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Modern Britain
Modern Factoids
Edited by Peter Kessler, 20 November 2010
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A selection of the best of quotes from around modern
Britain from 1714 onwards. Sometimes it seems that the more things
change, the more they stay the same...
- '...present day extravagance was due
to the electorate rather than to politicians. Electors insisted on
being bribed with promises and as it was illegal to bribe them with
their own money, candidates found it cheaper and as easy to bribe
with other people's money...'
'...Taxation was driving not only capital but brains and enterprise
out of this country. They were comparatively easily shifted, whereas
labour, which depended on them, was immovable...'
Bribing the Electorate, Mr G Peto on effects of taxation
(addressing the 1922 Committee)
The Times, 11 March 1931
Jackie Speel - 18 November 2010
- '...housing rates have gone up in the
previous quarter by 33 1/3%, and this increase had been maintained
for the present quarter - from 1 1/2d [one and-a-half old pence] to
2d in the pound.'
Complaint in The Times, mid-1850s
Jackie Speel - 30 January 2009
- 'Following yesterday's controversial ruling
from the EEC Harmonisation Committee, Britain has been ordered to
export 3% of its place names to the Continent. The UK, says the
committee's report, has exercised a monopolistic control over this
commodity for some centuries, having nationalised materials and
installations originally supplied by Continental and Scandinavian
sources... Our nearest neighbours are a bit short of interesting
nouns...'
The Times, February 1984
Jackie Speel - 22 January 2009
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Newspapers of the nineteenth century were much more heavily
text-based than their modern day counterparts, but the headlines
were often no less inventive and alarmist
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FOLLOWING PAGES:
Creating London's GLA
RULERS OF BRITAIN:
House of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha
Prime Ministers of Great Britain
Archbishops of Canterbury
EXTERNAL LINK:
London Times Online
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- 'The present generation has developed a new
passion, the love of anniversaries... That something or other happened
a thousand years ago is so excellent a reason for a commemoration that
it is almost a waste of pains to prove any virtue or beauty in the
incident celebrated...'
The Times, 1879
Jackie Speel - 12 January 2009
- 'The greater part of the legislation of the
present Parliament had been thrown to the winds by the irresponsible
political poltroons who represented nobody but themselves, and who
safeguarded no interest but their own.'
Mr E J C Morton MP Devonport, Liberal Party public meeting, 1894
Jackie Speel - 5 January 2009
- 'I should be unwilling to close this paper
without advertising to the advantage which might be derived from a
general convention dollar of all the civilised kingdoms,
bearing the insignia of each separate kingdom upon its obverse, and
some general conventional symbol upon its reverse... (Countries to
be included France, Austria, Saxony, Bohemia, and Sicily and Naples
- ie. Kingdom of the Two Sicilies)... it would not only facilitate
our commerce as an instrument of exchange, but would eventually
become the basis upon which a general convention dollar would ere
long be current throughout the world.'
The Times, 25 August 1838 p6, speech read by IP Cory before
the Numismatic Society in May 1838 on the introduction of the
decimal system
Jackie Speel - 27 November 2008
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- 'The Automobile Association was asked to
find a route between two zoos that would suit the transport of "a
giraffe on a truck". A route was eventually provided, with a remark
to the effect that the lowest bridge clearance was 14 foot 6 inches,
at X, which would suit the giraffe unless it wore a top hat, under
which circumstances bridges Y and Z would also have to be bypassed.
[The beast was eventually transported by boat.]'
The Times, 1938
Jackie Speel - 12 September 2008
Submit your own historical quotes by contacting us
here. You
can send in quotes for any period and from any source, and the best
of them will be published on the History Files website.
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Original text copyright © sources quoted. An original
feature for the History Files. |
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