Recognising the Chartists

British democracy owes a debt to the country’s first civil rights movement, says Malcolm Chase.

The future outlined: a copy of the People's Charter published by the Working Men's Association in London in 1838. Getty Images/British LibraryEarlier this year 77 MPs, from across all parties, signed a House of Commons Early Day Motion marking the 175th anniversary of the publication of the People’s Charter, the ‘blue print for our Parliamentary democracy’. A permanent exhibition on Chartism is being developed within the Houses of Parliament.

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