Picture by tony cairns
The charming English custom of burning Guy Fawkes in effigy for an alleged plot to blow up Parliament in 1605 did not arise from the people’s love of their King and Parliament. It was a duty imposed on English people by their rulers and it remained law until 1859. Had Hitler’s Third Reich endured, perhaps Germans would still be burning Jews and Communists in effigy to commemorate the Reichstag Fire of 1933. Hitler and his followers made no secret of their admiration for the ruthlessness and mendacity of Britain’s Imperialist master class and they were to prove that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
The Great Fire of London of 1666 is commemorated by a Monument, 202 feet high completed in 1677. From then until 1830 it was engraved with the falsehood that the fire was started by Catholics. The poet Alexander Pope, himself a Catholic, wrote –
“Where London’s column, pointing at the skies,
Like a tall bully, lifts the head, and lies.”
The poet died in 1744, some 86 years before the lying inscription was removed from London’s tallest monument.
Perhaps it’s time to cast a cold eye on “facts” which rulers want us to remember. A century on from the First War the stories put about by the British Government of the time, and disbelieved by informed and honest Britons at the time, are accepted as Holy Writ. For years the British Government had encouraged Italy to seize Libya, then ruled by the Ottoman Empire. France, which attacked Prussia in 1870 and lost, was encouraged to seize back the lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. Britain had an understanding with the revenge-seeking French, and had been building battle ships and established a Committee of Imperial Defence, not unsuited for Imperial Attack. The Official Secrets Act was in place to gag those who knew what going on, and it is still with us. Secret Intelligence Services, later known as MI5, MI6, etc were established. A Great British worldwide spy network was well established by 1914.
The idea that Britain, France or Russia “sleepwalked into war” is nonsense. Britain and France gained huge territories from the Ottomans and invented nations unheard of in 1913 – Iraq and Syria, for instance. They promised Palestine to the Arabs living there and to Jews living anywhere. In Europe they created YUGOSLAVIA and CZECHOSLOVAKIA, “nations” unheard of in 1913 and not much heard about today. Truly something to remember with pride
Russia had been lured into the war by the prospect of taking Constantinople from the Turks, but the Russian Revolution intervened. The unsporting Bolsheviks published the secret treaties by which Britain and France agreed how they would divide between themselves territory stolen from the Ottomans.It may take another couple of centuries before the self-serving stories told by the victors of the Great War are finally exposed as poppycock.
The ‘Great War’ caused millions of deaths and destruction across Europe, with absolutely no benefit for the ordinary people of the countries involved.
What was ‘great’ about it?
More incisive stuff, DK.
Reminding us not only is it time, for us to cast a cold eye on that which our rulers wish us to remember but also that which they wish us to forget.
Right now, what our wooden rulers down here in the Free Southern Stateen wish us to forget is that the concept of Norman and Norma was ever the norm. And to remember that anyone who dares to be a dissident of this matter and to think otherwise is one of the continuity All Hollows, one of the real Quare Fellas.
Indeed, our rulers bear more than a passing resemblance to the classical carpenter’s ruler. So designed it can fold up at the slightest pressure and fit snugly into a back pocket. In this instance into the commodious back pocket of the dungareed Dworkin Class.
Unlike the House of Parliament there is no contemporary Guy south of the Black Pig’s Dyke with los cojones,/ na magairlini meidhreacha / the orchids to blow up that self- inflatable rubber toy, Doll Eireann.
For Fawke’s Sake.
In this Twenty Six C’s there are plenty cliques
Who diss Dudes ‘n Chicks as irretrievable hicks
Trick or Treat?
Mick and Pete!
The Face Powder Plot has lots o’ lace ‘n lipsticks.
for the time of year that’s in it – here’s some background info on Guy Fawkes and the reasons why he and other effigies are still being burned, year in, year out!
Isn’t time they were all taken off the stake? There is another way, you know!
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2014/11/06/no-to-burning-effigies/
Really Jude you should check your contributors contributions as some of the statements are fairly far from the truth
Please be more precise, neill – or challenge them yourself, perhaps? I think you’re touching on a slightly different area from our recently-discussed abuse postings…
What neill means is he does not agree with them.
Good.story
The day Britain stops burning effigies and stops it`s anti Catholic bigotry, the day the church and state are separated, that will be the day Britain joins the modern world. It is yet another example of their contradictory attitudes, they think they are a secular, peaceful country but they are actually a country that worships it`s military, regardless of their actions. As I write this I am watching the start of the football on Sky sports and what do I see? Only various representatives of the British armed forces, laying wreaths in the middle of the pitch, the players all have poppies on their shirts, the `experts` in the studio are all wearing them. The backward custom of burning effigies, which always reminds me of the seventies horror film The Wicker Man, has no place in a so called modern country.It is responsible for the bigoted attitudes expressed by Loyalists in Ireland and right wing morons in general.