For a week
we've had a lesson in
history.
Correction:
we've had a lesson on
history'.
For a week
there has been space
(quite a lot of space, actually)
for people to tell us that
what we've been looking at is
history
or that it's
history
in the making
or that it's
one of the most important events
we'll ever see in
history.
That's a lot of people
for a long time
telling us,
what is
history.
It seems that what's happened is
history
because a monarch
in a constitutional monarchy has died.
For several centuries
people struggled to wrest power
from monarchs in this country
precisely so that they couldn't affect
history,
which they had been doing
for hundreds of years before.
Once they had taken power
away from the monarchy
they said,
Parliament is 'sovereign',
'it expresses the 'will of the people'.'
I learned this at school.
So the people have the power,
my teachers said
and somehow between the people
and parliament,
history
is made.
Others, later,
told me that history
is made in the great clash
between the forces of
those who own nearly everything
and those who own hardly anything,
but other people said
that's a terrible thing to say about
history,
so I won't mention that again.
To sum up:
this week it's all become much clearer:
one monarch has gone
another has arrived
and this is
history?
Is it though?