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If Charles had won in 1643, he'd have booted the Calvinist bishops out and installed candidates more suitable to the power behind his throne (Henrietta.)

Seafaring Hasidics? But they won't eat crustaceans and bottom-feeders. The sea is not the natural stamping-ground.....Anyway, the Temple would fall through the bottom of the ships of those days. All sea-faring civilisations of those times had a land base. Assuming they didn't get past the...

From what we know of Sir Kit's character I don't suppose he thought about the puritans at all whilst building St Pauls. In any event, by 1670 everyone in England had forgotten about the puritans and were getting on with the shagging, spearheaded (if that's the term) by the King. Hawkshaw, now...

In 1940 Eden was not regarded as particularly senior. Anyway, he was a dedicated party man (So was Churchill, but he had been in the wilderness - there's a difference.) Would Attlee have agreed to serve under Eden in a Coalition Government, assuming such a government was needed? Also, Eden had...

I have read quite a few regimental histories of the British Army 1944/45 and, whilst the soldiers were interested in ducking (having no wish to get killed just before the end of the war) there is absolutely no indication of mutiny in the field. There was the occasional mutiny usually caused by...

Of course the regions of the EU have acquired more prominence. This is because prominence comes from power and power comes from money. The EU has been pumping money specifically into the regions, in order to weaken the power of the nation states. This is an example of political bodies seeking to...

One of the problems with Hendryk's theory of future political development towards a superstate (by the way, a superstate is what this thread is all about) is that, as the great Sir Humphrey Appelby says, any political body will seek to increase its power and influence, usually at the expense of...

Of course we know it was the Red Dragon or some allied ninjas who staged the attempt to kill our beloved sovereign. Three weeks later she attended a performance of The Mikado at the Savoy, and was said to be "not amused." What more proof do you need?

I forgot:- (h) We want to introduce them to the wonders of our religion, by killing them. and (i) We think our boundaries would look much tidier if your land was included in them and, anyway, some of your people speak our language. Of course the aliens speak our language - I've seen this on...

I can't calculate the odds on the other world being first as we don't have enough information on the other world, its resources, weather, flora and fauna. Never give odds without knowledge, ask any bookie. As for moral opposition to our invading, the answer is, yes, a great deal, from the folk...

A complete collapse is difficult to see, as both the USSR and Germany had large standing armies. A splintering of the states might be possible, caused on the one hand by economic pressures and on the other by political assassination. For both Stalin and Hitler, L'Etat, c'est lui.

Everyone seems to assume Eastern Europe would be a solid block. This was not the case in Czechoslovakia, Austria and even Poland. There was still wrangling over what form their governments would take in 1945. Beria's people had not yet finished arresting the democrats. Also, there were sizeable...

I had in mind the Soviet Bloc, which looked pretty blockish to me even if it was an "empty shell." But, yes, the UK. There's a certain advantage to shedding pieces of your country (Ireland, Scotland) that you have been subsidising for centuries, and throwing the financial burden on the EU as an...

Thanks for the correction on the UN. I see I was including Vanuatu and San Marino when I should not have done. Anyway, I was talking about the members not the body - it is the members who have to get together to create the superstate. In a way the UN itself is non-political :confused: There...

Of course the sailors understood what a republic entailed. At that time it entailed wholesale butchery of men, women and children. Turning to Vampiloup's post, it seems very French, which is to say, a terrific statement of principle which does not quite accord with the practice. The French...

The existence of a super-state needs the political will to create it. I can't see the 365 members of the General Assembly having that will. Greece and Turkey? India and Pakistan? Personally I don't have a lot of time for those blokes next door when they keep throwing empty beer cans over the...

I have found out I was wrong in most things:- (a) Pellew's Indefatiguable was not French built. She was built at Buckler's Hard on the River Hamble, today a very pretty preserved historic village. (b) Ville de Paris was not one of the French monsters, having only 110 guns (which is big but not...