Our boys in blue went on strike today in 1797. No, not the police - they hadn't been set up yet - but the navy, the Jolly Jack Tars of Old England. It was a bummel of a year all round - the Irish were threatening revolt (what's new?); there was a run on the banks (time for another one, I can't help feeling) and then the fleets at Spithead and the Nore refused to sail against Revolutionary France.
The sailors had an awful lot of legitimate gripes and the way the mutineers were handled says it all. at the Nore, where officers were beaten up, the Admiralty hanged the ringleaders and the fleet sailed, At Spithead, kindly old Admiral Howe invited the ringleaders to his best port and promised them better food and conditions - and the fleet sailed.
Take a lesson, Mr Cameron. If the teacher threaten strike action over pay and pensions, give them what they want. If petrol tanker drivers threaten strikes, hang them. That would be fair.
In other news ...
Today in 1945, allied troops liberating Europe found a horde of looted Nazi treasure in a mine in Austria. The find included works by Goya, Rubens, da Vinci and Raphael as well as King Arthur's sword Excalibur, King John's Crown Jewels, the Ark of the Covenant and some postcards painted by Adolf Hitler.
