Category Archives: History

The Gaza Strip and Israel, 2014

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has condemned the blockade of the Gaza Strip, describing the territory as a “prison camp”.1 Israel controls Gaza’s territorial waters and maintains exclusive control in the air space…[It] controls the entire ….border including the Erez … Continue reading

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Israel’s Disastrous ‘Six Day War’ 1967

Background Pre-1948 Jewish immigration into Palestine provoked inter-communal violence. Britain, the colonial power, resisted calls for mass immigration. They ignored the Holocaust. Britain was focused entirely on maintaining peace in the territory. Jewish terrorists created an impossible situation and Britain … Continue reading

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The Desecration of Oliver Cromwell’s Corpse, 1661

This day (Oh, the stupendous and inscrutable judgments of God!) were the carcasses of those arch-rebels, Cromwell, Bradshawe (the judge who condemned his Majesty), and Ireton (son-in-law to the Usurper), dragged out of their superb tombs in Westminster among the … Continue reading

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Why didn’t Oliver Cromwell Order the Assassination of Charles the First?

Political assassination is the murder of a significant figure by an organised conspiracy in pursuit of political ends.1 There were two English civil wars as well as Scottish and Irish rebellions in the 1640s. The second civil war, 1646-8, left … Continue reading

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George Orwell on Socialists in 1937

The typical Socialist is not, as tremulous old ladies imagine, a ferocious-looking working man with greasy overalls and a raucous voice. He is either a youthful snob-Bolshevik who in five years’ time will quite probably have made a wealthy marriage … Continue reading

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Hitler, Chamberlain and Clausewitz

Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement failed in 1939 and was replaced with something worse. He decided Britain was a lion. Chamberlain threatened Hitler with war if Germany attacked Poland. The German High Command knew Britain couldn’t defend Poland and Hitler believed … Continue reading

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The Transition from Workhouses: the 1930s

By the 1920s the workhouse system was anachronistic. Democratic reforms in 1918 meant wealth was no longer a qualification for the franchise. The 1929 reforms of relief of the poor led to the formation of Public Assistance Committees. This didn’t … Continue reading

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Diplomatic niceties gone mad: Ireland 1945

Under the heading ‘People and Places’, the Fianna Fáil-backed Irish Press reported laconically that the Taoiseach [Prime Minister] and Minister for External Affairs, Éamon de Valera, accompanied by the Secretary of External Affairs, Joseph Walshe, ‘called on Dr Hempel, the … Continue reading

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Heinrich Himmler’s analysis of a perfect SS man and sub-humans

For the SS Man, one principle must apply absolutely: we must be honest, decent, loyal, and comradely to members of our own blood, and to no one else. What happens to the Russians, the Czechs, is totally indifferent to me. … Continue reading

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Churchill by Daisy Suckley: Roosevelt’s confidant

She described him [Churchill] as “a strange looking little man. Fat & round, his clothes bunched up on him. Practically no hair on his head, he wore a 10-gallon hat. He talks as though he had terrible adenoids—sometimes says very … Continue reading

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