Friday, September 24, 2010

The feet of freedom.

"Postwar Britain saw little need for the temperance move-
ment. In 1951, the govemment refused to pay for a representa-
tive to a World Health Organization meeting on alcoholism on
the grounds that the problem did not exist in Britain. This
claim was in one sense a tribute to the work of the temperance
movement; however, it also revealed the temperance move-
ment’s decline. The spirit of the 1960s was freedom, summed
up by Sir Jocelyn Simon’s peroration at the final reading of the
Liquor Licensing Act of 1962: 'Now is the time to dance. Now
is the time to stamp the floor with the feet of freedom!' "
Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia

2 comments:

  1. If I can't dance it's not my revolution.

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  2. I thought I should look this up. Hansard has:

    "Now is the time to drink... Now is the time to stamp the floor with the feet of freedom."

    It's a quote from Horace:
    "Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero pulsanda tellus"

    So, less dancing, more drinking.

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