Election Promises

Over the next couple of years we will be going into election mode, at the city , state and country level, not just in India but also in the United States, and other places . It will be good to maintain  a sense of humor . I am just posting some of the quotes which are going around. These were  passed on by an old friend from Hong Kong , who like me has nothing better to do. I do not know if they are real or not, but then who cares ?  They sound pretty good.

* The problem with political jokes is they get elected.    ~ Henry Cate, VII * We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.    ~ Aesop * If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these acceptance speeches there wouldn't be any inducement to go to heaven.    ~ Will Rogers * Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.    ~ Plato * Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.      ~ Nikita Khrushchev * When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.     ~ Clarence Darrow * Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.    ~ Author Unknown * If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.    ~ Jay Leno * Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.    ~ John Quinton * Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.    ~ Oscar Ameringer * The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.    ~ P. J. O'Rourke * I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.    ~ Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952 * A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country.    ~ Texas Guinan * Any American who is prepared to run for President should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.    ~ Gore Vidal * I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.    ~ Charles de Gaulle * Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.    ~ Doug Larson * Don't vote, it only encourages them.    ~ Author Unknown * There ought to be one day - just one - when there is open season on senators.    ~ Will Rogers   Thanks old buddy.

From Great To Little Britain

For centuries this tiny island nation ruled almost half the global land mass. During the glory days  it was said that the sun never set on the British Empire. However with the Scottish parliament  now looking to have a referendum on whether they should become independent, it appears that the United Kingdom has not only lost its Empire but is itself  in danger of breaking up.

The United Kingdom came into existence as a political and sovereign state in 1707, with the passing of the Act of Union, under which England, Wales and Scotland merged politically to become a sovereign state of Great Britain. A further Act of Union in 1801 also merged the Kingdom of Ireland to create  The  United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Its first colonies were the the thirteen states in America, with a total population of two and half million people, but which broke away in 1776  by declaring  independence. However that did not deter Britain from creating further colonies in  the Americas, Africa, Asia and  Australia. At its height in 1921, the British Empire encompassed a total  population of approximately  458 million people, or almost  a quarter of the world's population.

However, in modern times, the dissolution of the Empire began with the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922, which created the Irish Free State with the exception of the Northern rump.The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland became The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. After the Second World War the dissolution of the Empire began in earnest. Entering the Twentieth First Century, United Kingdom was effectively England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland with a few odd remnants of the empire such as the Falklands.

With Scotland now on the verge of breaking away, how long will it be before Northern Ireland decides to merge with Ireland ? As I said in one of the earlier blogs, religion still continues to be a divisive force among the world's population.Perhaps it will be a long time before the Protestants in Northern Ireland agree to the merger, which  has to be the  obvious choice. That would then leave England and Wales. The clock would be turned back almost three hundred and fifty years. The United Kingdom will then  perhaps be known as United  England and Wales ( sounds like a football club )  and Great Britain will become a foot note in history.