Straw Very Nearly For Ever

There's a straw poll, the early 19th century attempt at an opinion poll. Then there's a straw vote, one that's taken at a meeting to see 'unofficially' how things are standing. There's the drowning man who clutches at straw, the last straw and a man of straw. Then of course there's Jack Straw, the man who was executed during the Peasant's Revolt in 1381 for murdering some Flemish people. He was so infamous that even Chaucer wrote about him, albeit only six years later, in the Nun's Priest's Tale.

Jack Straw and all his followers in their brawl
We're never half so shrill, for all their noise

Well, our modern day Jack Straw has been very shrill in his defence of the government's record on liberty. In an article today in the Guardian he says.

"The constitutional expert Vernon Bogdanor has commented that when the history of this era is written, the last 10 years will be seen as heralding a "quiet revolution" in the way in which the UK is governed. He is correct. This period has seen a greater improvement in our democracy and people's sense of rights than any time since the development of the franchise between 1832 and 1928. But the difference is: that took a century, this has taken a decade."

Read the whole thing. You'll be amazed at this parallel view of the country in which we live. One tainted by Labour's meddling, ineptitude and all the other negatives of their time in office. It won't surprise me at all to see Gordon Brown introduce the 'Divine Right of Prime Ministers' pretty soon