hanged, drawn and quartered was from 1352 a statutory penalty in England for men convicted of high treason, although the ritual was first recorded during the reign of King Henry III (1216–1272). A convicted traitor was fastened to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn by horse to the place of execution, where he was then hanged (almost to the point of death), emasculated, disemboweled, beheaded, and quartered (chopped into four pieces). The traitor's remains were often displayed in prominent places across the country, such as London Bridge. For reasons of public decency, women convicted of high treason were instead burned at the stake.
The severity of the sentence was measured against the seriousness of the crime. As an attack on the monarch's authority, high treason was considered a deplorable act demanding the most extreme form of punishment. Although some convicts had their sentences modified and suffered a less ignominious end, over a period of several hundred years many men found guilty of high treason were subjected to the law's ultimate sanction. They included many English Catholic priests executed during the Elizabethan era, and several of the regicides involved in the 1649 execution of Charles I.
Although the Act of Parliament defining high treason remains on the United Kingdom's statute books, during a long period of 19th-century legal reform the sentence of hanging, drawing, and quartering was changed to drawing, hanging until dead, and posthumous beheading and quartering, before being abolished in England in 1870. The death penalty for treason was abolished in 1998.
Cruel medieval punishment is one thing. Considering Europe's penchant for mass violence occurring frequently, even up to the dawn of the Twenty First Century, it is sobering to realize that even today there remains but a thin line between order and chaos.
Above: Stirling Castle. Stirling, Scotland. 27 September 2019.
Out and about in Stirling.
Brexit update.
It continues to be interesting to watch Brexit machinations up close. Five or six of our driver/guides have been very helpful in giving their own points of view on British and Scottish politics. They don't all think exactly the same way.
Conventional wisdom suggests the British government is in a state of collapse.
Boris Johnson's gambit to prorogue Parliament came a cropper earlier this week, shot down by the Supremes. By proroguing Parliament, BJ had hoped to suppress "Remainer" oriented pols maneuvering to engineer yet another extension of the Brexit deadline beyond 31 October.
Johnson has also lost his tiny Parliamentary majority through resignations and expulsions from the party.
Johnson has even failed, in two separate bids, to topple his own government so as to require a new election enabling, he hopes, a strengthened Tory government. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, fearing Johnson might be right, blocked a new election.
Johnson is further stymied (or is he?) by the Benn Act. Parliamentarians, fearing Johnson would follow through on delivering a "hard Brexit" by 31 October, stipulated that if Johnson had not had a Parliament sign-off on a Brexit Deal by 19 October, he must appeal for another delay in Brexit completion timing to the EU. The cynical view of this maneuver is that the longer a Brexit is postponed, the more Brits will tire of the agonizing politics and that some deus ex machina will nudge the whole situation, imperceptibly back into status quo ante... ie. "Remain."
Surprisingly to some (not to me), after receiving the adverse Supreme Court decision on his proroguing gambit, rather than resigning his position as PM, Boris Johnson returned to Parliament with fighting spirit, maintaining (augmenting!) his commitment to seal a Brexit deal by 31 October 2019.
Parliament seems stymied. The proroguing reversal doesn't seem to matter so much as Johnson's parliamentary opposition is in disarray. The opposition has a majority, but they can't decide on a course of action to reign in Johnson momentum.
The public is getting restive with increasing calls for a parliamentary election. This, of course, plays to Johnson's own desire for a "put up or shut up" election.
"Remainer" pols, including retired Tory Prime Minister, John Major (the Mitt Romney of Britain), are now fretting that Johnson may find a loophole to bypass the Benn Act.
The clock is ticking. Johnson, despite his minority government is energized. The majority in Parliament are panicked... in disarray. Go figure.
Stay tuned. Will Johnson "break the law," reject the Benn Act, and cut a hard Brexit deal with Brussels? Cummon... he can figure out the Irish border, what?
Above: Bagpipes. Greenock Cruise Terminal, Clyde River. Scotland. 27 September 2019.
Out and about in Glasgow.
Bagpipe band plays for departing Seabourn Ovation cruise liner.
Thrilling.
Ship's departure performance evokes for me the pipe band role in British military campaigns over the years. OK. I learned this from the movies. The pipes struck fear into UK enemies at Lucknow, Ladysmith, Balaclava, Khartoum, Khyber Pass, Damascus, and Messina..
Today, bagpipes, among many others...whisky?...are a cultural binder for Scotland. A country energized by its cultural attributes will grow and prosper. A country with diminishing cultural markers - like most EU countries today - will atrophy.
Pipes bind Scots of their unique heritage. No wonder many Scots desire independence from the United Kingdom AND from the EU. Why cast your lot with culturally disintegrating Britain or the power grabbing, freedom sucking, EU blob...which, culturally, stands for what, exactly?
So, bagpipes yes. Whisky yes. Scot national culture yes. Hyper regulation and cultural disintegration from either EU or Britain, no!!!!
— at Greenock Cruise Terminal Scotland.
Addendum:
Outlander fans?
Academy Theater,
Salt Lake City, UT
Watched four episodes and then dropped it. We'll resume it. Sending diaries out of synch. There is a lot about our trip and my to-be-sent reports that connects to "Outlander."
Name dropper!!!! 🤣. Just kidding, great coverage of your interesting trip. Pull an extra bottle out of the open case 👍🏻
Mezzanine,
Miami, FL