For those of you unaware that youtube is not all teeny girls sighing over some spotty jackass, you know, like Xanga much of the time, here's a tip:

Enter "documentary bbc". Lots of good stuff broken up into ten minute clips. For instance, I'm watching "A History of Britain - Part xx of 15 - xxxxxxxxxx x/6"

That is, there are 15 parts, each broken up into six clips of about ten minutes each. 15 hourse of British history, from the pre-Celts (Mater's DNA) through the Norsemen shagging all the monks and putting maidens to the sword (that's how Wolfgang the Woofter did it). That's Pater's DNA but the way. I think it goes through the First Empire (America, etc) through the Second Empire (Africa, India, etc) to the failing collection of islands off the coast of Belgium today.

I'm on part nine at the moment, near the end of the 17th century - all puritans and restorations. I'll be interested to see where the puritans all went (next door to you, probably) after Charles II was invited to take back his throne and who then promptly dug up Oliver Cromwell and the other regicides and hung 'em from gibbets.

An interesting point with some relevance to contemporary problems with extremists in America wanting to order people about according to their interpretation of how they outght to behave. Law by scripture.

Cromwell did a coup de grace against the corrupt self-pertpetuating Parliament. He refused the monarchy, all well and good because it saved England slipping into true dictatorship of a modern kind. He ruled by the army and the common people loved him for it. However, Ollie then blew it for the Republic of England and thereby lies the similarity with America today.

He let loose the Major-Generals. These became not only the local legal authorities but the moral police as well. Everything from Maypole dancing to Christmas, from taking Mass to playing cards on a Sunday were banned and strictly policed. The English, being a practical people with little time for the finer points of religious observance, deeply resented this and after a short time, the Major-Generals were recalled. Too late! The average Englishman is far from being a strict ascetic or a gluttenous reprobate, but the latter is by the by.

When Cromwell went to wherever it is that Puritans go, the corrupt Parliament tried to reassert itself. Rather than have such as the Major-Generals back, the people opted for the king and his bishops. The first English republic failed due to the excesses of the righteous. Take heed that the second English republic, The United States, does not suffer a similar fate. Not everyone wants to stop playing cards on a Sunday or indeed, to cease fondling Maiden's wobbly bits as they gyrate to whatever is "la mode" at the mo.

I'll shut up now while I take a crate of beer to do an indepth study of "Maidens and why they get all sweaty and excited when dancing around the Maypole."