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Britain is an “evolutionary” country rather than a “revolutionary” one and has become so in part because of being an island but also, because we had our blood letting and Civil Wars in the past and like a tuning fork, the memories of the 17^th Century somehow, still reverberate even until this very day and say that, “We shall never return to those times and those ways…”

The purpose of this essay and others that will probably follow, is to explore what I believe are the start of impending political change within the UK and the historical themes that will properly, shape those changes and no, this is not about the EU because that is an irrelevancy which will pass soon enough.

In the terms of what has shaped the United Kingdom, there have been two key events both of which either, took place in England or, started there. But that said, in terms of these island races, who did what or where the fuse was lit, is frankly irrelevant because in what followed, English or Celt, we are as one in that story although the impacts varied.

Magna Carta

The initial major event was “Magna Carta” signed on a soggy meadow at Runnymede, just below Windsor. However, the “deal” was cynical and based upon issues of personal advantage to the participants that had no bearing on the lives of the common citizens of England about which, they being Saxons, the King’s men and Barons all being Normans, no one cared about, never-the-less even from this barren soil, something good did grow for us all.

A small slice of Magna Carta that still exists to this day in effect although, encapsulated and enshrined in later legislation, is that in a bankruptcy a tradesman may not be deprived of the tools of his trade. It is a logical exemption in the sense that if someone owes you money which they cannot currently pay, depriving them of the means of earning the money to do so, makes no sense at all. However, the Magna Carta was possibly the first formal attempt in the Medieval Christian World to write down a code that defines the relationship, responsibilities and duties of both sides, the rulers and the ruled to the concept of “Governance and Justice”.

The English Civil War of the 17^th Century

However, in order to move forward to today, we must also touch upon Oliver Cromwell, the execution of Charles 1^st in Whitehall and all the other events of the English Civil War except, I won’t dwell on the details because you can get better research for all that on the web. Never the less, it is important to understand that whilst easy to encapsulate the ‘times’ in the phrases I have used above, the real story is far more complicated and covers two generations of people prior to the events of the “Protectorate” under Oliver Cromwell.

It is also important to understand that in these times, whilst the ‘common folk’ provided the muscle power and canon fodder, they were excluded as the Magna Carta was between the King and his Barons, the English Civil War was between the King and the Merchants that created the wealth and excluded the commoners who were allowed no voice and precious little benefit just as they had also none at Runnymede.

The Similarity

These two events were totally different in a number of ways but what unites them totally is a substantial change in the status quo so that following them, the “presumed power” of the Ruler was diminished and then redistributed to others to some degree.

King John was clearly not a natural leader of men and so alienated his Barons that they were able to band together and make common cause against him and if it had suited them, remove him from the throne. In fact it did not suit them and therefore a careful study of the times suggests a certain amount of cynicism on both sides however, the consequences of firm legal procedures to inhibit the Monarch from a capricious exercise of the “Kings Law”, had far reaching consequences. Most likely at the time, the fact that the Barons could present a united front and an armed one at that, had more impact on King John than putting his seal on Magna Carta.

In fact, it was to be over 270 years later that another King finally broke the power of the Barons following his victory over Richard III at Bosworth field, his name Henry Tudor – Henry VII who ended the Wars of the Roses, ruthlessly suppressing their power by banning armed retainers and pulling their castles down.

When we look at the English Civil War, again we see a ruler – Charles 1^st who believed in his “Divine Right” to rule being granted directly from Almighty God however, he was confronted with a new and growing “merchant class” rather than landed Lords and as they provided the money, they wanted more of a say as to how that would be not just be spent but also, how it was raised. Some time later, their descendants in North America were to loudly proclaim “No taxation without representation”. However the issues of those times were rather more complicated and worth reading up on.

Neither Was Revolutionary

Now obviously, chopping off the King’s head in the 17^th Century is pretty “revolutionary” but what I’m really pointing to is that in neither case, Magna Carta or the Civil War, were the consequences and changes immediate or long lasting, rather than being watershed events, they were step changes that took time to work their way through the whole system. There was never a “This Day” when all had changed forever, from this day forward we will do things differently.

After the signing at Runnymede, King John continued to rule, after being appointed Lord Protector Cromwell was offered the Crown which although he didn’t want it himself, he did for his son. Fortunately Cromwell died relatively young and in 1660 Charles II was restored to the throne and whilst the Monarch was constrained, it was to be a couple of hundred years before the British Monarchy finally became the “Constitutional Monarchy” of today.

We Have a New Voting Class

It was only in 1918 that we finally achieved a universal franchise whereby everyone and regardless of sex could cast their vote, it is interesting to note that over these past 90 years there have been no “institutional changes” designed to accommodate and fully engage this massively enlarged electorate. It is probably time that we in Britain sat down and discussed a new way forward that involves us all in a better democratic process which inevitably means that Parliament will have some of its powers removed from it.

Unfortunately and as recent events have demonstrated only too clearly whether over abusing Parliamentary expenses, the worst and blatantly partial Speaker of the House or a Referendum on the EU Constitution, our MPs have fallen into the mindset of a “Divine Right to Rule Us” without any reference to our wishes. Perhaps they should remember that the Banqueting Hall in Whitehall from which Charles 1^st was led to his death in 1649, still stands just a short walk from their offices and they won’t even have to cross the road.