November 11

Yesterday, widely known as Armistice or Veterans' Day, was also the anniversary of two tragic (and in the first case, closely related) historical events: the 1918 fall of the Habsburg monarchy, eloquently mourned by Gerald Warner in the Telegraph, and New Labour's 1999 expulsion of most of the hereditary peers from Britain's House of Lords. Both developments constituted important steps of the relentless and heartless advance of "Democracy," at the expense of everything ancient, honourable, and beautiful.