I don't often talk about current affairs, but apparently our Prime Minister, David Cameron, was on American TV yesterday and he couldn't give the meaning of 'Magna Carta'. Oh, really, PM!
He did go to Eton, didn't he? (Eton is one of our poshest and most expensive schools - the princes went there, as do most of the aristocratic and loaded.) They do Latin at schools like that. And, presumably, history.
(Magna Carter? I was at school with her.)
Not really. I was at the local state grammar school with my friend Helen, and we knew about Magna Carta, and that it means 'Great Charter'. Come to think of it, we knew that before we even went to High School at the age of eleven. Oh, David, David!
(Magnum Carte D'Or? Don't they make ice creams?)
And David, if you just hop on the tube at Westminster and get off at Euston or St Pancras you can walk into the British Library for nothing and take a good look at Magna Carta. It's more to do with restricting the powers of the king than anything else - not the Charter for Human Rights by a long way - but it was a start.
Anybody else - what are the historical occasions that everyone should know about and nobody should forget?
As one of our long ago comedians, Tony Hancock, said - 'Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did she die in vain?'
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