The Abolition of Britain

In 2007, world-famous author John Gardner died on this day at the age of eighty. Amongst Gardner's fourteen James Bond titles are License Renewed (1981), Win, Lose or Die (1989), Brokenclaw (1990), and most recently Cold Fall (1996). Gardner's genius was to modernise the character of James Bond after his creator, Ian Fleming died in 1964. In Gardner's hands, Bond is a late-20th-century-man. He smokes low-tar cigarettes and drives a fuel-efficient Saab instead of a Bentley Mark II Contintental. Actors Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton and Sean Bean paid tribute to Gardner. Without the author's refinements, their acting careers would have have taken off as a result of their portrayal of James Bond.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

"Many of those born, raised and educated in surroundings normally associated with Tory thinking and values no longer actually share those values. Few people under the age of fifty now possess what could be described as a Conservative imagination. Their attitude towards sexuality, drugs, manners, dress, food, swear-words, music and religion has little or nothing in common with the traditional idea of Conservative behaviour. As the far-from-leftist commentator Tony Benn cackled derisively shortly before the election, ‘Clement Attlee is probably the last man left in Britain who wears a tie on Saturdays.’

Abolition of Britain	A good starting point for this era is Lord Curzon’s funeral in 1924, and a good finishing point is the startlingly different funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in 1950. The death of Curzon, an unchallengeable father figure, was a final farewell to a reassuring past. By travelling back to that not-very-distant time it is possible to see the extent of the changes which have overtaken us. ~ Historian Peter Hitchens explaining the rise of Anarchy in Airstrip One
Peter Hitchens

Even in the commonplace features of life, a comparison between the day before yesterday and today reveals differences which are more than a mere adaptation to the modern world. Examine school textbooks, especially on history and geography, from thirty years ago, and set them beside their equivalents today. You will find that you are investigating the inner life of a wholly foreign country. Many of these trends and tremors began long before 1965, and it is necessary to go further into the past to examine them. Some of the changes in our society began with campaigns or fashions in thought which started before the First World War. Most are more recent, finding their roots in events like the Lady Chatterley trial, the satire boom, and the mysterious birth of British punk rock music. . The full article is available at Encounters Book

~ quotation by Steve Payne

Winston Churchill	"It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr. Gandhi, a seditious middle temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the east, striding half-naked up the steps of the viceregal palace, while he is still organizing and conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the representative of the king-emperor." ~ Winston Churchill, future Prime Minister speaking in 1930
Prime Minister

Before we knew for sure if Winston Churchill meant if when he said he would not preside over the end of the British Empire. The tragic story of Britain's brutal response to the Indian Emergency in 1945 was recounted in journalist Adrienne Gormley's Children of Tears. The leadership of the Indian freedom movement including the Indian Congress were imprisoned and executed as a resurgent post-war Churchill refused to defeat Hitler, only to be beaten by Gandhi.

~ quotation by Steve Payne

In 1976, Robert Neville lived the life of a recluse, trapped inside his fortified home. As he descended into alcoholism, he suffered long gaps in memory that he could not remember. And dreams of the vampires and the infected feeding upon him.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

Richard the Lio..	In 1189, Richard I of England (a.k.a. Richard "the Lionhearted") was crowned at Westminster. Alongside Philip II of France, he embarked on the Third and ultimately successful Crusade which restored the Holy Land to Christendom, elected the King of Jerusalem on 28 April 1192
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 2127/2003, from 10, Downing Street the Prime Minister of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland telephoned US President George W. Bush. It was probably the most fraught conversation between the two countries since 1776. Due to the events of the past few days, Her Majesty's Government could not either approve, nor participate in the Second Gulf War. British involvement in a land invasion of Iraq would be illegal due to the absence of a UN Security Council Resolution explicitly sanctioning participation by the “coalition of the willing”.	Tony Blair
Perhaps W did not understand the workings of the British State, but effectively the Prime Minister could not overrule the confidential legal advice issued by the Attorney General, Kim Hollis. Which was guff, the position of Attorney General was a political appointment which meant that legal advice to the State always dovetailed with the political expediency of the moment. The internal workings of the British State were explicitly designed to pursue the national interest, regardless of the incumbents, and had done so smoothly since the Middle Ages.
~ entry by Steve Payne

Utopia Planitia	In 1976, the Viking 2 spacecraft landed on Mars at Utopia Planitia, the site for today's Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards both on the surface of the planet and in orbit. There, countless Federation Starfleet vessels are built and repaired. The Galaxy class starship USS Enterprise-D was designed and built there, as well as the Intrepid class starship USS Voyager and the USS Defiant prototype.
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 1997, a Vietnam Airlines Tupolev TU-134 routed from from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh almost crashed. The Tupolev was approaching the Phnom Penh airport runway in heavy rain from 2,000 meters; at this point the control tower ordered the pilot to attempt an approach from the west due to a wind pick-up. The crew then lost communication with the tower, and three minutes later the aircraft was close to colliding at low level with trees.	Tupolev Tu-134
When the aircraft approached the trees, the pilot finally realized the runway was not in sight and aborted the approach; the flight engineer pushed for full power, and the aircraft gained lift saving the lives of the 66 passengers. A relieved crew disembarked from the aircraft in sleeting rain to be greeted by French Union officials of the Indochina Protectorate.
~ entry by Steve Payne