With all the fuss about Holocaust denial, should we now start worrying about the possibility of English Civil War denial?
Despite being the world’s oldest democracy, the UK has never had a revolution – no great rising of the people demanding the overthrow of the established order.
I suspect that what Helena means is that we’ve never had a proletarian revolution in the UK, and I suppose she is technically correct as we didn’t become the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ireland) until 1800 – the 1707 Act of Union only created the Kingdom of Great Britain, but I’m still inclined to think that the Civil War counts as a revolution, and a British one, despite the name, especially as the Scots helped to start it.
And the War of independence / American revolution, which can certainly be seen as a populist uprising of british subjects against the government.
And as for makeitanissue.org : oh, a group celeb blog. Left wing, hampstead intellectual group blog. “We’re taking the government process and putting in the hands of YOU, the independent reader.”
Back to directly bollocking ministers, civil servants and MP’s myself then…
If you count unsuccseful revolutions (although the success or otherwise could be debated) events in Ireland in 1916 could be a contender.
And as for “the world’s oldest democracy” – er, what? We didn’t have universal suffrage until 1928, did we?
Hi,
I just came across your blog and I really like it, congratulations and keep writting.
I think that the effects of not having had a “proletarian” are still visible. Unions are nothing compared to those of other countries like France or Spain and worker rights are minimal compared to those in the mentioned countries.
We are writting a blog in which, with a bit of humour, we stress the differences between this country and the rest of the world, specially continental Europe. We discuss silly things like why regulations do not allow you to have switches in your bathroom and more serious things like whether having a National Identity Card is useful or not or whether there should be more disabled facilities in the London Tube. Your contribution to the blog will be most appreciated:
http://ukforbeginners.blogspot.com
all the best