Warts And All

On this day in 1661, the twelfth anniversary of the execution of Charles I, the corpse of Oliver Cromwell was dug up, tried, convicted and hanged. Today, his statue appears to guard the entrance to Parliament. 

But as Alex Nunns, the Labour Left's preeminent present chronicler of itself, once said to me, "John Lilburne himself would pull down the statue of Cromwell, if he were not 350 years dead."

The proposal to erect it nearly brought down the Liberal Government of the day. It went up only because the Liberal Unionists decided that making a point against the Irish Nationalists was even more important than making a pro-Tory one. 

So they voted for it against the ferocious opposition both of the Irish Nationalists and of their own Tory allies. It is pointedly not inside the Palace of Westminster, and not a penny of public money was spent on putting it up even where it is.

In fact, it exists only because of a donation by the Liberal former Prime Minister, Lord Roseberry. He then gave an address at its unveiling. But almost no one knew that that was why he was the speaker. His donation had had to be made anonymously.