Knives And Fawkes
‘IF Guy Fawkes had succeeded in blowing up the Palace of Westminster those 398 long years ago, large parts of central London would have been flattened.
|
| Tory MPs discuss how to get rid of Michael Howard |
Of course, large parts of central London wouldnt have been built at the time but lets not let such minor details spoil a good story.
And a good story it is with the Centre For Explosion Studies at the University of Aberystwyth calculating that all buildings within 153ft of the bomb would have been destroyed and walls and roofs within 354ft would have been badly damaged.
Indeed, the Times has got what we can only assume is a computer-generated picture of what the area would have looked like had Fawkes not been dobbed in.
The Stuarts would no doubt be surprised about the number of cars on the roads outside the Houses of Parliament and the plethora of pleasure cruisers on the Thames.
They might also be less than impressed to discover that the men and women whose job it was to put out the flames were on strike.
However, as we all know, Guy Fawkes didnt get away with it and the Palace of Westminster still stands but for how long?
Such is the row brewing between Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown that an explosion seems inevitable.
The Guardian reports that relations between the two men are severely strained after Blair twice rejected appeals from his former friend for a seat on Labours national executive.
Instead, Blair chose to fill the three seats within his gift with two relatively junior ministers, Hazel Blears and Douglas Alexander, as well as party chairman Ian McCartney.
It is surprising, arbitrary and not in the best interests of the Labour party, one Brownite MP told the Guardian.
However, a spokesman for No.10 said: The prime minister always appoints at least one woman and it makes sense for the other two people to be the chair of the party, Ian McCartney, and Douglas Alexander, who is chair of election planning.
Such is the bad feeling between the two that the Centre for Explosion Studies at the University of Aberystwyth has done its own calculations of what would happen if the two really fall out.
If you live anywhere closer into central London than Chiswick, watch out.’
Posted: 5th, November 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
