GRAHAME Buxton is so right to highlight the commemoration of the brutal 1819 Peterloo Massacre against peaceful demonstrators who simply wanted a political voice for rights and freedoms; which an elite establishment was not willing to acknowledge, (Viewpoints, August 16.) One issue was the
Corn Laws which imposed tariffs on the import of wheat to protect the profits of the landed gentry.
But his efforts to repeal the
Corn Laws had led to him being savagely attacked by members of his own party.
I assume he was talking about the Chartists, Peterloo and the
Corn Laws in the 19th century.
Tory MPs are warning of the worst split since the
Corn Laws 173 years ago if MPs force a softer Brexit in a string of 'indicative votes' tonight.
Over two centuries, battles over electoral reform, the
Corn Laws, free trade, the House of Lords, and the Irish question were eventually resolved by reform and compromise.
So, it could soon be time for the Tories to come to terms with their 21st-century
Corn Laws moment, face a split, and lead the country into EFTA.
And by Christmas, May will be chewed up and spat out by her rabble of Conservative members of parliament who are intent on devouring their own as never seen since the days of the
Corn Laws in 1846.
Thompson's themes of class struggle in the early years of capitalist industrialization, revisited in part 1, 1800-1870, in the turmoil over the
Corn Laws and New Poor Law.
A party that last split in 1846 over the
Corn Laws is the most likely to survive Brexit basically intact.
Nowadays, Sir Robert Peel is remembered as the founder of the Metropolitan Police, prison and judicial reforms, the Repeal of the
Corn Laws and the father of the modern Conservative Party.
Brexit, however, transcends party loyalty and MPs now have to make known what they truly believe in on an issue, whose importance is only matched by the divisiveness of the
Corn Laws in the 1840s.