125 years

30 January 2016 will be the 125th Anniversary of Bradlaugh’s death.

Many of the campaigns upon which Bradlaugh worked so tirelessly are still unfinished. Some progress is being made fortunately:

Atheism must be taught as part of religious education lessons in British schools, the High Court has ruled.

But on other issues such as universal suffrage much is still to be done. His words are as true today as they were 125 years ago.

..for so long as the working classes are denied justice, and are not admitted to the suffrage in so ample a manner as to outnumber the upper class electors, it is to the working men that Mr. Hare’s bill is peculiarly beneficial; and I trust that even if universal suffrage were obtained tomorrow the people would know that a permanent and progressive democracy can only subsist usefully by permitting its opponents to be heard in the national deliberative assembly.

The Real Representation of the People – C. Bradlaugh

 

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