Are you going? Are you going to the Boston Tea Party?

Yesterday's run was pretty standard and uneventful - a plodding 5 miles - but the backdrop was pretty interesting. Listening to The Sensational Alex Harvey Band one was reminded of that party piece anthem The Boston tea Party which is obviously about the infamous dumping of British tea into Boston harbour in protest about the taxation that George III's government was placing on the US colony in 1773. Of course this was a contributory factor in the eventual independence of the US from British rule and makes an excellent story. It was instigated by Samuel Adams, he of the constitution and excellent beer fame. many great accounts of the Tea Party can be found on the internet. Here's a good one. One thing that you may not be aware of is that actually the amount of tax that HM Government was demanding on tea from the colonists was actually less than the tax paid by Londoners for the same goods. The protest and eventually destruction of 342 chests of tea, was not really aimed at tea but at the British Government's desire to punitively tax the colonists at every opportunity. As Alex Harvey's lyrics go

"The King has said he's gonna put a tax on tea,
and that's the reason you all Americans drink coffee"