Edmund Burke and Lawful Rebellion

Thanks to their effective bit of indoor street theatre in the Wirral (hat-tip Richard North), just became aware of the British Constitution Group's Lawful Rebellion campaign, which seems to me a defiant expression of militant moderation in the face of institutionalized ideological extremism.

As members of ‘a people’ - of the descendents of the first people of this Island - we have a natural entitlement to self-determination. And, as descendents of those that gave us, a free people, our Constitution and Law, we have also an irrevocable right to declare lawful rebellion against a malevolent and authoritarian State. The State must be answerable to the people or suffer the consequences as a treasonous assembly.

Lawful Rebellion is not a single act… it is a process. It has many facets and comprises the bringing together of people of like-mind who seek to reassert our national sovereignty whether as individuals or in groups under the single and recognised umbrella of ‘lawful rebellion’ so that a variety of actions may be taken that will eventually lead to the unequivocal recognition of our constitution and the acknowledgement of the reassertion of our national sovereignty - in defiance of those who have worked to destroy it.

Then it says: Join the British Constitution Group today, come to one of our meetings, and get involved!

I think I should, if only to correct their spelling. Across the gulf of 220-odd years, Edmund Burke tells me to:

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

People crushed by law, have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws; and those who have much to hope and nothing to lose, will always be dangerous.