Citizen McDonnell

PErhAPs those who want to replace the terms BC (Before Christ) and Ad (Anno domini) with BCE (Before the Common Era) and CE (Common Era) are modern Jacobins seeking to de-Christianise Britain.

They share the aims of their predecessors in revolutionary France by eliminating all references to Christianity in the existing Gregorian calendar. deputy Philippe Fabre d’Eglantine introduced the republican calendar to the national Convention in 1793 expressly to do just that.

If its introduction had been universal, Monday this week, for example, would not have been October 2, 2017, but Vendemiaire 11, CCXXVI (226th year of liberty).

Elements of the Labour Party who have already made a pact with violence, calling for the lynching of Tories and the Foreign secretary’s head on a spike, would no doubt be content with Fabre’s project.

But they should note that he, like so many revolutionaries, was killed in the Terror of 1793/94 that inevitably spiralled out of control, plunged France into civil war and finally opened the door to napoleon.

When John Mcdonnell talks of insurrection, is that what he has in mind ? John BraithWaite, leominster, herefordshire.