Thursday 1 January 2015

The King and His Reign IX: The King and Democracy

James Keir Hardie (1856-1915)
Published in The Spectator, 18th April 1935
1,380 words
(First read 01/01/2015)

EFB gives a brief and not especially riveting account of the birth of the British Labour Party, and is generally fairly even-handed and magnanimous about them¹, except with regard to what he believed to be their part in the ultimate refusal to allow the Russian royal family to find exile in the UK².  As with all these articles, Benson feels obliged to compare George V with his grandmother and father, and, it has to be said, he lays it on pretty thick in his final paragraph.
You can read the article online here.


¹ There's a mildly amusing ~ or perhaps the word is 'risible' ~ anecdote about the King refusing admittance to his garden party to Keir Hardie and his Labour-founding-father pals.
² Even though Labour weren't actually in power at the time.

No comments:

Post a Comment