Here we are, five days from when I’m supposed to leave U.S. airspace, and I’m hearing a bunch of stuff I don’t want to hear:
Heathrow airport could remain in a state of partial paralysis beyond Christmas, its owner admitted yesterday, spelling misery for the tens of thousands of passengers who face the prospect of being stranded over the festive period.
BAA said two-thirds of flights into and out of Britain’s largest airport would be cancelled until at least Wednesday morning because it has the resources to keep only one of its two runways open.
Of course, that’s from those lefty alarmists at The Guardian, but even more sensible, conservative newspapers are saying distressing things. Even
The Times, if you’re willing to pay a quid to read it.
This morning, I was hearing that everything should be cleared up by Friday. Now we’re hearing the ominous “beyond Christmas,” which, after months of planning and years of anticipation, could potentially put a crimp in our plans.
My wife’s been reading cheery notices from the British rail system about all the salt they’ve bought, and how energetically they’re applying themselves to the problem.
And that’s what I’m counting on, you see. British pluck. Nothing like it. Go to it with a will, lads. I’ve all the faith in the world in you. Make this your finest hour, and clean up this mess. And don’t fear; I’m on the way…
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Traveling on Boxing Day? Takes a lot of pluck, I say!
No, the day after… so I guess that’s six days. Whatever… Still, “beyond Christmas” is ominous.
As for pluck, well, no man will call ME shy. Were he to do so, I would have no recourse but to seek satisfaction. Assuming, of course, that he were of the right social class for me to request a meeting without exciting comment.
In other words, I have six days in which to update my notion of how to behave in Britain from where it is now, which is circa 1814. At least that’s much more up-to-date than Jethro…
I also need a crash course in how British politics works. I thought I sort of did, but now I’m puzzled: I’m reading that Tony Blair book, and he’s talking about how, when he was elected an MP in 1983, he was used to Islington, and knew nothing about the ways of his constituency, Sedgefield. I’m trying to figure out how that worked. I mean, they got rid of rotten boroughs and such long ago, right? Like, in the Reform Act of 1832…
Well… you probably don’t want to see the long-term weather forecast. Pack an umbrella and a parka… and fire your travel agent.
Brad, I’m not sure what your question is. I just know that in Britain, MPs don’t have to live in the district they represent. In fact, party leadership usually puts their senior people into safe districts.
You better pack your thermal knickers. I was watching a premier league match the other day and the two commentators were complaining about the bitter cold so early in the season. The players on the field were running around in short-shorts kicking each others’ bare, frozen legs at 21 degrees F. One dude was wearing a scarf. And his mates weren’t giving him hell about it, that’s how cold it was.
If the sun don’t come, you get a tan from standing in the English rain. What I’ve always heard, anyway. Works for me…
Sometimes I think you are perhaps a lazy as a Clampett.
Here’s a result from The Google.
https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=modern+british+government&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
You’ve perhaps heard of it. It’s on the Wide Wide World of Web a/k/a the Internets.
You mean the Interwebs.
Yes, I understand the system overall. The thing that surprised me about the Blair constituency thing was that it was a DETAIL about the way things work that I had never thought to wonder about, because I didn’t realize how different it was. That is to say, I knew it USED TO BE like that — wealthy individuals owning seats in Parliament and such — and I suppose I was sort of aware that there’s a greater sense there that, hey, it’s all one country. But I also knew that there were certain cultural tensions and resentments between northerners and southerners in England, and…
It’s just that it’s impossible to imagine folks in some semi-rural part of SC or West Virginia or something VOTING for a guy who lives in New York, or Arlington, VA, or wherever. American voters just would not go for it. And that regional chauvinism is just so ingrained in us that it’s hard to imagine it NOT being that way…