England likes to think of itself as the mother of parliaments, the cradle of modern democracy. Never mind the minor contributions made by the American constitution or France’s declaration of the rights of man; nothing can compete with the 1,000 years of history that stand behind the House of Commons.
The English have long been immodest in this respect. I well recall when France’s then president François Mitterrand invited Margaret Thatcher to join the bicentenary celebrations of the French Revolution. With her customary tact, and a selective reading of history, the British prime minister arrived in Paris brushing aside the significance of Bastille day.
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