An account of Edward Duke’s bizarre theory of the origin of Stonehenge, Avebury and Silbury Hill—and other Wiltshire monuments—is published this month in the Wiltshire Family History Society Magazine. The article was extracted from my forthcoming book on Edward Duke. Download and read the article here: http://www.mirlibooks.com/edward-duke.html
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I was just listening to the news on the wireless of Dame Vera Lynn’s death, when the loud noise of a low-flying aircraft caused me to go into the garden. There was a lone Spitfire, flying south quite low; I’m sure to salute her. It was a deeply poignant moment.
Who are they? There are quite a few. ‘They’, are the architects of this country’s departure from the EU. We all know who they are. All the objective analyses, and anyone not blinkered by decades of being drip-fed anti-European rhetoric by the right-wing press, could see that financially this country would be significantly better-off inside the European Union than outside it. Even the government admitted it, and when, after our departure, the reality finally struck home, no-doubt Gove and others would have pointed to the various so-called benefits of ‘taking back control’ as being worth the cost.
But Covid-19 means that they will never have to make those justifications, because the financial penalty of the pandemic will ensure that any measurable cost of the departure from Europe will be a proverbial fart in a thunderstorm by comparison. In the years to come, it will be worth hundreds of PhDs; the ‘what ifs’ that might have happened had the country’s finances not been rocked to the core by the cost of the lockdown, and the entirely justifiable cost of underwriting the wages of millions of people. There is one small consolation, and it is quite delicious. The person who is now our Prime Minister—I will refrain from using my favourite appellation for him at present—always wanted the job he now has. But given the current situation in the country, perhaps he is reflecting on one of the sayings of his darling Greeks: “Those whom the gods wish to destroy, first they drive them mad.” Bringing the country safely though this crisis would, I fear, drive a much smarter man that him round the bend. The irony is though, that the joke’s really on us. |
AuthorWelcome to the Mirli Books blog written by Peter Maggs Archives
December 2024
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