It’s calmed down since Thomas Paine’s day, but revolution may still come
What’s going for it? Once upon a time, Lewes was a hotbed of feverish radicalism. That time was 1772, when the town’s excise officer, one Thomas Paine, had had quite ENOUGH, thank you very much. So cheesed off at work were Tom and his colleagues, he published The Case Of The Officers Of Excise, a plea for better working conditions and salaries, and a more select variety of biscuits in the staff room. Paine and his pals concocted their shocking thoughts over a few pints in the White Hart Hotel, in what they called the Headstrong Club. Needless to say they fell on deaf ears, and two years later Paine was off to America – more fertile ground for revolt, perhaps, than Sussex – to inspire the American and French revolutions. As you do.
These days, Lewes’s politics are slightly less convulsive. The town is so pretty, old and curious – all tile-hung cottages with the whiff of hops on the air from Harvey’s Brewery – it could be an exhibit on Antiques Roadshow. But don’t be fooled. The town is full of Marxist lecturers from Sussex University. They like to burn effigies of David Cameron at their famous/infamous Bonfire bight. The Headstrong Club has been revived. And they still print Tom Paine’s scorching pamphlets at a press on the High Street. The revolution may still come.
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