Tired of London, Tired of Life - A website about things to do in London

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18 March 2010

Remember John Wilkes

The radical, journalist and politician, John Wilkes, is remembered by a statue on Fetter Lane in the City of London.


Wilkes was recognised as a champion of English Freedom. In 1774 he was elected Lord Mayor of London, an in 1776 he introduced the first motion for parliamentary reform.

Wilkes was also the first MP to propose universal suffrage in the Commons and during the American War of Independence Wilkes he took the forward step of even condemning British policy on America. He argued for yearly elections and called for the abolition of rotten boroughs, and it is even said that he established freedom of the press as we know it.

For more, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wilkes

^Picture by ell brown^

5 comments:

  1. A noble cause... And just around the corner from where I work.

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  2. ...and also the only cross-eyed statue in London

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  3. Apparently Wilkes had a squint! (If you look him up on Wikipedia there's a portrait of him and you can see it)John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln's assassin was apparently named after him - I wish I could remember where I'd read all this random stuff!

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  4. Remember this man as we raed the Levison report

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