Tuesday 6 February 2018

Deeds Not Words

Hull's Headscarf Heroes are forgotten after a mere 50 years, while the Suffragettes are remembered for getting back the vote for themselves after an 86-year hiatus, 100 years ago. They did not win the vote for those women who had never had it, and who had to wait another 10 years for it.

The men of the working class were indeed enfranchised for the first time in 1918, but a concentration on the re-enfranchisement of wealthy women conveniently avoids having to mention them.

To redress that imbalance, as well as for its own sake, legislation annulling the Suffragettes' convictions must also annul all convictions and other adverse court decisions arising out of Clay Cross, Shrewsbury, Wapping, and the three Miners' Strikes since 1970.

Make sure that there is at least one member of the next Parliament who will insist on that.

2 comments:

  1. Surely Disraeli enfranchised the working class male. You also fail to note that women could vote for the reformed corporations following the MCA of 1835

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    Replies
    1. No, he didn't. A kind of lower middle class, yes. But not most of the working men. That came in 1918.

      There is a Whiggish notion that they got it for having gone through the First World War. But that is only half the story. If they had not got it after the War, then they would have staged a revolution. It was not given out of gratitude.

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