THE past frequently mirrors the present as Elizabeth McDowell found when she created a quiz for the recent Milverton Suffrage exhibition, still running at St Michael’s Church in the village.

She looked through newspaper cuttings and came across several quotes which chimed with her.

Two were from Sir Alexander Acland-Hood MP for West Somerset – including Wellington. The first was: “We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that we are not popular in Europe.” Elizabeth said the quote was from 1900 and related to the outcome of the Boar War.

The second quote from the MP was: “What the Government desired to do was to keep out aliens who couldn’t earn a livelihood, or who were criminal or immoral, but opponents were ready to let them all come in, to compete with the British workman, take the bread out of his mouth, and drive him out of his home.” The quote dates from 1905 and was in relation to the Aliens Bill.

The third quote relates to rural housing and the Reform Bill, and was from the chairman of Milverton Conservatives in 1885. It was: “One of the first things that the Conservatives did on their accession to power last June was to bring in a Bill giving power, not merely to authorities in towns, but to rural authorities, to acquire land to build houses.”

The fourth quote was again from the chairman of Milverton Conservatives, again about the Reform Bill: “Foreign politics were of more concern for the future greatness of this country than politics at home.”