Comments on: ALL THE DATES YOU CANNOT REMEMBER – NEW FEATURE FOR 2008

By: Richard Cooke

Richard Cooke — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 02:08:29 +0000

This new series of history discussions is an super initiative by John. It will provide an historical perspective on where we are today and should made excellent reading for people of all political persuasions and also to people of school age. They will surely gain a greater respect for the usefulness of knowledge of past history, as this knowledge makes it easier to understand the consequences, good and bad, of our actions and will engender better decision making in the future in all areas of life. For all John’s detractors on the left and in his own party, this also shows what a well-rounded person John is and why he is such a gift to politics in our time.

By: Tony Makara

Tony Makara — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 01:36:00 +0000

Very good piece John. How tragic it is that so many of our people know so little about the history of our land. Time is a continuum and everything that happens today is a result of things past. I hope the future Conservative government will set particular focus on British history being taught in schools. Let’s have our children taught the truth about how the British empire took civilization to the furthest corners of the globe. How our forefathers built North America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, they gave governance to India, lifted Africa out of darkness and ended isolationism in Asia. We have much to teach, our empire is something we can be proud of.

By: mikestallard

mikestallard — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:20:48 +0000

One of the very real problems which Labour has is this: it assumes that everyone must be equal under the skin. Therefore, they argue, that humans are all the same and always have been.
Since this is patently not how my own (and your) history was taught at school, they dump all history and make it clever – do you know anything about the National Curriculum? GCSE is – natch – Hitler. But that is, pretty well, about Women’s brave War Work and also Plots against Hitler. I taught a boy last year who got an A grade for History. He did not even know who Goering was (on his “Special Subject”).
We English ARE actually special people. It is very embarrassing to talk about it. But here goes.
1. We initiated the Industrial Revolution. Yes, us. It wasn’t the Aztecs, the Chinese or the Germans. It was actually us. Before we invented it, people lived very poorly, dependent on the harvest and wearing mostly rags. they were also very cold. Now the world is following us.
2. We invented the agricultural revolution. This means that today most people can, if they get their government right, not go hungry.
3. We brought Protestant Christianity to the world. Easy to sneer. But this involved writing the unwritten languages down, bringing peace by persuasion and example, keeping our word, initiating education and hospitals where the very idea was unknown. We also did a lot of exploring and showing people what the rest of the world was like. We should (and the left hate this idea) be seriously proud of all this. Compare us, for instance, with the Nazis or the Communist/Russians and see the difference! When we left, the countries quite often went badly wrong. Uganda, Rhodesia, Sierra Leone, Pakistan/Bangla Desh… today the anglophone nations – Australia, Canada, USA, Britain, West indies, India, New Zealand – are pretty much the most peaceful internally.

Before we were invented – say, in 1500 – the world was a much poorer place.
OK. So the left is not convinced because there is a lot of dogma around here. So let me ask this: why do they think that so many people from the new Commonwealth and beyond are fighting to live here? Why do Indians today speak English? (sentence removed -ed)
If we challenge the left to produce actual evidence for their beliefs with your excellent idea about dates – alleluia!