The weirdest sentence to me in the coalition agreement between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats was this: ‘It is also likely there will be a grandfathering system for current peers.’ I had no idea what grandfathering was.
The weirdest sentence to me in the coalition agreement between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats was this: ‘It is also likely there will be a grandfathering system for current peers.’ I had no idea what grandfathering was. Could it be like mothering or babysitting? On looking it up, I discovered that a grandfather clause was a device used in the southern states of America to prevent black people from voting. ‘It is proposed [in Maryland] to remodel the Constitution so as to exclude colored men from voting,’ says an illustrative quotation from 1903 in the Oxford English Dictionary. ‘The usual Southern method is followed, “grandfather clause” and all.’
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