Friday, May 9, 1924. Scottish question results in chaos.

Portrait taken on this day in 1924.

President Coolidge's attempt to delay the implementation of restrictions on Japanese immigration was defeated by the House of Representatives.

George Buchanan introduced a Scottish Home Rule bill, but the debated descended into chaos and Parliament adjourned for the day.

Administrative devolution was granted to Scotland in 1885.  Home rule in the form of the Scottish Parliament was granted in 1999.

In the US, Washington D.C. has home rule, unfortunately.

The Westland Dreadnought was destroyed in a crash.

Air mail service from Belfast to Liverpool was established.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, May 7, 1924. Liberty.

1920s, 1924, German Weimar Republic, Labor unrest, Mexico, Mining, Peru, Politics, Ruhr, Socialism, South America, The Press

Thursday, October 25, 1973. Ramping up to and backing down from war.

The US military was alerted that the Soviet Union was "planning to send a very substantial force" to intervene in the Yom Kippur War.  On the same day, perhaps ironically, Egypt and Israel accepted United Nations Security Council Resolution 340 creating a peacekeeping force between them that would omit US and Soviet troops.

The Local Government (Scotland) Act of 1973 was given royal assent.

Lebanon, which was not in a good place in relation to petroleum bans, provided that cars with even-numbered plates could only drive on even-numbered days, those with odd-numbered plates only on odd-numbered day.

Abebe Bikila (Amharic: ሻምበል አበበ ቢቂላ), Olympic marathon runner who won the1960 Summer Olympics in Rome marathon while running barefoot and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics marathon died as a result of an automobile accident sustained in 1969

Both his 60 and 64 runs were world records.

Wednesday, April 21, 1943. The bombing of Aberdeen.

98 civilians and 27 servicemen were killed in a Luftwaffe raid on Aberdeen, Scotland.

Admiral Mineichi Koga took over command of the Japanese Navy, following the death of Admiral Yamamoto.

Monday, August 14, 1922. The Shipping Board.

In London, a conference between Weimar Germany and the United Kingdom about adjusting the German reparations, which was horrifying the French, broke off without results.

The IRA took Dundalk.   Following the fall of Cork, the IRA's campaign had reverted to a guerilla campaign.

A packed lunch and later dinner for 48 people at Loch Marie hotel in Scotland inflected the diners with botulism from canned duck paste.  Eight would ultimately die from the disease.  All of those who died had sandwiches made from the duck paste.

It's stories like this that have always freaked me out about home canning.

Hebrew, Arabic, and English were designated as the official languages in Palestine.

President Harding's Shipping Board was headed to a conference, giving us a glimpse into regular men's ware of the period.

It was summer, and therefore warm, which explains the straw boater hat.  Nonetheless, this fellow was otherwise wearing a three piece suit.

Note the watch chain.

Another three piece suit, but this fellow has an early version of a fedora that he's carrying.  Note the watch chain yet again.

Also, this fellow has rimless glasses, but they're the old style with the bridge that rested on the nose.  I.e, no nose pieces.

Dressed for traveling, and with a suit that's a bit rumply, this fellow has opted for a wool newsboy cap, something I wear in the winter myself, but not in the summer.  Also a three piece suit and he also has a watch chain.

We'll throw in this Army aviator whose photo was taken the same day for an unrelated reason.

Lt. Paul Wilkins in the uniform of that period.

The Semi Centennial Geyser erupted in Yellowstone.

Thursday July 28, 1921. Parliament and the Church of Scotland.

Parliament passed the Church of Scotland Act of 1921, making the Presbyterian church in Scotland independent in religious matters while retaining its status as the Scottish national church.  The act provided.

Church of Scotland Act 1921

1921 CHAPTER 29

An Act to declare the lawfulness of certain Articles declaratory of the Constitution of the Church of Scotland in matters spiritual prepared with the authority of the General Assembly of the Church.

[28th July 1921]

Whereas certain articles declaratory of the constitution of the Church of Scotland in matters spiritual have been prepared with the authority of the General Assembly of the Church, with a view to facilitate the union of other Churches with the Church of Scotland, which articles are set out in the Schedule to this Act, and together with any modifications of the said articles or additions thereto made in accordance therewith are hereinafter in this Act referred to as " the Declaratory Articles " :

And whereas it is expedient that any doubts as to the lawfulness of the Declaratory Articles should be removed :

Be it therefore enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

1Effect of Declaratory Articles.

The Declaratory Articles are lawful articles, and the constitution of the Church of Scotland in matters spiritual is as therein set forth, and no limitation of the liberty, rights and powers in matters spiritual therein set forth shall be derived from any statute or law affecting the Church of Scotland in matters spiritual at present in force, it being hereby declared that in all questions of construction the Declaratory Articles shall prevail, and that all such statutes and laws shall be construed in conformity therewith and in subordination thereto, and all such statutes and laws in so far as they are inconsistent with the Declaratory Articles are hereby repealed and declared to be of no effect.

2Other Churches not to be prejudiced.

Nothing contained in this Act or in any other Act affecting the Church of Scotland shall prejudice the recognition of any other Church in Scotland as a Christian Church protected by law in the exercise of its spiritual functions.

3Jurisdiction of civil courts.

Subject to the recognition of the matters dealt with in the Declaratory Articles as matters spiritual, nothing in this Act contained shall affect or prejudice the jurisdiction of the civil courts in relation to any matter of a civil nature.

4Citations and commencement.

This Act may be cited as the Church of Scotland Act, 1921, and shall come into operation on such date as His Majesty may fix by Order in Council after the Declaratory Articles shall have been adopted by an Act of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland with the consent of a majority of the Presbyteries of the Church.

Scotland became a Presbyterian country in 1560 when the Reformation hit the country, following only shortly after King Henry VIII separated the Church of England from Rome. The story in Scotland is complicated and tied up with that of England's which was attempting to force a union at the time.  The origins of the Scottish Reformation has its beginnings in Europe where some Scottish religious figures were exposed to characters of the Reformation on the continent.  The attempted forced union by England and the competing claims of the adherents of Queen Mary created additional tensions. Added to that, the Catholic Church in Scotland and the Scottish government made little effort to prevent individuals from espousing Protestantism.  The turmoil associated with the reign of King James V and Queen Mary ultimately politicized the situation and gave John Knox, like Luther a one time Catholic Priest, an opening to create a Protestant fissure.

It also created a long-running peculiar situation in that Presbyterianism resisted being an established church for a long time and the English crown, once Scotland was subject to it, had the model of the Church of England which was much closer to the Crown and, ultimately after a long period of religious strife, less Protestant than the Presbyterian Church.  The status took all the way until 1921 to basically resolve.

Like most Protestant churches worldwide the Church of Scotland, or rather the Presbyterian Church, has suffered a large decline over the decades.  Often presented as a current crisis, in reality the close adherence to the Presbyterian church has been in decline for many decades.  The Presbyterian Church is a Calvinist church traditionally and the Church of Scotland tended to be extremely stern in its views.  As with England, but in a more pronounced way, some areas of Scotland never did abandon the Catholic Church and in the 19th Century, Irish immigrants to Scotland increased their numbers.  By the 2010s only 32% of Scots claimed membership in the Church of Scotland while 16% were Catholic. While scandals have hurt the Church in Scotland, as elsewhere in the European world, Catholics outnumber Presbyterians in some Scottish districts presently. In the late 2010s a study suggested that by the mid 2020s Catholic Church would resume its status as the largest church in Scotland, which of course does not set aside the fact that the majority of Scots "unchurched", but basically Christian.  

The Presbyterian Church in the United States was heavily associated with Scottish immigrants at one time. This would be much less true today.

Life magazine came out on this date, with a cover of a dog disrupting a tea party of sorts.

May 6, 1941. Firsts

Joseph Stalin became the premier of the Soviet Union, replacing Molotov.  Molotov went into second position.

1937 portrait of Stalin.

Not that it would matter, as Stalin was the head of the party, which made him the defacto head of state.

Stalin would form his first government, which would last until 1946, the following day.

Liberty Aircraft plant, Long Island, New York.  May 6, 1941.  I'm unfamiliar with this company, but it apparently lasted until 1987.

Serbs staged a rebellion in Sanski Most against the fascist government of Serbia installed by the Nazis.

The Luftwaffe commenced two nights of bombing on Greenrock, Scotland.

Today was the first flight of the XP47, which would become the legendary P47 fighter.  The plane had been developed in a mere eight months.

The P47 provides a good example of the extraordinary rapid development of aircraft in this period. At the time, the P40 was the USAAC's most significant fighter.  The P47 was different from it in every fashion, including its massive size which accommodated a massive engine.

On the same day, Igor Sikorsky set a new record for helicopter flight endurance, which still wasn't long.

Bob Hope performed his first stand up performance for troops.  He would, of course, famously do this at least throughout the Vietnam War.

Hope is either an acquired taste or one of those acts that's best set in the context of their original times.  I can recall seeing televised performances from the Vietnam War, and they're just not funny.

Vichy France reached an agreement with Germany to provide material support to the Iraqi rebels, although the government never ratified it.  It did allow the Germans to use airbases in Syria to support the Iraqi insurgency, which they would make use of.

March 14, 1941. The Blitz over Scotland, Italian submarines in the North Atlantic, Japanese offensive in China.

British troops took meals and were photographed on this day in St. Andrew's House, which is now the seat of the Scottish Parliament.

Serving during what is now regarded as Britain's dark days of the war, these men would have nonetheless have had a hard time imagining a United Kingdom with more than one parliament and being in the current state of being at least somewhat disunited, let alone that kingdom not having an Empire.

In Leeds, the city would sustain the worst night of the Leeds Blitz. Clydeside was destroyed on the second night of raids against it.  You can read more about that here:

Clydeside bombed again

In  China, the Japanese would launch as assault at Shanggao which would result in a decisive Chinese victory.

The SS Western Chief, formerly a U.S. naval cargo vessel but now a civilian cargo ship, was sunk by an Italian submarine in the North Atlantic.

We tend to not even think of the Italians having submarines in the Battle of the Atlantic, but in fact their submarine fleet was the largest in the world at the start of World War Two and their commitment to the Atlantic early in the war equaled that of the Germans.

A  Marcello class submarine in German service in the Inland Sea, Japan, in August, 1944. This submarine had been Comandante Cappelini in Italian service prior to their surrender to the Allies and would go on to Japanese service as the  IJN I-503 after Germany's surrender to the Allies.

The submarine in question was the Emo, a Marcello class submarine that was sunk in the Mediterranean in 1942.  

The story of Italian submarines during the war is not only largely forgotten, but complicated as well.  About half their fleet was destroyed in action as the war went on, and a surprising number of their boats were converted to transport craft to run to the Far East.

On the topic of submarines, German film maker Wolfgang Petersen, who filmed the submarine masterpiece Das Boot, was born on this day in 1941.

And speaking of the Japanese, President Roosevelt met with the Japanese Ambassador late in the day, on this day in 1941.

The British 2019 Election. The tell of the tape.

Conservatives took 364 seats.

Labour Party took 203.

In Scotland, the Scottish Nationalist Party took 48.

The United Kingdom, Scottish protests aside, will leave the EU.  This will probably occur by the end of January.

A new British immigration system will be ushered in which will be similar to the Australian one, requiring immigrants to have a job before entering the country.  EU citizens will have no preference over non EU immigrants.

Scottish nationalist will howl, but their ability to impact anything will decline.  Indeed, this result can be partially attributed to the fact that a referendum occurred on Scottish independence some years ago, something that was wholly unnecessary under the law but which boosted the power of Scottish nationalist, something which had been largely absent before that.  They'll howl now, but they'll be along for the ride, like it or not.

The Labour Party will start to reform and retreat from the hard left positions it was espousing.

The EU will be weakened significantly.  Anti EU sentiment exists in numerous localities within the EU itself, particularly outside of the few dominant nations, but even within them.  And the resurgence of the British right will lead to a resurgence in the European right as well, which is much further to the right than the British right is.

The British Conservatives Win Big (but Scottish Nationalist do too).

And so nationalism, both of the union and disunion type, triumphed over a British left that was going more left.

The Labour Party's defeat today in the UK was blistering.  Boris Johnson, whom some compare to Donald Trump, probably inaccurately, took a Conservative Party that lacked a majority six weeks ago and demolished a British left tainted by a leader who made anti Semitic comments while his already left wing party went further left.

So the results are that a British Conservative Party will dominate in a way that it hasn't for decades, even while Scottish nationalism appears resurgent.  Some predict that Northern Ireland will turn toward the Irish Republic, although quite frankly that seems extremely unlikely, and that the United Kingdom will fall apart.

I doubt that, but this British election does have a lesson for the American one.  Simply detesting an opponent and claiming he's boorish isn't a platform.  And in an era in which old nationalism, of both the conservative and radical variety, are resurgent, being an internationalist isn't a lesson for success.

The United States isn't the United Kingdom, but U.S. Democrats should take note.  Labourites were counting on Johnson's own character defeating the Conservatives not only miscalculated, they didn't calculate at all.  American Democrats counting on Trump defeating himself in the fall of the next year may likewise be making a tremendous miscalculation.  Indeed, my prediction is that the impeachment that the Democratic Party is about to launch the country into will turn first into a failed impeachment trail and then be used by President Trump as a bloody flag during the election.  It'll become the symbol of a "do nothing Congress" allied to the "Deep State".

Exactly how the Labour Party should have approached this election isn't clear to me.  It would seem, however, that opposing Brexit, which they had to do, shouldn't have been the hill that they chose to die on, if they did.  But beyond that, I suspect the following comment by a Labour MP sums up a lot quite quickly:

Caroline Flint

@CarolineFlintMP

We’re going to hear the Corbynistas blame it on Brexit and the Labour Uber Remainers blaming Corbyn. Both are to blame for what looks like a terrible night for Labour. Both have taken for granted Labour’s heartlands. Sorry we couldn’t offer you a Labour Party you could trust.

And that too should provide a lesson for U.S. Democrats.  Demographics that the Democrats have depended upon for decades are now showing disinterest in the party at what should be, for them, alarming rates.  That doesn't mean that the some voters are becoming Republicans, they probably only are in very small numbers. But it does mean that they are no longer reliable Democratic voters.  In spite of that, the Democrats have been taking positions that are contrary to these demographics even while basically claiming them as their own.

Whatever the lessons for American politicians are, I doubt they'll be learned. Labour learned a lesson tonight, but it may be years before they really digest the lesson to where they can adjust to it.  And, for that matter, the Scottish Nationalist Party may have learned false lessons in the same way that the Parti Quebecois has had, and then been forced to adjust to, over the years, that being a protest against Ottowa, or London, doesn't really necessarily mean that its a vote to depart.

The clan badge of the Clan MacGillivray

I don't know the story behind this, but if I had a clan, I'd want it to have a badge this cool.

Mid Week At Work: Pipers of the Band of the Air Force Reserve Pipe Band and Sean Connery, in 2001.

Scotland votes No.

The United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will continue to be.  As was really self evident, a "Yes" vote for independence would have meant the end of the United Kingdom, leaving it effectively the country of England with two much smaller nationalities appended to it.

Good for the majority of Scottish voters, who recognized that it is their country, and in the modern world, a Scottish separation from the United Kingdom would not have made political, national, historical, or economic, good sense.