The First Brexit Was Better

A stunned David Cameron is resigning as the British Prime Minister this morning, as Britons voted to leave the failing European Union experiment:

A tearful Mr Cameron – his wife by his side – said the country needed “fresh leadership” and is understood to have met the Queen this morning at Buckingham Palace.

The PM campaigned to remain in the EU but the public rejected his arguments and chose to leave by 51.9% to 48.1%.

Speaking outside Downing Street, the PM said he would aim to have a new leader in place by the Conservative party conference in October.

“The British people have voted to leave the European Union and their will must be respected,” Mr Cameron said.

“The country requires fresh leadership to take it in this direction,” he added.

“I will do everything I can as Prime Minister to steady the ship over the coming weeks and months, but I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers our country to its next destination.

“This is not a decision I’ve taken lightly but I do believe it’s in the national interest to have a period of stability and then the new leadership required.”

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Political pundits and oddsmakers both took a beating last night, as they had predicted that the “Remain” faction favored by socialists in government on both sides of the Atlantic had the votes to keep the British indentured to the rest of Europe. As the vote totals started pouring in last night and “Leave” over-performed expectations everywhere, socialists went from smugly optimistic, to concerned, to horrified, to outright crushed as it became clear that Britons were not going to listen to their media nor their political elites.

These Britons decided instead for freedom like some of their fellow British citizens did several centuries ago, a fact I noted on Twitter last night.

The original “Brexit”occurred over a much longer time period, starting on April 19, 1775, and culminating on Oct0ber, 19, 1781.

It surprised me that some people responding to those tweets actually think that the proximate cause of the Revolutionary War was taxes over tea. That’s revisionist history, and a historical deception created by progressives in academia who don’t want you to know what actually triggered the Revolutionary War.

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The immediate, proximate cause of the American Revolutionary War was a gun control raid ordered by General Thomas Gage on April 18, 1775. Gage ordered  Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith to lead roughly 700 Regulars and Royal Marines on a gun control raid into the towns of Lexington and Concord. The British troops formed up and Boston itself sealed up to prevent word of the pending raids, but Paul Revere and William Dawes were both able to escape and warn the countryside that the “Regulars are about!” (the phrase, “the British are coming!” was never uttered; the colonists considered themselves as British citizens for a least a few more hours).

Militia units across Massachusetts were mobilized over the next 18 hours, and it is estimated that as many as 14,000 militia were either ready to march or did march towards the Concord Road.

One of the first encounters quite famously took place in Lexington, on Lexington Green. A detachment of infantry from the British vanguard saw the Lexington Militia under Captain John Parker standing at parade formation on Lexington Green and peeled off from the main British force to confront them.

The history books tell us that “no one knows” who fired the first shot at Lexington Green. Any instructor at an Appleseed event (you have attended one, haven’t you?) will make a compelling argument that we know who fired, but I’ll let you discover that on your own.

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The Lexington militia withdrew from the field after the British butchery on Lexington Green, but they were not broken. Captain Parker would have his revenge later in the day at a place that still bears the name of “Parker’s Revenge.”

The British gun control raid pressed on to their main target in Concord, where they found several cannon, shot, and other supplies, which they destroyed.

The first real battle of the war occurred at Concord’s North Bridge, where poorly formed and led Regulars fired at a column of advancing militia from Acton. Being better shots and  in a better formation for reasons we don’t have time to discuss at the moment (hint “well-regulated” in the Second Amendment doesn’t mean what most people think it does), the Acton militia decimated the Regulars, who retreated in a blind panic back into Concord.

concord bridge

Americans had won the first skirmish of the American Revolutionary War.

T retreat of Regulars and Royal Marines from Concord back to Boston saw militia units outmaneuver and outnumber them and quickly became a route. Some historians feel that it was only the reluctance of militia commanders to close with and destroy the column that kept the Regulars, by then reinforced by 1,000 men under Hugh Percy, from being wiped out.

By the next morning, April 20, 1775, roughly 15,000 militiamen surrounded Boston on three sides. The siege of Boston was under way, as was the American Revolutionary War, triggered by a British gun control raid on Lexington and Concord.

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Now you know, if you didn’t know before.

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