Look On My Works, Ye Mighty...
Feb. 20th, 2017 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloInvestigations continue into whether former British PM Edward Heath was a paedophile.
I was explaining this to my mother and then wondered if she remembered who Ted Heath was.
And then wondered whether I remembered who Ted Heath was. I mean, really remembered.
Wasn't he the one who signed the Maestricht Agreement? Or was he the one who wanted to sign it but got thwarted by the French? And what does any of it matter anyway after half a century?
He was an amateur musician and yachtsman who got to conduct vanity concerts and write vanity books about seamanship because of having once held office. He hung around the Commons, sulking about his vanished power and influence- like Jason haunting the beached wreck of the Argo. Eventually the figurehead fell off and biffed him on the head and that was that. No-one ever mistook him for a likeable man.
On a day to day basis we act and react as if our politicians matter terribly when the truth is most of them matter very little- and are soon gone and forgotten, leaving a legacy of dust bunnies and little scrumpled bits of paper.
I was explaining this to my mother and then wondered if she remembered who Ted Heath was.
And then wondered whether I remembered who Ted Heath was. I mean, really remembered.
Wasn't he the one who signed the Maestricht Agreement? Or was he the one who wanted to sign it but got thwarted by the French? And what does any of it matter anyway after half a century?
He was an amateur musician and yachtsman who got to conduct vanity concerts and write vanity books about seamanship because of having once held office. He hung around the Commons, sulking about his vanished power and influence- like Jason haunting the beached wreck of the Argo. Eventually the figurehead fell off and biffed him on the head and that was that. No-one ever mistook him for a likeable man.
On a day to day basis we act and react as if our politicians matter terribly when the truth is most of them matter very little- and are soon gone and forgotten, leaving a legacy of dust bunnies and little scrumpled bits of paper.
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no subject
Date: 2017-02-20 11:09 am (UTC)- Better than the Infernal Wilson!
One of my favourite gags from I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again.
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Date: 2017-02-20 11:44 am (UTC)Also he kept us out of Vietnam.
I remember him with a certain affection.
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Date: 2017-02-20 12:35 pm (UTC)Cheery thought. :-) (although I suppose it could be rather liberating - the idea that your biggest mistakes won't matter in the end, anyway... This too, shall pass).
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Date: 2017-02-20 12:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-20 03:18 pm (UTC)I didn't even realize he went by Ted. Ign'ant Amurikin.
no subject
Date: 2017-02-20 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-20 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-20 04:31 pm (UTC)Hence the chant-
Grocer Heath, Grocer Heath,
Where'd you get those frightful teeth!
no subject
Date: 2017-02-20 04:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-20 05:01 pm (UTC)It took me years to deal with that-you may even remember me posting about having finally come to terms.
I fail to see the point of opening that sort of wound again.
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Date: 2017-02-20 05:57 pm (UTC)Some want their abuser named and shamed so they can achieve closure. Heath's accusers (if they are telling the truth) are likely to be in that category.
Again, with someone like Heath, there's the question of setting the historical record straight.
no subject
Date: 2017-02-21 01:42 pm (UTC)