Thanks for the compliments Denis. I am sure you, like me, have engaged a few hundred or more discussions about Brexit lately. So at the moment I've got a lot of thoughts going on in my head about what's happening. It gets really frustrating when someone just throws it out there that Brexit was not really something THE PEOPLE, the everyday folk wanted to happen.(not aimed at Tom). Or whenever I hear the well used "What about the younger generation, Brexit is depriving them of a future" ...wtf are they even on about? What they are forgetting, what David Cameron & Conservative party obviously miscalculated, is that people like you and my dad were the young people that originally participated in the first referendum and have harbored voter regret.
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@Tom My perspective on Brexit definitely comes from loyalty to my family history. My standpoint is probably a bit antiquated (I'm nearing 40 though). Both sides of my parents families originate from a little town, called Malmesbury, and its surrounding villages, in Wiltshire, -- South West England. It's rural and very traditional area that was one of the last places in England to be connected to the water, electric, sewage system, believe it or not. My fathers family side has commoner status in Malmesbury. Freemen. They're entitled to an ancient form of social welfare set up by King ?thelstan in the 10th century. ?thelstan granted forever that the townsmen of Malmesbury have an area of land to house and graze animals for their loyalty in following him up north to the Battle of Brunanburh.
From wikipedia -
"At the Battle of Brunanburh in 937, King Athelstan of Wessex defeated an army of northern English and Scots and made a claim to become the first 'King of All England'. Helped by many men from Malmesbury, in gratitude he gave the townsfolk their freedom, along with 600 hides of land to the south of the town. The status of freemen of Malmesbury was passed down through the generations and remains to this day. It is likely, however, that the title of freeman, or commoner, was given to tradesmen and craftsmen coming into the town during the early Middle Ages, so the claim of direct lineage from the men who fought with King Athelstan to the present day commoners is unlikely, though possible. Since at least the 17th century, however, the right has been only handed down from father to son or son-in-law. There is a maximum of 280 commoners. The organisation is said to be the 'most exclusive club' in the world, as to enter it one has to be born to a freeman or marry the daughter of one."
And that promise to the people of Malmesbury does still remain. About 10 years ago my mum's cousin fell on hard times when her husband died, she was able to claim commoner status, she was fortunate to qualify for one of the homes (very cheap rent) on the land ?thelstan granted to the people. The local council authority has honored a very antiquated rule. Pretty cool!
Ancient ritual and power structure that was still conducting affairs until relatively recently.
http://www.athelstanmuseum.org.uk/governance_warden_freemen.htmlhttp://www.athelstanmuseum.org.uk/governance_commoners.htmlTo some, a secret society, secret oaths and to secret proceedings, even within a small town like Malmesbury.
A distant relative of my nans Maurice B Clark he had to flee Malmesbury in 1847. He was 20 at the time. According to his surviving American family (who we're in touch with all these years later) Maurice witnessed the local drunken copper dishing out some injustice to a market trader and apparently decided to knock the copper spark out in the town square. Maurice's parents scraped the money together quicksmart and packed him off to America to avoid certain jail time. Maurice settled in Ohio. He studied at Folsom's college with a young John D Rockefeller. Maurice and John D went into business together creating the early version of Standard Oil -- they created $500,000 of trade in their first year. John D eventually bought Maurice and his brother's out of company and Maurice remained in the oil industry making millions. Maurice was a prominent abolitionist -- he disliked injustice. He was a vocal suporter of freeing slaves. I often wonder what he'd think about his grandson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_C._Teagle who seems to have been a not only a traitor but hoping for Hitler's success. Walter Teagle was a member of the Quill and Dagger and Alpha Delta Phi. Took over the oil fields in Iran for Standard oil. He was a director in IG Farben. He was propping up the German war machine with his synthetic oil. He even screwed the USA over and prevented the military accessing exclusive patents owned by Standard oil and IG Farben. I doubt Maurice would have approved of his grandson's actions. It's kinda interesting where the loyalties lie of these secret club type members -- even when faced with the choice of family and nation. My uncle has visited the Teagle family, and they've come to the UK, a couple of times and apparently they're decent enough people. I do worry that the majority of our politicians are members of these secret societies. Some of their actions don't square up. And I think they're capable of selling out almost anything.
In a way it does come back to the Kennedy's. I believe they must have had dealings with secret societies. They were extremely rich kids from political stock.
Maybe the Kennedy's represented a secret society and they just lost out in a turf war?
