Monday 25th of November 2024
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counterfeit rattus .....

counterfeit rattus .....

The birth of modern democracy...

Why Putney? Because Guardian readers were adamant that this delicate little church, situated on the edge of the Thames amid all the vulgar bustle of wealthy south-west London, retains an unrivalled foothold in the story of Britain. The debates that began at St Mary's church on October 28 1647 pioneered the liberal, democratic settlement: a written constitution, universal suffrage, freedom of conscience and equality before the law. "From its first ascendancy here at St Mary's, there may be traced the acceptance - centuries later in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and now in two-thirds of the nations of the world - of the idea that government requires the consent of freely and fairly elected representatives of all adult citizens, irrespective of class or caste or status or wealth," in the words of Geoffrey Robertson's new introduction to the Putney debates.