For you UK types:

James Keir Hardie (or Ker Hardie) is a Laobour Party hero.
History can be annoyingly forgettable - I'm a U.S. Citizen and one can only
imagine
how sad the state of history of the Unites States- regardless of the world-
is in. Well, one word: Iraq.

But your Mister James Kerr Hardie- Keir or Kerr, I've sen both- struck my
fancy. Literaly born on a coal mine in Scotland, feeding his family by age 10
(lost a job once because he was 5 minutes late due to the fact his mum had a
baby in the night and he was trundling over 10 miles)
Hardie was a champion until his death for the socialists and working people
of the world. He never made much money- although he was a working journalist
(in gov't, but in 1906 parliamentarians were to be well off enough not to
need coin)

Yet he would rather see the Scots, Irish and and all the working Brits who
created the British Empire get a fair shake- say, Sundays off and a minimum
wage.

Hardie was up against all the Lords and Masters who thought he should know
his place- but he did. Right next to David lloyd George (a great wWelshman
and amazing in his own right- a bit of Bill Clinton in the early 1900s) .

So when Tony Blair first gained office and came to the USA, addressed our
congress usung a Keir Hardie quip, it was so funny to hear all these highly
educated politicos try to puzzle itout.

I laughed- I had read it on Barabara Tuchman's work about labor movementd
pre WWi- I was full of glee seeing all these highly (read: ivy league PhDs)
scratching their heads.

Americans have no sense of their own hugely momentous Labor movement at the
same time, the same sweeping the world.
It's never mentioned, for fear we'll turn into communists (still!) or even
worse, demand National Health Care.

Sigh. That's history.
But your countryman Kerr Hardie has my heart, because even when things were
at their worst, he never gave the good fight.

Of course, my fellow British (my ancestors are all Brits, with some native
mixing, like everyone else) You could look it up.