Ready to rebel? You are part of a glorious tradition

Richard

I visited my brother in Manningtree, Essex not long ago, like many he is a Londoner in exile. A while later I read a book on the Reformation and discovered that Manningtree was the home turf of Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General who was responsible for killing hundreds of 'witches'. Our history is bloody, but not as bad as the Continent's.

MikeF

"Yet sometimes the bigots got rather further than the freedom-fighters." What 'bigots' - who on earth is the author of this piece talking about? This seems to be just a bit of lazy sloganising without even the bother of identifying who is being labelled with this now, grossly over-used epithet. This is the Spectator not the Independent or Guardian - come to think of it even they usually tell us who they are smearing in their smug, self-referential way.

By the way the citizens of London who barred London Bridge to William the Conqueror after he first marched on the capital can hardly be described as rebels. At that point William was simply the leader of an invading force that had just killed the legitimate crowned and annointed monarch. After William himself had been crowned - or more realistically after the formal surrender of the Anglo-Saxon state at Berkhamstead - then resistance to him doubtless can be characterised as rebellion, but until then it was justifiable defence of the realm.

I hope the book is not as sloppy as this article.

Colonial

Interesting, sure. But nowhere near as interesting or as important as thoughts would have been on how we got ourselves into this mess, the reasons behind voting patterns, how these will change, the new demands and expectations of politicians and so forth.

Faustiesblog

Chestertain's phrase "we have not spoken yet" is particularly apt.

There is a vast swathe of English people who are furious about what this rogue regime has done to England.

They haven't spoken yet.

Should the Lisbon Treaty be ratified and our opposition parties do nothing or promise nothing to reverse it, then we shall hear the English speak.

michael

The equivocal deceit of the soundbite, and our persistant squabbling over the trivia that is political correctness, allows stealth smallprint to enable the state juggernaut which just keeps on trundling on.

Divide and rule.

Bradford

You don't mention The Curragh Mutiny, the Liverpool Police Strike 1919, or the 1970s when Richard Clutterbuck thought fit to entitle his book "Britain in Agony"

There are cities in the North of England that are veritable powder kegs - some of the fastest growing have the worst economic outlook but Bradford for example has the fastest growing youth population outside London.....fortunately there is not much left for rioters to burn

Cameron

I find it offensive that anyone who writes for, or agrees to be syndicated in The Spectator has the audacity to live in Stoke Newington. Out! Now! I'm disgusted with myself just for reading it.

Are you planning on turning it into a little Surrey?

Tim Smith

An illuminating historical piece as a lot of England's domestic history is ignored, but I don't see why the Spectator tried to tie it into the Countryside Alliance with the cover artwork.

You aren't much of a rebel if you will only disobey the law when you can rely on sheer numbers or a lack of government resolve to protect you from any negative consequences and your civil disobedience comes in the form of letting the police know where and when you will be marching.

Jeremy

I don't pretend to know who the Angry Brigade were, or what they were Angry about...but I think it is a wonderfully evocative and also slightly comic name for a group of English rebels...^^

MikeF

The Angry Brigade were anarchist terrorists who mounted a bombing camapign in London in the early 1970s. One of the bombs they planted was in the public gallery at the top of the, as it was then called, Post Office Tower. Thankfully it went off when no-one was present, but the shower of debris falling several hundred feed could easily have killed anyone it hit on the streets below. Again, fortunately, that did not happen.

They represented no worthwhile cause, but were merely a manifestation of that particularly petulant form of murderousness that was typical such groups at the time - the Baader-Meinhoff gang were another example. There was nothing remotely praiseworthy or notable in what they did.

Bill Corr

The Lisbon treaty issue is one Big Issue and then there's mass Third World immigration:

http://www.vdare.com/macdonald/041027-immigration.htm

and social integration in an age of diversity

http://www.vdare.com/sailer/070701_diversity.htm

and the fact that Britain is now a bankrupt Third World slum

oohkuchi

Rebels? Don't make me laugh. The British are the most passive, impotently angry population I have lived among. Deceived by their government, their army dragooned into America's wars, their laws usurped by Brussels, their tax payments transferred directly into the pockets of casino bankers, their streets taken over by the most obnoxious teenagers in the world, and what do decent British do? They write angry, semi-literate emails. Like this one, only with more spelling errors. That's it. No rage, no rioting, no spine. Rebels my backside. The only thing that would get a substantial number of British people off their arses and onto the street would be an attempt to seriously restrict their ability to own and drive cars.

teledu

Sadly oohkuchi's correct.
Our Civil Liberties can be eroded, our politicians can be liars and corrupt, our rights can be passed over to Brussells and our borders opened up to the lowest forms of human life we can imagine, but hey, we won't "rebel" - not while there's something good on the telly,

Nicholas Storey

At the moment the concern is the rebel from outside the tent who got on the inside at MI5. If they did not insist on their foolish policy of inclusiveness to please some fatuous impulse and stuck to chaps who describe themselves as 'CofE' and who play golf on Saturdays, civilization - or what's left of it - might be much safer than it is today. Apart from that little rant, this article is very good for someone still at school.

Diomalco

Who is going to lead the rebels, knowing at the moment of truth they will be standing alone.

Kenny Boy

Let's be honest. The vast majority of rebellious activity in England is done in the form of bitching in the local pub, tea shop, or hairdressers/barbers.

CharlesSurface

MikeF,

Since we're being rude, I wouldn't trouble yourself with the book if your comprehension is as 'sloppy' as your comment indicates.

I think it's fairly obvious that the 'bigots' the author refers to are the ones in the very same paragraph - those who define themselves by their opposition to the 'Flemings, or the Non-Conformists, or the Irish, or the Catholics, or the Jews'. If one is defined by opposition to a particular racial / religious group, it's entirely fair that others may describe you as a 'bigot'. I'll leave aside your lazy jibes concerning The Independent and the Guardian - they tell us rather more about you than they do about those papers.