We should never make light of how privileged we are to be born here. [video=youtube;25zynTTl-sU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25zynTTl-sU[/video]
We should never make light of how privileged we are to be born here. [video=youtube;25zynTTl-sU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25zynTTl-sU[/video]
Cheers for that Dutch. It was the old man's favourite, played it at his funeral and still brings a tear to my eye now. He did 3 years Merchant Navy, 2 years National Service and was then called back a week after his wedding day to go to Suez. He loved his country but couldnt stand the Royal Family, but each to their own. Tolerance is one of the things that makes us English. When it comes to patriotism, though, the standard response of the urban intellectual is the mocking sneer. This is true of many on the Right as well as the Left, but it’s the self-loathing of the left-wing intellectuals that irritates me most. These sniggering fools don't even know the roots of their own radicalism. For every Francis Drake in English history there was a Wat Tyler. For every Wellington there was a Captain Swing. Military achievement understandably shaped our self image. The stout Yeomen of England have been beating off invaders for centuries. We saw off Bonaparte and smashed the Spanish Armada. But England gave the world parliamentary democracy and the trade unions too. Every child should learn the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, six farm labourers from Dorset, who founded the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers to fight wage cuts after their nine shillings (45p) a week wage was slashed to six shillings (30p). In March, 1834 these good, hard-working men were arrested for unlawful assembly and charged with ‘administering unlawful oaths.’ The six were found guilty as charged and sentenced to seven years transportation to the penal colony in New South Wales, Australia “not,” said the judge, “for anything they had done, but as an example to others.” They were an example to others all right. The men became popular heroes and the inspiration for the new trade union movement. Just over a century later, our belief in democracy, liberty and social justice made English-speaking civilization the rock that broke the tidal wave of continental fascism. Our openness, our belief in tolerance, free speech and the rights of man, was the living proof that the totalitarian state with its secret police, censorship and slave labour was neither “infallible” nor inevitable. But these qualities that made us different are now increasingly under threat. THE English are a strong-willed people, rightly proud of our traditions and freedoms. Keith Waterhouse wrote that our defining national characteristic is “constructive bloody-mindedness”, illustrated by the phrase “thus far and no further.”
I takes all sorts, my friends. All sorts: [video=youtube;MiC3k8xQdhQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiC3k8xQdhQ[/video]
Cheers Chaz,wise words. Let's not forget our own bit of shaping the world in turning the King back at the gates, with all it's subsequent global implications.
Cheers Chaz,wise words. Let's not forget our own bit of shaping the world in turning the King back at the gates, with all it's subsequent global implications.
Real nobility. A nobility worked for, and achieved. Not born into... [video=youtube;EvFqVgz1AGo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvFqVgz1AGo&feature=related[/video]
[video=youtube;yWz1zfrsY50]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWz1zfrsY50&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL190ED60B6CAC6BA7[/video]
