"To somehow think that people should have acted according to present day mores and attitudes in bygone days is
Slave like conditions in rural Britain persisted long after slevery had been outlawed
To defend these conditions because they were "of their time" is "absolutely idiotic and totally pointless."
That would let hanging drawing and quatering, burninbg at the stake, witch drowning , the branque, the thumbscrew..... and every barbaric practice of Britain's past neatly off the hook
You seek to present a rosy picture of rural life where everybody is fed and treated fairly - it was long term inhumanity that lasted well into the twntieth centure and was only abandoned whan the workers won their own voice
We all know what you and your fellow Tories feel about the Trades Unions
It was never anything of the sort and it is a distortion of history to pretend otherwise
The present relevance to all this is that many of these practices - particularly enforced labour, are returning
We learn from our history - a little difficult through pink fog
Burns, by the way, was a radical who spent his life opposing these conditions
His own family were victims of land seizure when they were forced from their homes and their goods sold by 'roup'
I think this is all a bit pointless, don't you?
Address the facts that have been put up or accept that that is the way things were.
Jim Carroll