Source: http://empathygap.uk/?p=1943
Timestamp: 2020-03-31 10:02:56
Document Index: 447368301

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 1', 'art 3', 'art 4', 'art 5', 'art 6', 'art 7', 'art 8', 'art 9', 'art 10', 'art 11', 'art 12', 'art 13', 'art 14', 'art 15', 'art 16', 'art 17', 'art 18', 'art 19', 'art 20', 'art 21', 'art 22', 'art 23', 'art 24', 'art 25']

Universal Suffrage in the UK – The Videos | The Illustrated Empathy Gap
A private soldier’s registration to vote following the passing of the 1918 Representation of the People Act
This is a shameless bit of advertising. I have made my first – and possibly last – foray onto YouTube.
The epochal 1918 Representation of the People Act will have its centenary in February 2018. This Act gave the vote to the majority of women for the first time in the UK. It also gave the vote to a far larger number of men than any other kindred Act. It is right that it should be celebrated. But it should be celebrated as a triumph for the principle of democracy – that the Parliamentary vote is a matter of right, not a matter of wealth.
My concern is that it may be celebrated for the wrong reasons. So my videos are a pre-emptive strike.
Most obviously, nearly half of men did not have the vote prior to 1918. So, whilst it is valid to celebrate the Act because it gave the vote to women, it would be inappropriate to celebrate only that aspect of it.
I suspect it will no longer be possible to hide the fact that most men/boys who died, or were maimed, in World War 1 did not have the vote. But it may still be possible to misrepresent, or downplay, the true motivations for Parliament passing the Act.
I argue in the videos that the wholesale deaths of men in the World War1 trenches was the impetus behind the passing of the Act, due to a wave of egalitarian feeling arising from this slaughter. This is a truth which has been buried.
For those preferring to read the material, a snappy 30,750 words, it’s here.
Linked below is this material in audio form, broken down into 25 manageable parts…
This inks to the whole channel of 25 videos which will play in sequence.
Alternatively, individual links to the 25 parts are given below,
Part 1 – Centuries of Oppression: The Road to 1918 – Introduction
Part 3 – The Era of Domestic Trades
Part 4 – Battles for Representation
Part 5 – The Industrial Revolution
Part 6 – Coal, Canals, Steam and Death
Part 7 – The Chartists
Part 8 – The Great Reform Act 1832
Part 9 – The Second and Third Reform Acts
Part 10 – From 1884 to 1918: The Overview
Part 11 – The Suffragettes, the Working Class, and The Big Snag
Part 12 – The History of the Parliamentary Franchise in Numbers
Part 13 – The Parish and the Poor Law
Part 14 – Emmeline Pankhurst’s Errors
Part 15 – The Hypocrisy of Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst
Part 16 – The Great Unrest and Men’s Demands
Part 17 – The Constitutionalists and the Convergence on Democracy
Part 18 – The Speaker’s Conference and the Approach to 1918
Part 19 – Was the 1918 Act a Reward for Returning Heroes?
Part 20 – Was the 1918 Act a Result of the Suffragette Protests?
Part 21 – Why were women included in the 1918 Act?
Part 22 – Why the age limit of 30 in the 1918 Act?
Part 23 – Was the 1918 Act passed to avoid revolution?
Part 24 – What If World War 1 Had Not Happened?
Part 25 – Conclusion and Summary
This entry was posted in history on 14th October 2017 by William Collins.
← Practice Direction 12J Male Contraception Initiative →
11 thoughts on “Universal Suffrage in the UK – The Videos”
Pingback: My Oxford Talk on the History of Universal Suffrage | The Illustrated Empathy Gap
Groan 20th January 2018 at 10:05 am
William Collins Post author 20th January 2018 at 1:43 pm
I recommend “The Suffragette Bombers: Britain’s Forgotten Terrorists” by Simon Webb. Great read.
Pingback: Universal Suffrage in the UK | The Illustrated Empathy Gap
AJ 17th October 2017 at 8:29 am
I have not watched the videos but I have read the material and it is excellant as always.
One thing you do not mention to undermine the idea that women have been historically oppressed and discriminated against as a class is life expectancy. Women have lived longer than men as long as there has been statistics about it , that is despite the risks of child birth.
What class of oppressed, exploited people people live longer than than the oppressors and exploiters?
Groan 15th October 2017 at 12:24 pm
Goodness yes a real bringing together of history. As you observe the history is mainly “class struggle” in the sense of an “elite” or “aristocracy” . Much of the discussion of “democracy” tends to project back the current idea . Europe has had many “democracies” over the millennia. But usually with a pretty tight definition of the “demos”. After all even the Holy Roman Emperor had an electorate, as did the “Kings” of Hungary and Poland at various times, so too many Cities and Towns in Italy or northern Europe. Even in the much admired Greek democracies the voting population was a small part of the total population. Anything approaching “universal” is rare indeed before 1900 .
Angelo Agathangelou Esq. 15th October 2017 at 1:28 am
Outstanding. Thank you for this excellent work.
Groan 20th November 2017 at 6:16 pm
If you have a friend that has a copy December’s “History Today” has an interesting piece on the “Womens Social and Political Union” the short lived women’s Political Party set up by the Pankhursts to contest elections. As many will know the Pankursts were very much of their class and the Party was pro empire, pro war (and men doing their duty in the trenches) and very much against the “Bolsheviks” and Socialists. So an interesting corrective to fond ideas of the Pankhursts being SJWs . It draws a link to the recently formed Women’s Equality Party but misses, of course, the obvious similarity in being a party firmly of privileged middle class women being “patronising” in every way. One hopes that the other similarity will be the short lived nature of the Party.
Glenn 4th February 2018 at 10:46 pm
Where’s the like button for that comment.
William Collins Post author 5th February 2018 at 4:06 pm