Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
The British Empire became the British Commonwealth, then the Commonwealth of Nations.
In The Technic History
There is a Solar Commonwealth in the 24th and 25th centuries.
In The Time Patrol Universe
There is a Solar Commonwealth sometime.
Christian Brannock twice saw combat while serving in the Conflict Mediation Service of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Comments
England was a republic!
The Queen has sometimes described the British Commonwealth as "this great family of nations." In a partial echo of this phrase, trade union leaders have referred to "this great movement of ours," irreverently initialized as "TGMOO."
Combat is conflict. How much of the Service is Mediation?
Christian comments that the parliaments in an emulated timeline will be "...creatures of special interests..." (Genesis, Part Two, VII, 7, p. 188) No doubt but they remain preferable to absolute monarchies or theocracies.
In Britain at present, the media boost a tiny xenophobic party but ignore many local anti-racist campaigns because anti-immigrant speeches fit the official agenda whereas "Refugees are welcome!" does not.
15 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
More accurately and honestly, England was a military dictatorship ruled by Oliver Cromwell and his major generals.
And the "Conflict Mediation Service" strikes me as a rather hypocritical name for the MILITARY of the Commonwealth of Nations.
I agree, it is a good thing for a gov't, whatever its form, to have some kind of parliament. But, not all parliaments succeed! Recall what happened to the Polish parliament because of the liberum veto.
I am not sure ALL refugees should be welcomed, not if they include fanatical jihadists. SOME discrimination is called for.
Sean
Sean,
Yes but that is a policing problem no different than for the population already here.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And a sovereign nation, if it is to be truly sovereign, has the right and duty to set the terms and conditions under which refugees and immigrants can enter.
Sean
Sean,
I believe in the right of any human being to travel freely anywhere on the Earth. Certainly, if someone in the Middle East is oppressed by wars, dictatorship and lack of opportunity, then they have every right to seek a better life in Britain and they enrich this part of our "great family of nations" by coming here.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Regretfully, I cannot agree with you here. I reiterate my earlier comment about SOVEREIGN nations. Your argument makes sense only if Earth was ruled by a single gov't.
Sean
"Commonwealth" means roughly what "Republic" did in the original Latin -- "The Public Thing".
By the way, keep in mind that nations are what they are roughly because of the people living in them. If the people move, the conditions move with them because the conditions are a product of what the people have in their heads.
Territory has no nationality in itself, and institutions are just a means to an end. "It is the people who make the ground English, not the ground the people", as the old saying went.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Yes, I knew "republic" came from the Latin for the "public thing," what we might call the "state" today. And all gov'ts, whatever form they have, are public things.
I agree, a PEOPLE is what makes a nation a NATION. A commonalty of ideas, beliefs, customs, mores, laws, etc. And it's my contention that if a people/nations wishes to preserve the things that made them unique, they have every right to set the terms and conditions by which others can enter and live among them.
Sean
Also, nations change. England is waves of invaders and immigrants.
Kaor, Paul!
Of course! Great Britain, as we see it now, descend directly from the last wave of successful invaders, the Norman Conquest of 1066.
Sean
Sean,
A woman colleague told me that Scottish communities would have welcomed handsome shipwrecked young Spaniards from the Armada! There were Jewish immigrants under Cromwell and again before WWII, Huguenots in the 17th century and I think, earlier, descendants of black slaves. There are enough Scottish of Italian descent to have their own tartan. Catholic and Orange Irish in Liverpool, also a Chinatown. An Asian area with Hindu temples in Leicester, plus the only Jain temple in the Western hemisphere.
Paul.
Black slaves later.
British TV comedy, "Citizen Khan" -
Indian wife: We need a plumber for the bathroom. The neighbor knows a good Polish man.
Indian husband: Not Polish! We must support British workers! I'll get a Pakistani!
Also on TV, a young black newsreader introduced a report that included an interview with a Head Teacher wearing a Jewish skull cap. I thought that this was a very representative British report.
Kaor, Paul!
I have heard of the stories about ship wrecked Spanish sailors from the Armada, ending up in Scotland or Ireland, but I don't know how true they were.
But I did not have the fairly minor examples of "cross culturing" you mentioned. I meant a CULTURE which was dominant, and set the customary and basic norms under which all others, including small groups of immigrants, had to live. I still put far more stress on the Norman Conquest, atop an Anglo/Saxon base.
Sean
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