Tea at Trianon: The People’s Revolt

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, May 8, 2025

The People’s Revolt

From The European Conservative:

The EU elites have been happily drawing the UK Labour government closer into Brussels’ orbit on everything from trade to defence policy, assuring everybody that Europe is leaving the ‘trauma’ of Brexit in the past. Yet, last week, millions of English voters rejected Labour, as well as the collapsing Tories, and made clear that they see ‘Mr Brexit,’ Nigel Farage, as the future.
In Romania, EU elites and their media allies did all in their power to demonise Simion as a “far-right Trump ally.” Yet the AUR leader’s support only increased, to the point where he won around 40% of the vote on Sunday. These setbacks for the Brussels oligarchs come after similar results across Europe, notably the surge of support for the right-wing Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) in February’s German general election.
It is now clear that the populist revolt, despite repeatedly being declared dead, is alive and kicking across Europe. Meanwhile, it is the old mainstream parties that are teetering on the edge of the political grave, desperately clinging together for survival.
After Germany was reunified, 35 years ago, the Christian Democrat-Social Democrat ‘duopoly’ split more than 80% of the votes between them. Now they can barely muster half that number between them. In last week’s elections in England, the Labour and Conservative parties combined mustered about a third of all votes between them—an historic low.
There is a greater distance between these parties and the people—especially working class and young people—than at any time in modern history. Worse, as I wrote about the UK at the weekend, they are losing their traditional bases of strongest support: “There are no more red or blue ‘walls’, no more heartlands, no safe seats or core votes that the old parties can rely on.”
How are the establishment parties responding to this existential crisis and trying to hold back the populist revolt? First, they have sought to placate angry voters by claiming that they have listened to public concerns about mass migration or Net Zero and made concessions. (Read more.)