Thursday, February 23, 2012

A 20-minute fight in the House of Commons

Whatever did or didn't happen in Strangers Bar last night, it is nothing when set against the events of 1893 as Gladstone’s second home rule bill was going through the House.

As I wrote in an old Liberal Democrat News column about my hero J.W. Logan, the former Liberal MP for Harborough:
On the night of 27 July, as he waited for the throng to clear, Logan crossed the chamber and sat down truculently beside Carson on the Conservative front bench. Hayes Fisher, a Tory MP, pushed him away. Logan elbowed back and was grabbed by more Tories, whereupon the Irish Nationalists waded in to support him. 
For the next 20 minutes elderly, frock-coated MPs belaboured one another. Hats were flattened, coats torn and faces bruised. Onlookers in the galleries began to hiss and eventually the Serjeant-at-Arms restored order.
If you follow the link to the full column, you will find a comment from someone whose great-grandfather was shot dead by Logan in an accident.

Nobody's perfect.

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