20th May

The Enterprise of England began (again!) today in 1588 when the Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon. Galleons, galleases, carracks, pinnaces, sakers, falcons, culverins - ships and guns to invade England. The plan was poor. The idea was to sail to the Netherlands (than Spanish), pick up the Duke of Parma and his army and land somewhere on the East coast.
If Philip II had mounted a two-pronged attack - Parma from the East and the Duke of Medina-Sidonia from the south, I'd be writing this in Spanish today.
Via con Dios!

In other news ...
The Americans got it right today in 1895 when they declared income tax unconstitutional. In fact, all taxation is unconstitutional because it is introduced by a minority of people (in Britain the members of the Commons and Lords) which makes the government system an oligarchy, not a democracy. Why, then, do we pussyfoot around HMRC that should, in a true democracy, not exist?

15th May

In 1990 today there was an ingenious attempt to hit HMRC where it hurts. The Inland Revenue claimed that Lindi St Clare aka Miss Whiplash owed a great deal of money in back taxes from her time as a brothel-keeper. She refused to pay, for the good of HMRC because had she done so, they would have been living off immoral earnings. If this was a case in TV's fabulous Boston Legal she would have won and we'd all have cheered. As it was, in the real world, the Establishment judge ruled against her. After all, the taxation system in this country has been immoral for years.

In other news ...
Today in 1718 James Puckle patented what was probably the world's first machine gun. Gatling and Thompson didn't really need to improve the gun much, but it had to be done because no one could bear the sniggering whenever anyone said, 'Don't you point your Puckle at me!'