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01 June 2017
Issue: 7748 / Categories: Features , Brexit , EU , Constitutional law
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All out war: Brexit & the Chartist movement

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Could the way in which Vote Leave used its NHS funding pledge during the EU referendum campaign amount to the offence of treason felony?
  • The history & application of s 3 of the Treason Felony Act 1848.

In 1848 revolution was sweeping through Europe, in the UK the Chartists were considered to represent a threat: ‘This is the time of trouble for kings and generals … They have had their day … the angel is preparing to pour out the sixth phial, and its outpouring will “prepare the way of the kings of the earth” …Only the throne established in justice is safe. Parliamentary reform is necessary. For it is not the voice of the people that is heard in the House of Commons but the voice of the aristocracy (The Chartists, Perspectives & Legacies, Malcolm Chase, p 104).

Their demands included universal suffrage and the right to a secret ballot. They presented Parliament with a petition that they claimed been signed by 5,700,000 people.

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