"Despite what they told him when the move was being planned, [Flandry]'d more or less awaited behavior like that when a gaggle of demonstrators wanted to invade a legislative session on any human planet he knew -" (p. 558)
See previous discussions in Dennitzan Democracy and Constitution Square.
In 1973, Lancaster City District expanded to incorporate the former Morecambe Borough District. Thus, Lancaster City Council meets sometimes in Lancaster Town Hall and sometimes in Morecambe Town Hall. Tomorrow afternoon, it will be in the latter. A crowd will gather outside. Two worthy citizens have submitted written requests to enter the meeting and address the Council. The public gallery, which has limited seating capacity, should be full of their supporters with more outside.
Thus, Poul Anderson's fiction continues to reflect real world social processes. A City Council is not a Parliament but... Recently, Whitehall was blocked with too many people so that speeches intended for Parliament Square had to be delivered instead in Trafalgar Square while some marchers had time only to rendezvous at their coaches, missing all the speeches. Unlike in Flandry's time, we do not have airbuses but would you feel safe, travelling crowded into such a contrivance?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
This is only tangential, but one thing that was intriguing to me was noticing how that statue of Cromwell had to be carefully protected behind a stone wall and chain link fence! I read of how many, many people still detest the memory of the Lord Protector.
If it was that crowded I might well not have bothered going, not if I could get nowhere near whatever the meeting was about.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment