[the scotsman]

I am no fan of either Charles I or Cromwell.

Had I lived in 1640, I would have fought for Cromwell. His cause was just, however it is fact that puritan rule in the latter 1650’s became oppressive and freedom to do even the most innocuous act of life became oppressed. Like all ideas, they became corrupted.

As one famous semi-joking quote has said, the British didnt drive the Puritans to America because of bigotry, they drove them out because they couldnt damn well stand them anymore.

[Sam Gamgee]

Yes, that is definitely the British view of history about the Puritans. Don't you think the fact that all the freedom loving people left Britain and later left America for Canada means that what Canada and Britain are left with are a bunch of feckless half assed conservatives to barely even touch the culture of both those countries?

I mean the tradition of Britain after Churchill was milquetoast conservatism at best. Thatcher was stabbed in the back by her own party and replaced now by what amounts to a George H Bush equivalent at Downey Street now.

In Canada we gave (sadly) David Frum to America. We also had Mulroney, another disaster to conservatism. In Britain one doesn't even remember the names of the disasters in conservative leadership until Thatcher took the helm. You don't even adjust the political boundaries in British ridings and haven't done so since time immemorial, giving clear advantage to the labour party.