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A political challenge From the Daily Mail:
Polish prince challenges Nigel Farage to a DUEL with swords over Ukip slurs on immigrants
And why not? Resort to the field of honour would be in accordance with prime ministerial precedent. Those were the days. The Sussex Advertiser of 23rd March 1829 blandly recorded, “His Grace was seen riding through the Horse-Guards at six o’clock on Saturday morning, and returned to Downing-street at eight.”
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Didn’t all end quite so blandly, of course (see US Secretary of the Treasury shot dead by US Vice President, passim). Just think of the fuss if the same were to happen today.
I think this sort of thing should be strongly encouraged amongst our political masters 😉
According to the established rules of dueling, the challenged party gets the choice of weapons. Farage should choose machine guns.
It would be terribly déclassé for a prince to fight a commoner (behead, yes: fight, no).
However, all is not lost. I believe your Prince Harry has some martial expertise? Perhaps he could serve as England’s Champion and meet Prince Janek on the field of honor. Or honour.
By all means, put the suggestion to Prince Janek, being careful to stand well in front of him to avoid trampling.
Why waste Harry? Chuck is the one Britain can most afford to lose.
Abe Lincoln was changed to a duel. He chose scatter guns at 6 paces…….
*challenged
Billll, is correct.
I do hope that you will favor us with an update once Farage has replied to the challenge. This could be interesting!
I presume that the prince has never actually heard Farage speak. If he had, he would never have offered the alternative of “a duel of words.” He wouldn’t stand a chance!
Mr Zylinski will have to wait behind the other son of European Nobility.
Yes it is an excellent idea.
On the choice of weapons…..
I believe the choice was traditionally restricted to sword or duelling pistol.
As someone with poor coordination I would choose duelling pistol.
I would still probably lose – but at least I would not look absurd, as I would do with the sword.
By the way, my father had a sword scar on his face (an accident at a fencing club in London – the button came off his opponents sword and they only had weak face masks in those days).
When Harry Marks visited Germany in the 1930s it was assumed to be duelling scar.
Of course Jews were not allowed in German student duelling clubs.
Oh dear how C18th. Perhaps the Polish “Prince?” should be reminded that in the early C21st the weapon de jure is the Minimi – at five paces and belt fed.
🙂
Hmmm? The media has presented UKIP as son of BNP and it seems to me Farage (and too many in his party) has lived down to expectations. Even from a purely tactical POV it makes no sense to focus on immigration – those voters will go with him anyway. I well understand Richard North’s frustration.
In particular when Farage makes such ridiculous comments as blaming his lateness on immigration, then I too want to shoot the idiot.
What TDK says. I don’t think UKIP is *just* about immigration, but I wish they would make it easier for me to convince others of this.
I have read the UKIP manifesto and whilst there are some good things in it there are also nutty things, impractical things and downright nastiness. And daft things. The benefits cap is daft as is preventing foreign immigrants/workers/tourists(?) from using the NHS. The last point depends on how is an ambulance crew meant to ascertain the nationality of an unconscious casualty? It is silly. I am all for rolling back the state but that is not UKIP is it. They seem to want to ring-fence it for Brits alone. They are not libertarian at all. They are Little Englanders. And their idea of individual bi-lateral trade deals is insane. How long would that take to do with everyone and perhaps more to the point that is not genuine free trade. We would exchange something close to free with Europe (which is not ideal – but better than nothing) for a bizarre form of mercantile system. And of course that assumes the rest play ball.
Nick M, I’m not sure that UKIP even pretend to be libertarian but I am sure that the NHS is definitely not.
If a brit who has paid into the NHS gets injured then he gets the ‘free at the point of delivery’ treatment. If a foreigner who hasn’t paid into the NHS and is not covered by any insurance gets injured then treat him and send him the bill. If he/she can’t afford to pay then I’m sure that a charity will step up to the plate. All those beeb execs on six figure salary could make a good start in setting up a charity, I’m sure.
As for the little englander jibe, I’m not sure that extracting us from the EU and setting out to make our way in the big wide world is exactly little, but there you go.
The libertarian ideal on immigration is open borders and no welfare. Take a poll of the country and the result is going to be strict limitation on immigration and lots of welfare.
The problem then for libertarians is how to get from here to there. Australian style immigration controls and a gradual weaning off of welfare seems to be the way to go.
Hell, I’d pay cash money to see that.
If memory serves (and does not double fault *this* time) the Prime Minister of Hungary fought a couple of duels in the period prior to the start of WWI.
As someone upthread pointed out, maybe duelling should be made legal again, for politicians,
And tar-and-feathers for the rest of us.