The dreadfully stultified pageantry of the British state has been on full display the last couple of days, all mouldy ermine, fraying gold braid and musty velvet. But forms which evolved as a vibrant display of Imperial might have transmuted into rituals of obeisance, as the nonogenerian Prince Philip stumbles behind the Chinese President along lines of men wearing decaying bears on their heads. The sickness of Britain’s monarchical system was never more bluntly revealed than by the rictus grins of the aristocratic clowns balancing their tiaras at the state banquet.
The Chinese are the imperial masters now. Cameron begs them to build a nuclear power station for which the British state guarantees it will pay double the market price for electricity produced, for twenty years. And a government which has just announced the extension of thought crime to the expression of non-violent or anti-violent thought deemed “extreme”, has no locus to talk about human rights, a concept at least as alien to Teresa May as it is to the Chinese Communist Party. Britain has its own war criminals like Blair and Straw running around, immune and very wealthy.
The British state is an immoral entity which I view with disgust. That is what drives for me the imperative to early Scottish Independence to be rid of it. Every day as a British citizen is like bathing in sewage.
You mention the Dear Global Leader. He’s relevant.
I’m reasonably certain that Blair – running around, very wealthy – has been instrumental in our snivelling approach to China. And semi-officially so. He’s been dodging in and out of Beijing for some time, and attended – though many Western leaders ostentatiously held their noses – the recent WW2 commemoration there. He’s just been to Vietnam for the second or third time this year, another country with appalling human rights and trade potential; we can probably expect the mouldering State formalities for Truong Tan Sang shortly.
One more thing –
Xi, responding to some weak querying of China’s steel-dumping efforts, said something to the effect that we needed to adopt Chinese practices to compete. Damn right. First and foremost being massive State investment and if necessary subsidy of our industrial base.
This very good advice will not be heard by the effete City spawn running us, obviously.
I agree – nauseating exhibition. The dear Queen and her oafish husband can’t have enjoyed it much either.
I fervently hope when QE2 passes on they may baulk at a king Charles III and abolish the monarchy once and for all.
“The British state is an immoral entity which I view with disgust” and “bathing in sewage” – absolutely wonderful description of our enforced servitude as “British citizens”! Kow Tow interests me – is it Cantonese? Or is just the usual British guff of being the only people who speak proper? As “hoy polloy” for “hee pollee”. The Mandarin for Kow Tow is pronounced Coe Toe (“lower the head”). Can anyone enlighten me? – I’m a linguistics fanatic. Whatever the answer our wonderful British Governement are very good at it!
Bill McLean 9:56 am
http://www.etymonline.com concurs, Bill:
kowtow (n.)
also kow-tow, 1804, from Chinese k’o-t’ou custom of touching the ground with the forehead to show respect or submission, literally “knock the head,” from k’o “knock, bump” + t’ou “head.” The verb in the figurative sense of “act in an obsequious manner” is from 1826. Related: Kowtowed; kowtowing.”
If someone could explain to me how gifting our energy infrastructure to another country in return for a doubling of the price to domestic consumers is concomitant with a “long term economic plan” for a “high wage, low tax, low welfare” society, I would be grateful.
“Cameron begs them to build a nuclear power station for which the British state guarantees it will pay double the market price for electricity produced, for twenty years.”
Thirty-five years, actually. And it’s not strictly “double the market price” for that period – it’s (approximately) double the current market price, index linked to CPI. So if the wholesale electricity price rise a rate at over CPI, then the ratio would reduce over time. Of course, on the other hand, if it rises at a lower rate, then the ratio goes up… I wouldn’t be interested in taking any kind of bet as to which is the more likely scenario. But important point is that it’s thirty-five years, which is nearly double the normal contract term for these sorts of deals.
Warm, slimy and textured, nothing wrong with the sewage so long as you keep your mouth closed.
High wages, low taxes, hidden welfare for Us: Low wages, hidden taxes, no welfare for Them. Remember Cameron consistently refers to Our country….*wink*
“In illusion comfort lies”
EU membership directly contradicts the concept of independence. How can some of you not see that?
Many of us are tired of the way this country has been going for the last few decades, indeed blaming it all on Whitehall is a convenient scapegoat.
Dig a little deeper and it should become glaringly apparent that the corporate ‘global’ forces who call the tune in so many aspects of our lives, to which our political class answer to, take their orders directly from Brussels.
So Scotland remaining in the EU but breaking away from Westminster will have little real tangible effect for them in the longer term.
The true ‘winners’ in Europe will those who break away from the failing European project, whilst they still have the chance.
In Pinyin (romanised script for Mandarin) I think “kou Tou” (I cannot here apply the apprropriate accents that distinguish different meanings for the four tones that are in turn represented by different and unique ideograms in written Chinese); actually means literally “knock on the head”, but became a ritualised form of deference in Chinese culture.
A bunch of old waxworks? Princes’ living in glass palaces shouldn’t throw stones.
“our enforced servitude as “British citizens””
We’re not citizens, we’re subjects. Britain remains a fiefdom and the poor peasants can’t even properly own land. The fee simple is retained by the Crown and we are but tenants.
Well talking about human rights I think the Chinese president should bring up the case of Wang Yam, a Chinese dissident, whose grandfather had been Mao’s third in command. Yam is serving 20 years in a UK jsil after a trial in which the defence was held in secret on the grounds of national security. Yam wants to take his case to the ECtHR but there’s a contempt order which prevents him from placing detail of his defence.
http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/jun/22/wang-yam-secret-murder-trial-evidence-strasbourg-right-fair-trial
For clarity in Manadarin this is fourth tone, followed by first tone (kòu tóu); the voicing is sharply downward and abrupt, followed by upward and open. The deference ritual to a superior required the person to kneel and touch the forehead on the ground, but I think by the early 20th century and the collapse of the last Ching dynasty it was often restricted to a bow of various depths (I may well be corrected on this last).
Thanks for your responses Sixer and John S Warren. The meaning literally and figuratively is well understood. What I was interested in was the pronunciation used in English – ie Kowtow sounds like cowtow. In Mandarin it is pronounced Coetoe. Question is is the pronunciation we in the West use Cantonese or is it just a complete mispronunciation like we use the Greek phrase Hoi Polloi but should be said hee polloi, aspirated or not. John S – the best form of Romanization I came across was called GR (GwoYeu Ruomatzyh – national language in Romanized form) which defined the tone by the spelling of the word. eg shan (1st tone) meaning mountain; shann (4th tone)meaning “good, kind). Once the spelling/tonal system is understood it does away with tone marks etc! Sorry about being off topic.
“The Chinese are the imperial masters now. Cameron begs them to build a nuclear power station for which the British state guarantees it will pay double the market price for electricity produced, for twenty years.”
£90 per MWh for 35 years sounds like a damn good deal to me, far better than off shore wind. Britain’s power stations are coming to the end of their useful life, we have to do something and this looks to me by far the best we could hope for.
The Nationalists would have us huddled round peat fires reading by candle light in 20 years time, a good argument against separatism.
Fred – I sincerely hope you are not going to be disappointed! Do you really believe that the price will be the same for 35 years. You may not remember the promise to the people of the UK that nuclear powered electricity would be FREE! Do you really believe that nuclear power is the way forward anyway? One nuclear accident in Uk will see us all huddled “round peat fires and reading by candle light” forever! Pity you see this debate as political.
I do not claim to be an expert on Mandarin or – Cantonese about which I knowl little, but I understand has eight tones. No doubt our pronounciation derived from the British presence in Hong Kong, and before that the concessions. For example the word “char” for tea,may have derived from from the Mandarin “chá” (tea); the sound is quite similar, but no doubt for many words that became familiar in English (but detached from the original language) there would be distortions, mis-hearings that would become commonplace, especially in languages as different as English and Chinese.
Fred at 10:12 and Fred at 10:52, are you two different Freds?
A remarkable piece of English prose. The sewage on the other hand is far more stinking than first understood. The Great Kowtow has reason.
According to a respected and valued Royal Navy Chief, it is an attempt by Britain gain a secret or sealed agreement (pact) with China (in return for £30 billion worth of nuclear power deals) that will legally put on ice any action from China with Britain’s impending resistance and intervention with Russia in her present and future role in the Middle-East; esp. establishing a political solution in Syria. This is the thrust of agent Cameron’s meeting today.
Thanks again John – the British presence in HK may well be the reason for Kowtow – in effect then it is probably Cantonese. Char (2nd tone) is Mandarin for tea. Chai is Hindi for tea and may have come into English due to the British presence in India. Anyway all very interesting. Thank you! Shieh shieh nii!
Ha ha wonderful! Decaying bears on their heads is lovely. And I share your disgust with the British State. What amazes me watching all the nonsense on TV yesterday is just how heretical that thought would be to the vast majority of people. On the Jeremy Vine radio programme yesterday they were queuing up to phone in and excoriate China’s human rights record, seemingly unaware of our record on torture and rendition, mass illegal surveillance, and of course the small matter of a million dead people in Iraq for whose human rights our leaders clearly didn’t give a stuff. It’s just a world of total make-believe.
Clark – The state of the first Fred (Good Fred) is good, the second (Bad Fred), not good.
Some distinction other than the auto-avatars might be helpful. Good Fred May predate Bad Fred, perhaps old lags on the blog can adjudicate.
Thanks both Bill and John. I find it interesting also!
Just been reading about the Garden of Perfect Brightness, which is a name that means little to most British people but is a very sore point in China. It was a spectacular summer palace of the Emperor, filled with museums, libraries, art galleries and the like, and stuffed to the eaves with priceless works of art and ancient treasures. In the Opium War – where we attacked a country to force it to allow us to sell its people opium – Lord Elgin ordered the British army to sack it. This was a reprisal for the murder of some Europeans. Apparently it took them days to destroy everything so extensive was it, and even the soldiers complained about what a horrible job it was. A lot of the priceless artefacts ended up in British stately homes and regimental museums. Still to this day. I understand the museums avoid the use of the word ‘loot’ in labelling the stuff. Although they weren’t so squeamish in the 19th century. A painting of a dog stolen from the rubble and presented to her Madge the Queen was nicknamed ‘Looty’.
I am wondering if the extended discussion on Mandarin etymology and inflexion might not conceal a desire on the part of its participants to evade the issue. Which is that globalisation trumps morality and national industrial viability.
“Fred – I sincerely hope you are not going to be disappointed! Do you really believe that the price will be the same for 35 years. You may not remember the promise to the people of the UK that nuclear powered electricity would be FREE! Do you really believe that nuclear power is the way forward anyway? One nuclear accident in Uk will see us all huddled “round peat fires and reading by candle light” forever! Pity you see this debate as political.”
I think in 20 years time people will consider £90 MWh was a damn good deal. Off shore wind is already costing £160 MWh.
We could build coal powered plants and generate cheaper while the planet lasts, gas powered plants and go fracking under the Firth of Forth. Got to provide base load somehow.
I think more people find it distasteful than we imagine. My octogenarian father looked at BBC News yesterday and said, “Could this get any more pointlessly sycophantic?” Although this is a bowdlerised version of what he actually did say.
I really can’t keep up today. Couldn’t agree more with Craig’s post. Then we have “migrants” landing at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, which is British sovereign soil. And, at the risk of tasteless humour regarding this tide of desperate humanity, I just feel like saying, “Take that, British state. And here’s to many more.” And then there’s the EU, suggesting that CORPORATIONS should pay some tax. But the British state is still insisting that poor people mustn’t have tax credits.
And, and, and.
It’s all too much. Really.
Ba’al Zevul 11:20 am
Not on mine: I’m an editor by trade and it brings the nerd out in me.