In the words of Oliver Cromwell... In the name of God, go!

19/05/2009

I am reminded of the great Oliver Cromwell's speech of 1653, when he dissolved Parliament in connection with Charles I's intransigence as to who should govern the nation. "It is high time I put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonoured by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice. Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?

"Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get the grievances redressed, are yourselves gone!"

The speech continued at length and ended: "So! Take away that shining bauble there, (the mace,) and lock up the doors. In the name of God, go!"

This must sum up the feelings of roughly 75% of the nation today I would suggest.

Walter J Bourne