It was the years 1688 and 1689. King James II of England and Ireland, VII of Scotland was deposed. William of Orange came to replace him. It was on November 15, 1688 – the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot – that William of Orange landed at Torbay in Devon. November 5, you say? Well, in the Julian Calendar, yes.“The Glorious Revolution” was arguably neither glorious nor a revolution, but it was an important step towards the mess we are in today. It is so because it was a precedent for Parliament deposing the Sovereign at will.
The world is not such, as Daniel Hannan seems to believe, that triumphs over kings necessarily are triumphs for civilization. We stand here now with an all but absolutist, democratist regime.
It is so wonderful that we can elect our rulers, we are told. Yet, indecency and encroachments upon our liberties march on. Do something about it at the polls, we are again told. Yes, pour a bucket of water in Lake Superior and watch the water rise.
Where do we go from here?
I am course for limited democracy, since I think our liberty depends on it. There are fundamentally important matters that require our sanction, such as the governments we get, the taxes we pay and the wars we fight. I don't think it means we go blathering on about it as if it is our most important value, but obviously it is a basic prerequisite for individual freedom.
ReplyDeleteWell Mr Hannan and I do seem to agree on at least one point. Having your head of state beholden to a foreign power is not in the best interests of the state, whether that foreign power is a Roman Chatholic pontiff or a Brussels based president...
ReplyDeletehe is a very good looking man
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