Part of the openDemocracy Network

The British Crisis

Do the public really want to change ‘the system’?: Stuart Wilks-Heeg presents polling evidence
 

Don't trust MPs' constitutional poker: Guy Aitchison supports the call for a citizens' convention
 

Brown's 'National Council for Democratic Renewal': Anthony Barnett on the Prime Minister's desperate proposal
 

More in this series

Who Polices The Police?

Open letter to the BBC: Guy Aitchison and Stuart White raise serious concerns with the BBC's coverage of G20 policing
 

The Met must stop spinning G20 policing: Defend Peaceful Protest on the Met's response to its critics
 

Met watchdog criticises G20 policing: Anna Bragga reports on the MPA meeting
 

Our campaign to defend peaceful protest launches: Guy Aitchison and Andy May have some questions for the Met following the policing of the G20
 

The architectural photographer as terrorist: Edward Denison recounts his detention for photographing a police station
 

Letter to the Beeb: Guy Aitchison responds to a complacent and misleading feature on "kettling" for the BBC website
 

Not "kettling" but "bubbling": Clare Coatman on polarised views of police and protesters
 

Kettling - another special relationship: Charles Shaw's eye-witness account of the practice's US debut
 

Practical proposals to reform the police: Guy Aitchison invites OK readers to add to a list
 

Met orders review into policing of protests: Guy Aitchison comments on Sir Paul Stephenson's suggestions
 

Trapped and beaten by police in Climate Camp: Testimony from Chris Abbott

More in this series

The Damian Green Affair


A Very British Arrest: Laura Sandys on the precedent of her father's 1939 experience.


One reason why the police are dangerous, undemocratic and stupid: Anthony Barnett condemns an attack on democracy.


Questioned by the Met: An MP's experience: Tony Clarke on the crucial differences with his own case.


A Constitutional Failure: The Damian Green case highlights the need for a written constitution, argues Tom Griffin.

Immigration islands


The Return of Enoch: Enoch Powell's repatriation agenda must not be rehabilitated, argues Sunder Katwala.


The ugly economics of immigration: Paul Kingsnorth on why the left is out of step with working class interests.


Immigration and the Politics of Resentment: Shamser Sinha suggests the real problem is a politics that turns neighbour against neighbour.

A neoliberal kingdom


Britain’s neo-liberal state: The financial crisis exposes the need for democratic modernisation, argue Gerry Hassan and Anthony Barnett.


MODERN LIBERTY



Digital Privacy Wars: Guy Aitchison flags up a debate on the threat business poses to digital privacy


The Stalker State: Phil Booth of No2ID on the proposed Comms database


Say 'No' to 42 days: Sign Amnesty's petition against extending pre-charge detention


What do we do now?: Anthony Barnett assesses the stakes for for liberals and radicals in David Davis's campaign against the erosion of rights and liberties


The Abundance of Caution: an authoritative essay by Anthony Barnett sets out the case against 42 Days

Labour After Brown

The next left -Life after the Labour Party: Gerry Hassan sees a historic opportunity for the emergence of a post-New Labour left.

Scottish Labour, where's the coffee?: Gerry Hassan assesses the prospects for Scottish Labour and its new leader.

Lesson for the Left from Chile to Britain: Hassan Akram offers a global perspective on Labour's malaise.

From Milibland to Johnson land?: Jeremy Gilbert argues for Labour without neo-liberalism.

Magical thinking on Britishness: Anthony Barnett critiques Liam Byrne on fraternity.

Rule of law at risk: Geoffrey Bindman calls for a turn away from the marketisation of government.

A new Bill of Rights for Britain?: Guy Aitchison analyses Parliament's proposed new Bill of Rights.

Miliband - by our rights we will know you: Claire O'Brien puts forward a new progressive vision for Labour.

Recapturing liberal Britain: David Marquand challenges Labour's constitutional orthodoxy.

Miliband and the Liberal Democrats: James Graham on the case for realignment.

What is Labour's British story?: Writing from Scotland, Gerry Hassan widens the OurKingdom debate on Labour's future.

This is not Brown's crisis but Britain's: David Marquand says social democracy is bust and Britain may be too.

The Challenges for Miliband's Progressive Fusion: Fabian Society head Sunder Katwala responds to David Miliband.

England Awakes?

England, Britain and multiculturalism: an OurKingdom exchange

A mild awakening?, England's turn? by David Goodhart

Navigation

delicious | digg | reddit | newsvine | furl | google | yahoo | technorati | diigolet

Syndicate content

'An eloquent lady in Edgbaston' - OK summer competition

Anthony Barnett, 16 - 08 - 2008
delicious | digg | reddit | newsvine | furl | google | yahoo | technorati | diigolet

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Following my post about the fabulous call to modernity, fraternity and Britishness by Borders and Immigration Minister Liam Byrne, we are launching OK's summer limerick competition. The limerick must begin with:

"I met an eloquent lady in Edgbaston."

and end with:

"if we only put our minds to it."

As I report, Byrne writes about how he met "an exceptionally eloquent lady from Edgebaston" who convinced him that all we needed to to so sort out Britain for the best is to: "put our minds to it". The Minister describes how he was immediately convinced.

The winner will get a free copy of The Athenian Option. Competition closes Saturday, 30th August.

Please support openDemocracy's "Needed: more democracy!" campaign.

We need more of our readers to support the work of helping spread democratic understanding and influence.

If you read openDemocracy and value it please DONATE:

Donate from the UK with Gift Aid

Donate from any other country

Donate via PayPal

Anthony Barnett's blog | email this blogquote
delicious | digg | reddit | newsvine | furl | google | yahoo | technorati | diigolet
This article is published by Anthony Barnett, and openDemocracy.net under a Creative Commons licence. You may republish it without needing further permission, with attribution for non-commercial purposes following these guidelines. These rules apply to one-off or infrequent use. For all re-print, syndication and educational use please see read our republishing guidelines or contact us. Some articles on this site are published under different terms. No images on the site or in articles may be re-used without permission unless specifically licensed under Creative Commons.
NewsCredit This article adheres to the openDemocracy.net principles.

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Anoney (not verified) said:

Mon, 2008-08-18 15:37

An eloquent lady of Edgebaston
Desired the Athenian Option
So she said to Liam Byrne
Stand up and be firm
It’s the difference between spin and a hard-on

reply | email this commentquote

Justin Pickard said:

Mon, 2008-08-18 13:13

I met an eloquent lady in Edgbaston;
The candidate, an iconoclast on
The Lords' abolition,
A return to sortition,
Her speech left us speechless in aston

ishment.  And the prevailing wind, she'd intuit;
“Hereditary peers?  Well, they blew it,
We need revolution,
A fresh constitution,
And we can win if we put our minds to it.”

reply | email this commentquote

Guy Aitchison said:

Mon, 2008-08-18 09:21

I vote for Dougthedug's effort so far.

Bit of a joint effort this one....

I met an eloquent lady in Edgebaston
Who said "Liam, you're puling a fast one
With this Britishness thing
It's Brown you're aping
But when we put our minds to it
Us voters see through it
And that's why you're not going to last son!"

reply | email this commentquote

Anthony Barnett said:

Sun, 2008-08-17 05:59

From Joan and Judith

An eloquent lady of Brum
Considered the Minister scum
“Though you put your mind to it
We all see right through it
You’re just banging the nationalist drum!”

reply | email this commentquote

Dougthedug said:

Sat, 2008-08-16 23:08

I met an eloquent lady in Edgbaston,
But her gene pool was not a deep vast one,
Her comment below,
was tabloid and slow,
"If we only put our minds to it", I hope is her last one.

reply | email this commentquote

britologywatch said:

Sat, 2008-08-16 22:57

I met an eloquent lady in Edgbaston

Who like Enoch's constituent in Wolverhampton

Stirred dreams of rivers of blood,

But said you, Liam, can stop the flood,

And we'll get on fine if we only put our minds to it. 

reply | email this commentquote

Anthony Barnett said:

Sat, 2008-08-16 19:30

Rule 101 is fine by OK

reply | email this commentquote

Keith McBurney said:

Sat, 2008-08-16 18:51
Brown's Empire Clothing Dilemma:
 
I met an eloquent Lady in Egbaston
who asked why I had no skates on
It took me a while
Then I gave her my smile
in remembering I had nothing else on
So I asked what to do
and she gave me a clue
that naked was not going to do it
But it may take me a while
before you give me your smile
if we only put our minds to it.
 
(Rule 101: There are no rules!)
reply | email this commentquote

Not logged in (not verified) said:

Sat, 2008-08-16 14:38

(From the under-consciousness of G.Brown)

I met an eloquent lady from Edgbaston
Whose eyes I really got lost in
We put our minds to it
But Oh England, we blew it
And now we’re all stuck with Dave Cameron

reply | email this commentquote

Guy Aitchison said:

Sat, 2008-08-16 12:50

I met an eloquent lady in Edgebaston

Who I asked what it meant to be Briton

She replied with an air

"I'm an Aussie, don't care

You can be too if you put your minds to it!"

 

Hat-tip Guido

reply | email this commentquote

Not logged in (not verified) said:

Sat, 2008-08-16 11:46

A most eloquent lady of Edgebaston
Was entranced by Gordon Brown’s carry on
Inspired by his grits
She declared "All can be Brits!
If only we now put our minds to it!"

reply | email this commentquote

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><b> <i> <br> <p> <div> <img> <map>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • You may quote other posts using [quote] tags.
More information about formatting options

What next?

The Convention on Modern Liberty, in London and across the UK attracted more than 1000 people. Find out what happened and what comes next...

Books from Amazon

They say about OK

"the ever-stimulating OpenDemocracy"
Ekklesia

"See OurKingdom to keep up"
South Belfast Diary

"...an essential guide to understanding the dynamic constitutional situation..."
Peter Oborne

"...becoming a daily read for me."
Iain Dale

"To make sense of it all, check out OurKingdom..."
Matthew d'Ancona

"Worth a look...it is, however, recommended by Matthew d'Ancona."
The Wardman Wire

"Fast becoming the best political website around"
Tom Waterhouse, CEP

"...attracting energy from a range of contributors."
thenextwave

"...looks very promising..."
The England Project

"The excellent new OurKingdom blog from OpenDemocracy..."
The Green Ribbon

"On the internet, I keep in touch with openDemocracy, a website on global current affairs, and its useful offshoot, OurKingdom"
Andreas Whittam-Smith

"thanks to the fine folk at OurKingdom, (who manage to communicate a variety of perspectives in the way that only a decent group blog can)"
Nostalgia For the Future