Comments by "DS9TREK" (@DS9TREK) on "David Starkey Talks" channel.

  1. England also has a history of ruling from the bottom up. In fact, it's what the English civil war was about. Royalists believed that power came from God the king. Parliamentarians believed power comes from the people and goes upwards
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  2. ​ @lesterbeedell9725  Starkey would never utter something so stupid
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  3. Well, not most. By land area only 11 states are bigger than Britain, and by population none are bigger.
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  4. The Bill of Rights isn't a constitution, it's a Bill of Rights.
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  5. England wasn't a colony though. By your argument we can say the British Empire still exists and England is its core.
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  6. MPs already derive their power from the people in deed if not in words. A directly elected prime minister would simply make it official. And I don't see how it would change anything for the monarchy. The relationship would stay the same - the PM runs the government, the monarch is informed of events and advises.
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  7.  @lydiamalone1859  America became a democracy in the 20th century. Amending the constitution to make the senate elected and having primary elections for presidential nominees and every other public office made America one.
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  8. He has confused Mandelson with Alistair Campbell. The former was an MP, the latter was the special advisor, or SPAD for short.
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  9. No, he used incarnate correctly.
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  10. 🙄
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  11. ​ @AbAb-th5qe why so defensive?
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  12. @Big Bazza yes we do. Boris is guilty as sin.
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  13. You started with a fallacy and continued from there - that rules must be written down. No they don't. As long as everyone involved knows the rules, that's good enough.
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  14.  @lapitop4206  how so? A libertarian state would be richer and therefore able to afford a better military than a more big state country. Singapore is a good example of this. Although it's not libertarian it is a free market economy and is richer than all of its bigger neighbours. Or to go historical, it's why an England of 6 or 7 million could always outcompete the much larger nations of France and Spain.
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  15. TV and live events keep him busy.
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  16. Starkey is correct. Without history and tradition a constitution isn't worth the paper it's written on. I mean, give the US Constitution to the Afghan's, Chinese, Iranians, Russians or North Koreans, do you think it will last more than 5 minutes and turn them all into Americans? The US isn't the great country it is because the Founding Fathers wrote high minded words onto paper. It's the great country it is because it's a product of English history and principles.
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  17. Hitchens is an absolute cynic without an optimistic bone in his body. We can reform the Conservatives
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  18. I think he liked women far too much too become a pope
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  19. But the PM does use the prerogative powers exclusively. Look at prorogation where the Lord President of the Council read out the PMs order for prorogation and the Queen could only say "approved". The only advice from the PM that the Queen can legally refuse is advice on who their successor as PM should be. Prerogative powers rest with the PM
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  20. The flaw in your understanding is you imply all cultures will eventually develop to a point where they match Anglosphere values. You suggest that when you say "some are at different places in development". That implies that eventually everyone will catch up to our value system. We need to accept that most cultures won't develop that way. There's nothing inevitable about obtaining rights for women, free speech or democracy. We developed those things as a consequence of our unique culture, and different cultures don't care about or want those things. You see this in the hosts of the next football world cup, Qatar. Homosexuality is illegal there and they constantly send out messages saying "respect our culture and values - don't do anything to promote homosexual rights". They have no more desire to be like us than we have to be like them.
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  21. India is still part of the Commonwealth. I don't know why Starky says it's a former member. Maybe he means it's a former realm.
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  22. I read this in the voice of Sir Christopher Lee
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  23. Nah, just stripping the royal and noble titles would be enough. As a republican, the only thing about monarchy that offends me is the concept of a person holding office through accident of birth. At least we the people can remove 'king' Boris at any election.
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  24. Butt hurt much?
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  25. Plenty of religions are accepting of homosexuality. Quakers and Liberal Jews carry out religious same-sex marriage.
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  26.  @chrisbanks6659  maybe the time has some special meaning to him. I wondered if it was related to his partner who passed away
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  27. ​ @AbAb-th5qe a president wouldn't be able to do much either. See the president's of Ireland, Israel, Germany, etc for what a British president could be
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  28.  @Robin-Smith  not all of us are made of money
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  29. Some MPs build such a strong relationship with their constituents that they can secure election under any party name or none. Douglas Carswell proved this.
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  30.  @Valencetheshireman927  go on, justify your claim that the Royals prevent politicians becoming too powerful.
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  31. They aren't actors
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  32.  @uingaeoc3905  calling himself a gay man isn't identifying as gay?
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  33. Parliament always succeeds in removing a monarch who needs to be removed. We are a crowned Republic.
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  34. If a Labour government had made the lockdown rules and Boris broke them, I'd be cheering him for sticking up two fingers to the tyrants. But Boris made those rules and his state agents (the police and courts) used force and fines to enforce them on us. I can't abide hypocrisy. I just can't.
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  35. No country is a full democracy. Switzerland comes closest but even it falls short.
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  36.  @wcfheadshots240  he was still Duke of York after his brother died. And remained Duke York until the title merged with the Crown upon the death of Henry VII.
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