When Prince Charles visited Canada back in the 1980s, Flora MacDonald was Foreign Minister and MP for Kingston and the Isles. Needless to say, they found the historical parallel delicious, and she took him for a tour of the Canadian Thousand Islands. Not quite the original, but fun.
They’re “The Masked Avengers”. During a recent road trip in Canada, I heard them on the radio talking about all the celebrities they’ve pranked. Apparently, they had great success with Britney Spears, being able to talk to her for a very long time before being hung up on.
Although, to give Brown his due, it was at his behest as Chancellor of the Exchequer that one of Tony Blair’s first items of business in 1997 was giving the Bank independence in setting monetary policy, much as the Federal Reserve has in the U.S.
No, I think it was actually Pierre Brassard (link to the English Wikipedia article, more info on the French Wikipedia one). That happened 15 years ago and I don’t think the Justiciers masqués existed yet.
Even if he did spend the next ten years beguiled and entirely in the thrall of neo-liberal ‘masters of the universe’ leading to the absurd and inexcusable state of the finances. Fucking clueless is what he was, they could have sold him London Bridge if the wanted - he’d have even jumped of it for them.
That Mervyn King had already publicly condemned the idea when appearing before the Treasury select committee - albeit earlier that same day - is, on balance, likely to have been rather more significant. No need to infer tacit influence by the Queen when Brown was facing openly declared opposition from the Bank of England.
I’m an American and don’t pay all that much attention to British politics, but even I can read that one:
The fact that they had lunch later in the same day was specifically intended to signal to Brown that she and MK had discussed the issue previously to MK’s appearance, and Brown was skating on thin ice with that proposal. She has some very real, and not at all theoretical power. She’s signaling that Brown’s political career might come to a very abrupt end if he carried on with that plan.
