Sunday, May 2, 2010

Blavatsky and British Politics?


In one of the more unusual things to emerge from the upcoming May 6 British election, which will decide the new Prime Minister, is the claim that Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, is related to Blavatsky. The Independent of London for April 28, 2010, reports:

More fascinating stuff about the Liberal Democrat leader's pedigree. On the Russian side, Nick Clegg is related to Madame Blavatsky, the interesting founder of theosophy, who claimed to have psychic powers. One of her followers, for example, claimed to see streams of astral light coming from Madame B's cuckoo clock, and she once made a teacup materialise when an unexpected guest turned up to a picnic. No doubt such memories explain why Nick has taken to saying when asked about a hung parliament: “I'm Nick Clegg, not Nostradamus.”

His great-great-grandfather was the Russian nobleman Ignaty Zakrevsky, and Clegg (born in 1967) speaks English, Dutch (his mother is Dutch), French, German, and Spanish (his wife is Spanish). Whether the information about his relation to Blavatsky is being circulated as a political plus or minus remains to be seen. Striking for a politician is his stated view that he does not believe in God, though he has great respect for people of faith.

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