This site went live in January 2010 and was originally used to send an excerpt of a speech that Oliver Cromwell made to Rump Parliament in 1653 to each and every sitting MP. In the months leading up to the General Election 2010 just under 40 000 emails were dispatched from this site and we received a mix response of replies from MPs.
In the few short months this site has been online it has slowly evolved from one of keyboard activism to one of minor direct action. This is the direction in which this site shall continue, eventually leading to major direct action, keeping a fine balance beween online activism and actual physical action.
Please find below the excerpt of the speech that this site is based on. It’s a unique speech because at any one time you can read it, apply it to those who profess to serve us and it will remain relevant.
“…It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonoured 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 barter’d 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 defil’d this sacred place, and turn’d 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 redress’d; your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse the Augean Stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings, and which by God’s help and the strength He has given me, I now come to do.
“I command ye, therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors. You have sat here too long for the good you do. In the name of God, go!”
A version of Oliver Cromwell’s speech dismissing Parliament
20 April 1653
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