andrewducker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
andrewducker) wrote2017-07-13 12:00 pm
andrewducker) wrote2017-07-13 12:00 pm
Entry tags:
- age,
- algorithm,
- apocalypse,
- autism,
- bitcoin,
- canada,
- china,
- comic,
- competition,
- decentralisation,
- design,
- dilbert,
- disease,
- diversity,
- dna,
- economics,
- education,
- facebook,
- fail,
- fire,
- france,
- games,
- genetics,
- guns,
- history,
- horses,
- internet,
- kazakhstan,
- law,
- life,
- links,
- money,
- mother,
- movies,
- music,
- ohforfuckssake,
- plastic,
- politics,
- pthalates,
- restaurant,
- saudiarabia,
- scotland,
- society,
- software,
- sports,
- storage,
- tax,
- technology,
- terrorism,
- thefuture,
- time,
- uk,
- unix,
- usa,
- video,
- war
Interesting Links for 13-07-2017
- How video encoding works (a very simple introduction)
- (tags: video Technology )
- The touching effect of putting an autistic hero into a computer game
- (tags: games diversity autism )
- Overwatch: Bigger than the Premier League? (No. But people are trying...)
- (tags: games sports money competition )
- Is Decentralized Storage Sustainable?
- (tags: design storage internet economics decentralisation )
- Greening announces 'evidence champion' for schools
- (tags: Education )
- Pthalates linked to chronic disease in men
- (tags: pthalates plastic disease )
- Government refuses to release report into Saudi Arabia’s funding of Islamist extremism in UK
- (tags: saudiarabia terrorism politics uk )
- Inside the World of Chinese Bitcoin ‘Mining’ (Some great photos)
- (tags: bitcoin china )
- At 56, a ‘Light Bulb’ Goes Off and a Firefighter Emerges
- (tags: fire age life )
- The British View the War of 1812 Quite Differently Than Americans Do
- As a Brit I have to admit that I had no idea that there _was_ a war with America in 1812
(tags: war uk usa france canada history ) - The Facebook Algorithm Mom Problem
- (tags: facebook algorithm mother OhForFucksSake fail )
- Radiohead releases a surprise ZX Spectrum program for OK Computer anniversary
- (tags: music software )
- Visa To Pay Restaurants To Stop Taking Cash
- (tags: restaurant money Technology )
- A Kingdom for a Horse: Kokpar and the Future of Kazakhstan
- “There are no Kazakhs,” he says. “Stalin made us up.”
(tags: kazakhstan horses ) - Scientists replay movie encoded in DNA
- (tags: dna genetics movies )
- "I think I am becoming accustomed to the sight of guns."
- (tags: guns society UK France Scotland )
- Unix Time 1,500M – Friday July 14 02:40GMT
- (tags: time unix thefuture )
- New corporate criminal offences of failure to prevent tax evasion effective from 30 September
- (tags: law tax uk )
- Post-apocalyptic Dilbert
- (tags: dilbert apocalypse comic )
Re: The weird difference in histories
If you think that Parliament has been unquestionably supreme, and the monarch a nullity in government policy, since the Civil War, then your knowledge of history is as blunt as the axe that cut off Charles I's head. The supremacy of Parliament in the final instance was not established until the settlement after the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89, and even that was only a matter of putting some curbs on the monarch's power and establishing Parliament as supreme in case of irreconcilable conflict. When there was not irreconcilable conflict, the government still worked for the king, in a real and definite sense, for about the next century or so, and he had the unquestionable right to fire any government he was unhappy with, so long as the successors he chose could gain the consent of Parliament - which (with exceptions) he usually could, as in those days most MPs and peers had no firm party attachment and could be wooed by patronage. It wasn't until 1834 that was the last time a king fired his government out of his own will, and only by then it didn't work because by then party lines had firmed up too much; since then the power has gone into abeyance. Even after that, PMs like Gladstone and Disraeli had to take Victoria's wishes into account with their policies; that the monarch is completely apolitical and signs off on whatever the government says without complaint is a 20th century development.
As for the American Revolution, the Americans had a strong suspicion that the government was doing what the king wanted them to do, and in fact this was correct. That they were doing so in the king's name as well as with his approval made him the suitable head to blame. When underlings are doing the will of the head, you point to the head.