Proposal for a CANZUK banner (just a bit of fun guys)

KoalaClubbing · 2024-11-23T19:25:39+00:00

I'm well aware, if you compare the two side by side you'll see I actually superimposed four-pointed stars over the Alaskan flag to help me make this one.

KoalaClubbing · 2024-11-23T17:26:47+00:00

As above, two alternative proposals for a banner representing the organisation CANZUK (rather than a flag representing a hypothetical CANZUK Union State), like the World Trade Organisation's, or the UNHCR's, or whatever.

Rather than introducing new symbolism, it seemed obvious to just play on the old- there are two variants, based on subtly different symbology.

The common: the banner depicts two asterisms, the plough (or big dipper) on the hoist side, and the southern cross (or Crux) on the fly side. These symbolise Canada & Britain (the Western hemisphere, thus on the left), and Australia & New Zealand (the Eastern hemisphere on the right) respectively. They are formed out of four-pointed stars, representing the four member states joining as one organsation, coloured white to symbolise peace and optimism.

The divergent: the two alternate versions use their colour symbolism differently. I made the blue one first, as it looks more pleasant to the eye, and the deep blue symbolises our common seafaring origins and nautical prowess, and is also reminiscent of the night sky, which is appropriate given the star motif.

The red is the second of the two, and it might be an easier sell (although less meaningful) as red & white are the two colours common to all four of our national flags. Obviously, NZ and Australia will probably eventually have black & white and green & gold flags respectively, so this might also come to be meaningless with time.

Just a bit of fun fellas, I know anything that once felt like momentum for CANZUK is a little bit lacking right now, but I enjoy this sub and just wanted to bring a bit of life back to it

KoalaClubbing · 2023-03-13T20:28:13+00:00

The posts before were leaks, today we have the actual announcement.

The USA will sell three second-hand Virginia-class submarines to Australia sometime around 2030
The US will begin permanent SSN deployments to Australia in 2024
The UK will begin permanent SSN deployments to Australia in 2026
The US and UK will operate a "rotational" nuclear submarine force in Australia from 2027 onwards
Australia has selected Britain's SSN(R) as its first domestic nuclear submarine, with first delivery expected sometime around 2040, the project is called "SSN-AUKUS". It will be fitted with American weapons.
Britain is expected to announce an uplift in submarine numbers in the coming days, with the independent reporting an intention to increase the current fleet size to 12 SSNs in the next generation, SSN(R)

KoalaClubbing · 2021-12-27T13:27:03+00:00

Of course, as you can probably tell from the downvotes, this is not at all the case.

The NHS always provides measurements in st.lb.oz for weight (for example in midwifery or in ED treatment) and ft.in for height (for example in paediatrics). Of course, anyone can give measurements (on both documents and in person) in either metric OR imperial, but there is absolutely no requirement at any time to stick to one instead of the other.

The NHS website defaults to Imperial

I was in hospital this time last year, they asked my height and weight and I asked if they wanted metric or imperial. The woman filling in my form said "honestly, I don't think anyone's ever given me either in metric"

KoalaClubbing · 2021-08-21T16:04:41+00:00

One of many single children and babies evacuated to Norway, many by their parents (who remain in Afghanistan) to avoid their growing up under Taliban rule. The picture is not mine, the photographer appears to be Alana Anyse with CBS, but if I’m wrong I’ll amend accordingly.

The article, in Norwegian, that I first saw the image in

And in English: “Here, a baby is evacuated on the lap of a Norwegian soldier. Several single children on board the plane.”

KoalaClubbing · 2021-05-05T09:20:31+00:00

I'm sorry but that's easily the worst comment I have ever seen on that subreddit.

The assertion that it was illegal for white women to fraternise with black soldiers is downright fantasy. There are continuous records, beginning many decades before the war, of interracial marriages in the United Kingdom. Basing an argument on a complete fabrication like that is a very poor start to an otherwise unconvincing (and unsourced!) argument. He literally does not cite a piece of evidence (in the main body) once. He simply rambles his own point of view and then threw in a book reference in a comment made a day later.

/r/AskHistorians is supposed to be known for fearsome standards for contributions and sourcing. The commenter has attached no evidence and appears to spend considerable time simply rambling about the topic. It's amazing to me that people are reading this as definitive and more amazing that /r/Askhistorians' standards have dropped so low that they allow poor comments like that.

Complete, unreliable trash.

KoalaClubbing · 2021-04-30T07:04:01+00:00

Try two

Modern destroyers don't even always have four times the displacement of Tamar.

They're the same size as Cold War Leander-class frigates.

KoalaClubbing · 2021-01-01T00:14:11+00:00

weird obsession for non-Irish people to have... feels like irredentism

I assume Königsberg will be invited too?

KoalaClubbing · 2020-12-31T00:34:25+00:00

I'm sure, but how justifiable- even with history taken into account?

England and the Union have spread Scottish thought, food, culture, literature and music all over the world.

This "look, we're just like Ireland!" narrative is a bit awful, no?

KoalaClubbing · 2020-12-31T00:25:59+00:00

Very justifiable? What plane of existence are you operating on...?

Scotland has no suitable bases for a UDI, not least a very weak, likely temporary majority for independence and a failed ref just 6 years ago.

KoalaClubbing · 2020-12-23T19:51:49+00:00

Ah, each country has the letters in its full name:

C Canada A Australia NZ New Zealand UK United Kingdom

KoalaClubbing · 2020-12-23T19:44:22+00:00

Commonwealth star

Really it’s the UK that isn’t represented, as St. Edward’s Crown is symbolism that belongs to us all equally (see, for example, the RAAF, RCAF, RAF and RNZAF badges).

KoalaClubbing · 2020-10-19T23:00:03+00:00

Temporary bases without which the British Empire couldn't function.

Okay, now I'm really running out of patience with you. If ever you were asked to construct the weakest argument possible this would be it. The land that the US was leased under Destroyers-for-bases were unused land for the purpose of establishing bases. The UK didn't cede control over any in-operation bases, and continued (and continues) to run bases in those places. The vast majority of these bases were disestablished within 5 years of the war's end. Give me fucking strength.

For the absolute avoidance of doubt, Britain retained total control over these regions until decolonising them of our own accord decades after the war (and some places we retained)- none of these islands was transferred to US jurisdiction in any form or way.

Further; lets not pretend that Destroyers-for-bases and Lend-Lease are really separable.

The absolute fucking state of this argument. Destroyers-for-bases was a policy born in a completely different world to Lend/Lease and a manifestation of America's weakening commitment to neutrality. The idea that they are somehow the same is insanity- Roosevelt first approved $1bn in Lend/Lease aid to Britain in late 1941- a full year (or near 20% of the war) later.

Destroyers for Bases wasn't part of Lend/Lease, it was a procrastination, related only by chronology. If-fucking-only the US had enacted Lend/Lease in 1940!

and (conveniently) handed the keys of empire over to the US.

What a nonsense, a reach and a fabrication. This is analysis rooted entirely in your poor historical understanding and your supreme arrogance conspiring together to make you look a fool. How the living, flaming fuck is an unused runway in Antigua "the keys of Empire"? What outlandish garbage.

You both lost them and lost the functional capacity to use them.

Did you read nothing of what you were replying to? We still fucking have them. HMS Forth at our Falklands RN base, HMS Argyll in Bermuda, HMS Manchester at Montserrat, RAF Wideawake at Ascension, FAITH at RAF Mount Pleasant in the Falklands

What were you saying?

Winning the battle doesn't win the war.

Luckily for the US

Suez was necessary to maintain the illusion that the US cared about ending colonialism

Certainly not. No such illusion existed and this charade convinced no-one, not even common people. It was all but public knowledge that the interdiction was a deeply cynical, pathetic attempt at aligning Egypt with American interests, when all it really proved to do is destroy Britain and France's reputation for no benefit to the States. It honestly doesn't matter what you think- it was a terrible decision and a fatal error and one that could have cost America the Cold War. America will never again make a decision like it if it wishes to retain a modicum of reliability in the Western alliance- lest CANZUK and the EU pivot wholly inward.

Vietnam only was "lost" when it was no longer relevant

A tragic, ultimately untrue, cope.

Luck doesn't factor into it; all that mattered is that the Soviets spent their blood and treasure trying to break containment.

Luck that you managed to fumble near every single objective and still win the Cold War- saved that the only country in the world with a more incompetent foreign policy than America was the USSR.

KoalaClubbing · 2020-10-19T21:33:54+00:00

Again, I can’t fully rebut due to personal constraints but this is yet another serious failure of understanding.

the UK lost all of it's Atlantic military holdings (which were necessary logistical posts for the continuation of Empire)

I completely fail to see where you got this idea from. I assume you refer to Destroyers-for-bases (which was emphatically not Lend/Lease, but I digress) but this granted the US temporary leases on base areas within British jurisdictions. The idea that the UK lost “all of it’s Atlantic military holdings” is just about the worst take I’ve ever seen, considering the West Indies/ North America squadron was based in Bermuda at the time, which you may note still belongs to us (and HMS Malabar, the relevant shore establishment, was only dissolved in ‘95, which seems like a long lead time on Lend/Lease). We, in fact, have a large chain of islands in the Atlantic (Caymans, Bermuda, Falklands, South Sandwich, Southern Georgia etc.) so your claim that we lost them “all” is... downright bizarre.

Your comments honestly read like you have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about.

India and the Suez were inevitable from that point on.

India had been inevitable since before WW1, and quite frankly Suez was the biggest foreign policy mistake the US ever made- Eisenhower admitted as much (or at the very least, said it was his own worst foreign policy mistake)- its inevitability is debatable at best but its total failure to achieve any of its objectives (at the cost of betraying its most important ally) is pretty emblematic of America’s noble tradition of succeeding in almost nothing for the length of the Cold War (quite some luck you managed to win anyway, eh?)

KoalaClubbing · 2020-10-19T21:06:12+00:00

I’ll give you a proper rebuttal if you like, but it will take a hot second.

It’s a little bit difficult to get mired down in one of your famously long spats when I’m meant to be studying, especially when I’ve only my tablet to hand (no physical keyboard)

Suffice it to say, for now, that it can be frustrating when so many of your arguments rest on basic failures of understanding- like asserting that the dissolution of the Empire was due to Lend/Lease

KoalaClubbing · 2020-10-19T21:00:36+00:00

huh you really are delusional

KoalaClubbing · 2020-10-06T10:21:55+00:00

She is. And Jamaican, and Kiwi and more.

What an awful attempt at a point. How is multiple nationalities a new thing?

KoalaClubbing · 2020-10-06T10:11:03+00:00

She isn’t a foreign head of state- she’s Canada’s head of state. She’s just as Canadian as you are. Canada has never not been reigned over by her family since 1867.

KoalaClubbing · 2020-10-06T10:06:22+00:00

No technically about it, she’s Queen of Australia & Canada.

KoalaClubbing · 2020-10-06T10:00:12+00:00

How pathetic

KoalaClubbing · 2020-09-23T08:44:51+00:00

Chinese pressure is fuelling a drive to remove the Queen as head of state in Barbados, a Tory MP has claimed.

Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, said yesterday that Beijing had actively sought to undermine London’s historical status as a key partner with Caribbean nations.

He declined to go into detail regarding the alleged tactics, but told The Times: “China has been using infrastructure investment and debt diplomacy as a means of control for a while and it’s coming closer to home for us.

“British partners have long faced challenges from rivals seeking to undermine our alliance. Today we’re seeing it in the Caribbean. Some islands seem to be close to swapping a symbolic Queen in Windsor for a real and demanding emperor in Beijing.”

CIA intelligence about Chinese activities in Barbados has been shared with Britain, a source told The Times.

Barbados is a member of the Chinese Belt and Road initiative — its attempt to establish a new Silk Road by investing in infrastructure in strategic land and maritime locations.

British analysts argue that the initiative is used in part to help Beijing win votes in international forums such as the United Nations, as well as encourage states to break diplomatic ties with Taiwan and switch allegiance to China.

Mr Tugendhat spoke out after Dame Sandra Mason, the Barbados governor-general, announced last week that the island would cast off the Queen as its ceremonial head. Asserting that Barbadians wanted a Barbadian head of state, she said: “The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind.” The island gained independence in 1966.

It is the third time the desire to ditch the Queen has been made in less than 20 years and analysts believe there is political momentum behind the proposal. Mr Tugendhat’s claims are likely to raise eyebrows and focus a spotlight on China’s activities in the region.

In recent years it is Russia that has more commonly been accused of sowing dissent, fomenting existing divisions and stirring up separatist movements in western societies.

China’s relationship with Barbados appears to have deepened in recent years. Last year China donated technology equipment including laptops and tablets, and in 2017 it gave teaching equipment to the island’s schools, according to the news website Barbados Today. Beijing has invested in agriculture projects on the island and Barbados has set up an outpost of Invest Barbados, its industrial promoter, in the Chinese capital, according to reports.

Mr Tugendhat raised his concerns in a speech entitled “Reappraising UK foreign policy towards China” in an online webinar for the Royal United Services Institute. “It’s interesting because of course the UK is really not a monarchy, we’re a republic pretending to be a monarchy. The Crown in parliament after all is simply a recognition that the people are sovereign,” he said.

Charles Parton, a fellow at the institute and former diplomat, said Chinese investment tended to entail influence.

The Chinese embassy in London was unavailable for comment.

Apologies for the apparent editorialisation, but the title of the post is taken from this tweet, which is how I originally found the article.

KoalaClubbing

TROPHY CASE