Marie Antoinette, your local Councillor

A couple of weeks ago, the BBC ran an interesting series on the inhabitants of the Palace of Versailles (Louis XIV-XVI and their enormous entourages) in the years leading up to the French Revolution.   The last Louis' wife, Marie Antoinette, loathed by everyone outside the Court as "l'Autrichienne" (the Austrian), naturally featured prominently.


One of the talking heads on the programme was the historian, Lady Antonia Fraser, whom older Private Eye readers may recall better as "Lady Magnesia Freelove". She came out with the remarkable assertion -- one, let it be said, untrammelled by anything so tacky as evidence -- that Marie Antoinette couldn't possibly have said the words for which she has passed into infamy: "qu'ils mangent la brioche" -- "let them eat cake" -- in response to being told that the poor of Paris had no bread to eat.  No, no, said Lady Antonia/Magnesia, Marie Antoinette was a well-brought-up and sensitive young lady,  from a long line of benevolent despots.  On hearing of the plight of the poor, she would have been the first on the streets of the capital, handing out bread or brioches or whatever she could get her hands on to her husband's starving subjects.


If only the sansculottes had known what Lady Magnesia/Antonia does, surely they would have spared the poor woman from the guillotine! Anyway, it looks as if we may now need a new example to quote when we speak of callous and uncaring rulers -- so step forward, Hertfordshire County Councillor Sally Newton. As I reported a few posts ago ("The Dark Ages come to suburbia"), the council is turning off the streetlights across the county in order to save money. Responding to suggestions that the new policy could lead to an increase in road accidents, muggings or burglaries,  Conservative councillor Newton, responsible for Hertford All Saint division, reportedly said those who object to part night lighting "should buy a torch".  


We really are going back to the Dark Ages, aren't we, to a time when those who dared to venture outside their front door at night needed to take not only their own source of light, but also a stout stick in case of an encounter with footpads.  Councillor Newton should maybe count herself lucky that we don't have the guillotine in these parts, but I daresay she and all of her colleagues who are supporting this nasty little scheme -- which is, let it be said, being replicated in other parts of the UK as well -- will almost certainly face the chop in the next round of local elections.