Expat Yank: If Charles Had Been In Charge

Robert at Expat Yank takes a rare flight into fantasy, as he presents what might have happened if Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy had been around two centuries ago and had been able to haul Admiral Horatio Nelson in for questioning after the Battle of Trafalgar. (And, yes, if you are prone to being a nitpicker, rest assured that both Robert and I understand that Nelson died at the end of the battle. Robert's imaginary displaced Kennedy takes Nelson to task for his dying words, in fact. Not at all multi-culturally sensitive enough, you know...)

I'll grant that this piece is a bit over the top, but it also makes some good points about the madness of the standards to which the modern-day military is sometimes held by politicians with zealous hindsight and few if any qualms about second-guessing people in the field.

For another Nelson-related story (expect a lot of them this year, since he died in 1805), see "Nelson Room to reopen to public", at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4415315.stm:

The room where Admiral Lord Nelson's body lay after the Battle of Trafalgar is to reopen to the public for the first time in 70 years.

The Nelson Room at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich opens from 26 April and will feature a life-size statue of Lord Nelson...