Journal | Ulterior Motive

Practising Law for Thirty Years in the discipline of Probate and Succession, Trust Law, and Attorneyship brought me face-to-face and, fairly frequently, head-on with human nature.

At school, all of us can recall those who - feeling they were deprived of what they were justly entitled to, namely the ball or whatever we were playing with, or the book we were reading - would not only snatch the ball, book or whatever away from us but would make it impossible for the activity to continue. In some cases, they even destroyed the ball, book or whatever.

If I can’t play, then you can’t play. If I can’t have it, then I’m going to make sure you can’t have it.

In the very early years, the Duke of Sussex naturally had my respect and admiration.

I was slightly irritated when he could not grasp the reason why service in Afghanistan was looked upon with alarm. Does this kid not understand the reasoning? I surmised.

I read a great deal. I have to. It is the engine that drives the car. I naturally have an interest in military affairs. Whilst I am aware of the mortality rate on both sides in Afghanistan - in all of the superb books I have read by soldiers and marines who served there up to the Fall of Kabul in August 2021, not one writer has found it necessary to speak of loss of life caused in a boastful way. There is no tallying-up mentality.

It is also something that everyone who has served, or is currently serving, in our Armed Forces, understands … that there is an unwritten rule … boast not about the lives you might have taken. It is a very unwholesome thing to do.

This leads me to the title of this entry.

In legal practice, I lost count of the times that families were destroyed by some individual within the family who felt that he or she or they were not getting enough.

I repeat …

“If I can’t play, then you can’t play. If I can’t have it, then I’m going to make sure you can’t have it.”

— Kenneth Thomas Webb

This, in turn, leads me to a sober conclusion. The intent is nothing less than to destroy the Family. Which, in turn, means the destruction of our unwritten constitution. For those who favour republicanism, this will of course be music to ears. That is fine.

It is, though, for the people as a Nation to arrive at that conclusion, not because of an individual’s or couple’s sour grapes. There are wrongs on both sides. Family rifts take generations to heal. The present certainly shines a light upon the past, when looking at the then Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

In that unpleasant interview during her lifetime, the Duke’s mother made it clear, and I paraphrase now, that she had something of a secret weapon that would take them all by surprise. The veiled threat did not impress me at the time.

Would I want a republic? When I look at all the ‘spare’ around I think, yep maybe it’s best. Then I look again at all the presidencies. I’m inclined to want to stick with what I’ve got.

6 January 2023
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© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2023