Garry Marlowe's address at the 2007 Bradlaugh Commemoration
We stand here today before the statue of a rare breed of politician. Bradlaugh had something very few MPs had then and even fewer have today. He really cared for the people.
Long before Bradlaugh made his name as Northampton's MP he served in Ireland in the British Army. He was one of a troop sent to protect officers who had gone to make evictions, knocking down the homes as they went. A woman rushed out from one of them, and flinging herself onto the ground before the feet of the Captain in charge, in the rain and cold, she pleaded that her home be spared, so that her terminally ill husband may die in his own bed. Her plea fell upon deaf ears, and this dying Irish man was carried out to die in the gutter, like a common animal.
Such injustice would burn itself like a scar on Bradlaugh's brain, and addressing an audience years later he asked them, "If you had been the brothers of such a woman, would rebellion have seemed the holiest gospel you could have preached?" Years later he confessed he still had not forgiven the Captain for his callous attitude. Such an event placed him on the road to radical politics, to find ways to better the lot of the common man and woman. He hated injustice and he hated cruelty with a passion you don't see in the Mother of Parliaments today. He didn't look to his career, he looked to help us, the people. He reminded his supporters that they were not alone. He stated, "I represent the working man in every mill, in every mine, in every factory." Compare the atheist and republican Bradlaugh to the christian George W Bush. Bradlaugh the resolute politician who was jailed for sticking to his principles. George, who locks people up, without trial, in defiance of the Geneva Convention.
Bradlaugh was a friend not only to Ireland, but to the people of India, to the poor and displaced and to the woman suffering in her home. He was a genuine friend of the working man. He urged us to work for co-operation and community help, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. He wanted the world free from superstition. He wanted us to stride through our lives on our feet, and thinking for ourselves, rather than crawling, praying on our knees.
I wish we could have another Bradlaugh, to fight our corner today. He truly wanted the best for the people and this proud man worked till his final days to that end. He was a real one-off and he was one of ours. Northampton's dedicated and incorruptible adopted son.
I would like to close by thanking Peter Mulligan and the team for hosting this event and keeping this great man's memory alive.
