[gustavus]

"Good evening, London.

Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of everyday routine, the security of the familiar, the tranquillity of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke.

But in the spirit of commemoration, whereby those important events of the past, usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, are celebrated with a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the fifth, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are, of course, those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way.

Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission.

How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well, certainly, there are those who are more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable. But again, truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. They were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic, you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Last night, I sought to end that silence.

Last night, I destroyed the Old Bailey to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago, a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words; they are perspectives. So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you, then I would suggest that you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me, one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot." - V

[perihelions]

- "How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well, certainly, there are those who are more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable. But again, truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. They were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense."

Timeless observations. The most powerful force controlling a democracy is, simply, us. And the root cause of all the most damaging policy errors is us, with our banal inadequacies: our stupidities, our fears and angers, our irrationality.

This truth is entirely vanished from modern democratic narratives, because no one wants to hear it, and no one benefits from advancing it. Democracy means you're in power; civics means you're responsible.

[psd1]

Yeah bollocks. Guy Fawkes was attempting to reinstate a monarchy that the people roundly, and almost universally, despised.

The Jacobins were, exclusively, Catholic landed gentry.

Lopping off Chuckie's head set the stage for Britain's golden age, which goes to show: Tories have always been stupid as well as evil.

[yrwelikethis]

The Tories didn’t exist until probably 50 years after Guy Fawkes was killed and when they did come to be they were quite anti-Catholic.

[psd1]

The late 17th was an exciting time in England, and far more complex than I could describe, no matter how long my comment.

The Tory party was not formed in a single day, not was every Tory born on a single day. There was continuity of actors and motivations.

It would have been politically inadvisable for an English nobleman in the period to be openly Catholic; nonetheless, many of them were, and this was certainly a factor in their favour of James, whose Catholicism was an open secret.

Remember that many of these tories spent a long time in exile, primarily France, a vigorously Catholic country.

Remember also that Catholicism was the state religion in Britain until disestablishment, a scant hundred years prior. Not all of the nobility converted - Mary found plenty of supporters.

I don't have the scholastic chops to back up this idea, but it seems fair to say that crypto-Catholic noble families would have been biding their time, nursing their resentments, and waiting for a chance to restore Catholicism to England. That was surely a factor in their support of James, who was clearly not a desirable king on his own merits - being raddled with syphilis and detested by the commoners.