Political Extracts
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Political Extracts’
Poet Percy Shelley calls on November’s sister months to watch by the graveside of the dead Year.
‘Autumn: A Dirge’ was published by Percy Shelley’s widow Mary in 1824, two years after Percy’s death in Italy at the age of just twenty-nine. Unlike his contemporary John Keats, Shelley makes no attempt to evoke Autumn’s golden harvests, but calls on all but the most carefree summer months to keep vigil by the dying Year.
William Gladstone warns voters not to leave foreign policy in the hands of interventionist politicians.
In a speech in Scotland in 1879, William Gladstone apologised for raising the subject of Foreign Policy, but explained that ordinary voters cannot afford to ignore such matters. Once Britain starts meddling in international affairs, the result will be war, and taxpayers foot the bill.
William Gladstone explains that a truly ‘exceptional nation’ respects the equality and rights of all nations.
In 1879, William Gladstone MP berated his rival Benjamin Disraeli, the Prime Minister, for turning Russia into Europe’s bogeyman. Patriotism, Gladstone said, is a healthy thing, but the true patriot is generous, and never claims for his own country rights and dignities he denies to others.
William Windham MP was appalled at the idea of levying a tax on man’s best friend.
In 1796, a proposal went before Parliament to tax dogs, partly as a rebuke to rich sportsmen, and partly because it was felt that the poor were frittering away their income support on dog-food. Windham was not much bothered about the rich sportsmen, but he leapt to the defence of the poor man and his lurcher.
William Wilberforce told Parliament that the more his opponents slandered him, the more he was sure he was winning.
William Wilberforce, Britain’s leading anti-slavery campaigner, was accused of ‘fanaticism’ for his refusal to accept the prevailing customs of the day. But as he warned Parliament, such jibes only made him more determined to fight on.
John Stuart Mill reminds us that governments and the courts must never be allowed to criminalise matters of belief or opinion.
We often see those in power trying to use the courts to silence views they find objectionable, rather than tolerate them or engage with them. But Victorian philosopher John Stuart Mill recalled that many centuries ago, such supposedly high-minded legislation resulted in one of history’s worst miscarriages of justice – the execution of Socrates.