A year of blogging - history and "modernisation"

Looking back over the past year, I'm struck by how many postings make references to history - though perhaps you might expect that from a history graduate...

But history is a necessary counter-balance to Labour's constant use of the value laden term "modernisation" - one might (with apologies to George Orwell and Animal Farm) almost say "future good, history bad".

Labour have been contemptuous of our history and traditions - to take two of the many examples, by weakening the Union of the United Kingdom and surrendering powers to an unreformed EU in the treaties of Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon

Intelligent politics is about both looking to the future and conserving what is best about existing instititutions - and understanding that where we want to go as a nation comes from where have been