The Today programme decided it had to do a routine on the Magna Carta, (08:22) the BBC being then BBC they had a not so subtle undercurrent of disdain and amused contempt for the whole thing much as Gavin Esler did when talking of ‘British values’…‘whatever they are…smirk smirk’.
Historian David Starkey didn’t let them get away with their patronising attitude saying that ‘Tradition’ was a word that ‘you [Evan Davis] and this programme always treats with such contempt.’
Davis had begun by telling us that some people say that the signing of the Magna Carta was one of the defining episodes in the building of our democracy.
He immediately had to qualify that with a question as to what is ‘our’ and what is ‘democracy’? Nothing is absolute with the BBC, an attitude designed to allow them to make equivalence with other cultures and say they are just as acceptable as ‘British values’…whatever they are.
David Starkey corrected Davis and said the Magna Carta had nothing to do with democracy, which is two a penny, but was important because it was the foundation of limited and responsible government.
Davis went on to ask ‘In a sequence of events would you put it [the Magna Carta] at the number one of importance or would you put it along the lines of…..’
David Starkey had to jump in there and exclaim…
‘Oh dear…this is like a Guardian football list of your 10 best favourite armpit scratching records…this is vulgar way of approaching this…..it’s immensely important.’
Starkey goes on to provide great value and more pokes in the eye for Davis and the other ‘expert’ Nicholas Vincent, medieval historian…..though a ‘Tudor expert’ Starkey seems to know more medieval history than Vincent…though perhaps Vincent’s thoughts are coloured by his less than impressed attitude towards the Magna Carta despite grudgingly admitting its ‘importance’.
Apparently David Starkey is making a series on the Magna Carta for the BBC next year…should be interesting.
Magna Carta matters. It is the foundation stone supporting the freedoms enjoyed today by hundreds of millions of people in more than 100 countries.
Magna Carta enshrined the Rule of Law in English society. It limited the power of authoritarian rule. It paved the way for trial by jury, modified through the ages as the franchise was extended. It proclaimed certain religious liberties, “the English Church shall be free”. It defined limits on taxation; every American remembers that “no taxation without representation” was the cry of the American colonists petitioning the King for their rights as free men.
For centuries it has influenced constitutional thinking worldwide including in France, Germany, Japan, the United States and India as well as many Commonwealth countries, and throughout Latin America and Africa. Over the past 800 years, denials of Magna Carta’s basic principles have led to a loss of liberties, loss of human rights and even genocide. It is an exceptional document on which democratic society has been constructed.
Nearly five hundred years later it was central to both the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution. The newly-independent United States included many of its concepts in the 1791 Bill of Rights. In 1870 Bishop William Stubbs asserted “the whole of the constitutional history of England is a commentary on this Charter.” In 1965 Lord Denning, the most celebrated English judge of the 20th Century, described Magna Carta as “the greatest constitutional document of all times – the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot.”
Another lasting legacy is seen in the UN Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948. Speaking at the UN General Assembly as she submitted the UN Declaration, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt argued that “we stand today at the threshold of a great event both in the life of the United Nations and in the life of mankind. This declaration may well become the international Magna Carta for all men everywhere”.
And:
In a 2005 speech, Lord Woolf described it as “first of a series of instruments that now are recognised as having a special constitutional status”, the others being the Habeas Corpus Act, the Petition of Right, the Bill of Rights, and the Act of Settlement.
Some reaction to Starkey from his fans:
If those are his fans then I hope he doesn’t have enemies.
Although it helps to know that Gus Baker is a trade Union Official that studies at night – i.e does SweetFA, peter Smith is an old style red socialist and Geoff Charnley is a retired Environmental Health Officer.
So I suppose we can say that all of them do SweetFA.
Yes, all of them wasters…..with a nod to Blackadder, Willie pooh plop whatever of the Aberdeen public toilets has a more useful and vital role in society than these idiots.
old evan davis reminds me of that numpty paranoid schizo scott who annoys people in here with his sleep inducing rants and paranoia,they do have to seem to have alot in commen in there world view,sorry evan and scott but the truth has to be told bubbas.
OOOOhhh, watch out there Stuart, Scott will be on to you about your spelling, tut tut…..
I’ve never criticised Stuart for his spelling, just pointed out that his unique style makes it so easy to spot when he’s also attempting to insult me (such as he childishly does above) under other names as well. In recent days he’s also used “Bob” and “Roy”.
Don’t feed the miserable troll
It’s annoying listening to the final strawman argument in that piece. I have never heard anyone claim Magna Carta was an early human rights document like the ones written after WW2. It was an important stepping stone in restricting monarchical power. There have been many constitutions written since for countries with appalling application of such ideals. I am thinking of East Germany, for example.
As per usual if any right wing writers defend something English we hear the left wing writers under-valuing the importance of the topic. A typical knee-jerk reaction, sadly.
I like Starkey, he is refreshing, direct and knowledgeable about his subject. He is a credit to the nation whilst Davis is exactly what he seems on air. An annoying BBC economics graduate of the BBC school of liberal relativity. I often hear of yanks going to Runneymead to just visit the shrine of the ‘Magna Carta’ which as others have said, is the basis for the US constitution ‘bill or rights’. Only uneducated Brits (and EU pundits) think it unimportant.
The liberal does not like to discuss Magna Carta or the 1689 Bill of Rights. Too much emphasis on freedom and not enough knee bending to an authoritative state that deigns to grant us the occasional liberty. Something the EU is based on.
The word freedom means something very different to the word liberty. Freedom is mine by right of birth. Liberty is some thing granted by someone or something else.
Modern liberals do not like freedom. The peasants need to be told what liberties they can have.
You really cannot expect the average beeboid to grasp exactly how important Magna Carta is. It gets in the way of their fantasy state. An awkward thing is freedom.
As for those tweets. Typical of those that tweet- what can you expect.
You’ll find that left wing “educators” prefer not to endorse the ideas of great English political thinkers such as Hobbes and Locke because, like the Magna Carta, they emphasise property rights. The very concept that Marxists wish to banish to the depths of Hades. Hence the mocking tones from Davis and Humphreys.
Yep, but Davis and Hump have plenty of property…….they just want everyone else to have none…..twisted, ugly minds and ugly personalities….the Left in action.
British values “whatever they are??” vs values of the RoP.
Just one week in the world of Islam. What is wrong with this faith?
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/just_one_week_in_the_world_of_islam_what_is_wrong_with_this_faith/
I don’t think Andrew Bolt has them all. The RoP site has more.
Just three days in the world of Islam
2014.06.16 (Kandahar, Afghanistan) – Taliban roadside bombers take out five members of the same family.
2014.06.16 (Mpeketoni, Kenya) – Over four dozen innocents who failed a quiz on Islam are cut down by al-Shabaab gunmen.
2014.06.16 (Pattani, Thailand) – Muslim terrorists rake a vehicle with gunfire, killing a 44-year-old Buddhist woman.
2014.06.15 (Baghdad, Iraq) – Fifteen shoppers are pulled into pieces by a Fedayeen suicide bomber.
2014.06.15 (Aden, Yemen) – Suspected al-Qaeda fire point-blank into a bus, killing at least nine riders.
2014.06.14 (Samangan, Afghanistan) – Eleven locals, including six women and a child, are disassembled by Taliban bombers.
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
Evan Davis is too ugly to be on television.
Harry and Paul do a fantastic send up of him on the ‘Dragons Den’ sketches…..he must cringe.
Speaking of Magna Carta, a certain gentleman– burnishing his “frat-boy” image for the majority of Americans who know him, if at all, mostly for that– discussing same; does anyone remember?
It introduced the notion of a contract..written and testable..between the ruler and the governed….and as such its status is unimpeachable. It sets out the concept of liberty against arbitrary state power…
So that’s why the trendy Lefties don’t like it. It removes power from the Almighty State and hands it to the lower orders rather than the lower orders simply slavishly doing as the Almighty State demands. Provided, naturally, that they are the ones who are on control of the Almighty State.
Evan Davis if ever there was justification needed for men to adopt the Muslim veil, it can be found just by looking at his freakish face. Is he even human?
‘Apparently David Starkey is making a series on the Magna Carta for the BBC next year’
And yet the BBC is biased against Starkey’s view of Magna Carta?!? How does that work?
They have to keep up the act of neutrality – a little bit of ‘opposition’ is tolerated, drowned out by the tide of Globalists!
East they just do what they do with Johnathan Meades and label all his work ‘polemic ‘ and then it can be dismissed to the haters on the left as ‘balance’
“Nothing is absolute with the BBC…”
Nothing British is absolute with the BBC I think you mean, everything black, Muslim, or even European is absolutely wonderful and absolutely deserving of ‘respect’!
When they speak of other ‘cultures’ do they ever ad ‘whatever that means’. Ooh ‘Islamic culture, whatever that means…’. ‘Black culture, whatever that means…’
My God it’d be an excuse for a riot!
the self superior leftie scott under different names has always had a go at me about my bad spelling and punctuation which i admit is pretty poor,but i aint gonna change my ways for no nasty socalist like scott.
I would hazard that it is lefties like Scott who, in the ‘educational’ dept were the reason you left school ill-prepared for the world beyond……
Inaccurate as ever. You were attempting to insult me – saying that I needed psychiatric help for daring to disagree with you. You did so under multiple names, and I pointed out (using my one, real name) that your punctuation and grammatical style made it easy to spot that you were using multiple names.
I realise that having your insulting behaviour, and your attempt to use multiple pseudonyms to try and slur me, exposed is an embarrassment to you. But lying through your teeth about it isn’t going to help you.
Ignore the ridiculous pint-sized troll
very lame thinking on your behalf robert brown,insulting me is like water off a ducks back,and in all fairness to scot,his insults towards me are at least with a bit of passion,in your case robby babe it is just plain bad manners.
At the risk of repeating myself, Stuart/Bob/Roy/whatever names you may choose in the future, pointing out that you’re hiding behind multiple pseudonyms as a means of accusing me of paranoia and needing professional help isn’t insulting you. It’s standing up for myself and rebutting your false assertions. Do you see the difference?
Don’t feed the snivelling troll
And don’t laugh at “John Anderson”. He can’t help it.