Skip to content

We could call him this I guess

Oliver Cromwell, a British politician of the 1600s.

We tend not to of course……

15 thoughts on “We could call him this I guess”

  1. Has there ever been a truer speech made in Parliament? Cromwell was dropping truth bombs like Kanye, yo:

    20 April 1653, London, England

    It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place,

    which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice.

    Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government.

    Ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

    Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess?

    Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God. Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?

    Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices?

    Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.

    Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God’s help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do.

    I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place.

    Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.

    In the name of God, go!

  2. Thanks Steve. I’ve never read the full speech.

    I’m trying to decide if there’s ever been a time when it wasn’t true. Throughout the entire world.

  3. Bloke in the Fourth Reich

    As Abraham Lincoln is known to have said, “Don’t believe a quote just because you see it on the internet together with a photograph of a famous person”.

  4. Bloke in North Dorset

    Boganboy

    I’m trying to decide if there’s ever been a time when it wasn’t true. Throughout the entire world.

    I would say when parliament was full of MPs who’d fought in WW1 or WW2. They may not have been right in what they did but they tended serve with a sense of duty and relatively high (compared to the current crop) moral standards.

    That we have a former Secretary of State currently in a jungle providing titillation for the masses in the belief he will be able to rebuild his political career tells us all we need to know about current politics and politicians.

  5. It seems a fair description in the context; Cromwell being entirely incidental to the “story”. Perhaps “leader” would be closer than “politician” and still fit the brief line, but it’s unimportant.

    Also to be fair, the quote . . .

    “It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.”

    . . . does sound more Washingtonian than Cromwellian, even if the latter is the actual origin.

  6. There would be some irony in that, bloke in spain, as Cromwell would have been an example of the type of outcome the American founders went to such effort to avoid.

  7. Theophrastus (2066)

    Cromwell was a fanatical regicide. Charles I was not a blameless monarch, but he did not deserve to be murdered.

  8. PJF said:
    “It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.”

    As a quote from the man who banned Christmas and theatres, this shows the gap between what politicians say and what they do. Cromwell must have been almost Murphyesque in hypocrisy and lack of self awareness.

  9. Cromwell must have been almost Murphyesque in hypocrisy and lack of self awareness.

    He was tithe collector for Ely Cathedral for a while, but was generally far too competent for any spudular comparison to stand up for long.

  10. “Charles I was not a blameless monarch”: he was much worse than that. Apart from his murderous folly in starting the Wars of the Three Kingdoms on grounds that were political madness, he actually restarted the English Civil War after peace had broken out. He broke his word whenever he felt like it so you couldn’t negotiate a lasting peace with him: he proved himself completely untrustworthy.

    Chopping his head off was the right move.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *