RETURN OF THE NATIVE
The Conservative and Unionist Party
of Great Britain – aka The Tories,
from the Irish for ‘robbers’, ‘marauders’ –
is the longest surviving political
organisation in the known world.
It not only parks its tanks on its
opponents’ lawns, but commandeers
the greensward and the house it belongs to.
It reinvents itself by reversing
policies without embarrassment – viz.
welcoming East African Asian
refugees, hoping to send (mostly Muslim)
refugees to Rwanda; selling off
council houses under Margaret Thatcher,
homes that were built under Winston Churchill.
And Churchill is perhaps their greatest hero,
and an icon for all seasons – a romantic,
soldier, writer, painter, orator,
brick-layer, alcoholic, racist –
whose views and traits have been edited.
It was he who described Hindus as ‘foul’,
and Muslims as ‘warriors’, and predicted
that if the British ever left India
the Muslims would take over the Raj, and run it
as if the British had never gone home.
So what would he have made of a Hindu,
and a teetotaller, at the dispatch box,
albeit a babu, a Wykehamist,
an Oxford man, a multi-millionaire?
What would he, as the Home Secretary
overseeing the so-called Battle
for Stepney, the Siege of Sydney Street –
that shoot-out with Russian émigrés –
have made of the occupation of so much
of Belgravia by Russian oligarchs?
As one of the Council of Europe’s
begetters, and its human rights convention,
what would he have made of the Tories’
long suicide note called Brexit, and their
obsession with rigid inflatables
steering for Dover, with fascist scapegoats?
Perhaps nativism would triumph –
that, whatever your colour, as long as
you are born here, and speak the lingo
with more or less the right accent, and have
a hierarchy of people to despise,
then you are one of them?
Kate Harrison
November 27, 2022None of my 5 grandparents could abide Churchill or the Tories. One of my grannies would, however, get a lift to the polling station from the local Tory party. She always voted Labour. Her little 2 finger salute!
David Selzer
November 28, 2022Good for your granny! 5 grandparents?
Kate Harrison
November 28, 20225 Grandparents
My Mum was brought up by her own mother’s sister Agnes and her husband William Mackie (the train driver). Helen, my real grannie, died when I was 8 and I did not know till very much later that she was my actual grandmother. Agnes was a wonderful grannie and could not have been better. She was quite a remarkable woman. Could play the piano by ear and was given lessons by the ladies she worked for in service, also the harmonica! She joined the army in WWI and learned to cook Indian food for the Indian soldiers. She also played in the local women’s football team. Sadly she died in 1969.
Researching family history, it seemed quite common in Agnes and William’s families for children to be brought up by grandparents or other relatives. William’s own father Walter Mackie is found in the census with his grandmother Charlotte Petrie, living in the Merlin Cottage. In early 1950’s, William sold the cottage as he didn’t want to pay the feu (lease). He used the money to buy a suit. We visited the cottage in 1960’s and it still had box beds, with water from a spring and power from a small turbine.
Agnes’ oldest brother George (known as Dod) was from her mother’s previous relationship. Agnes’ mother was brought up by her mother and stepfather and known by his surname. It seems that people were quite accepting of children born to young parents who were farm servants, a result of ‘Country Matters’.
Helen, the real grannie, was a nurse and looked after patients in their own homes. She eventually married but Mum chose to stay with her aunt and uncle. We would spend short school holidays with ‘Aunty Nelly’ and summer holidays in Scotland.
I never met my Dad’s parents. His father, John Gerard, was born in Cumbria when the family moved from Ireland to work in steelworks in Barrow; later moved to Clydeside. Great grandfather John and his brother-in-law left Co Mayo in Ireland in 1870’s for economic and possibly political reasons. Only one of John’s children was born in Ireland and was consequently known as ‘the dear little shamrock’. In early 1900’s the family settled near Glasgow but there were many links to Ireland and marriages between Scotland, Co Mayo and Co Clare. Irish records are harder to follow up but Co Mayo was a stronghold of fighting for Irish independence and a cousin was eventually one of the initial members of the Irish government in 1922
My ‘third’ grannie, Bridget, was born in Co Clare and is my route to an Irish passport!! I know very little about her and have no photographs.
My Mum never really wanted to look into her family history, but she would have been astonished to know that the daughter of two women who were in service, is actually the descendant of King Alfred, William the Conqueror. Llywellyn Prince of Wales and Robert the Bruce.
Kate Harrison
November 29, 20225 Grandparents
My Mum Mamie was brought up by her own mother’s sister Agnes and her husband William Mackie. Helen Gordon, my real grannie, died when I was 8 and I did not know till very much later that she was my actual grandmother. Agnes was a wonderful grannie and quite a remarkable woman. Could play the piano by ear and was given lessons by the ladies she worked for in service, also a virtuoso on the harmonica! She joined the army in WWI and learned to cook Indian food for the Indian soldiers. She also played in the local women’s football team. Sadly she died in 1969.
Looking at family history, is seems to have been common for children to be brought up by grandparents or other relatives, while parents continued to work. In the 1871 census we find William’s father Walter Mackie living with his grandmother, a farm servant. Ten years later they are both in a remote cottage called The Merlin, which I remember visiting in the 1960’s.
Agnes’s own mother was raised by her mother and stepfather and took his surname. There seems to have been a general acceptance of children born to poor farm servants, male or female – a result of ‘country matters’. It’s no surprise then that children would have a selection of grandparents.
I never met my Dad’s parents. His father John Gerrard was born in Cumbria when the family moved from Ireland to work in steelworks in Barrow; later moving to Clydeside. Great grandfather John and his brother in law, Peter, left Co Mayo in 1870’s for economic and probably political reasons. Mayo was always a stronghold of the Irish independence movement. The family was well educated, with sons and daughters becoming teachers. A cousin later became a member of the first Irish parliament. There seems to have been strong relationships with family in Co Mayo and Co Clare, with a lot of intermarrying between those communities and Scotland.
My ‘third’ granny, Bridget, was born in Co Clare and is my route to an Irish passport!! I know very little about her and have no photographs. The Catholic Irish family had a less laissez-faire approach to child rearing!
Genealogy has raised some intriguing links. My Mum never wanted to explore her family history and would have been astonished to know that the daughter of two women who were in service, is actually the descendant of King Alfred, William the Conqueror. Llywellyn Prince of Wales and Robert the Bruce. Like Danny Dyer, one can only speculate about the point where family fortunes diverged.
David Selzer
November 30, 2022What a history, Kate. Thank you. Family love triumphs over convention! And blue blood will out, of course.
John+Huddart
November 29, 2022It reminds me of Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’ – though you are cool and measured in your attack on the enemy, you nevertheless have a burnished sword never resting in your hand.
Mary Clark
December 17, 2022Good line:’long suicide note called Brexit.’