In his diary entry for this day in 1924, George V wrote, 'Today 23 years ago dear Grandmama [that's Queen Victoria to you and me] died. I wonder what she would have made of a Labour government.'
What indeed? She might have been quite tickled that the new Prime Minister was Ramsay MacDonald, a crofter's son from the Heelands, a part of the country she adored. On the other hand she is on record as saying that Irish terrorists should be lynched and women campaigning for the vote should be horse-whipped, so who knows?
In other news ...
Time for another 'Bloody Sunday'. This was the third or fourth given that name and it happened in St Petersburg 107 years ago. about 1000 people marched to the Winter Palace to protest to the Tsar, Nicholas II, about the appalling conditions in his country. They were led by Father Gapon who was himself a government spy. They were all unarmed and carried icons and portraits of Nicholas who they saw as their father. a panicky Guard commander ordered his troops to open fire and the blood of at least half the crowd stained the snow. The irony of all this? Nicholas wasn't even there.
