Pete

When the scandal broke a few months ago and we discovered the Home Office was hounding long established members of the British Afro-Caribbean community, telling them they had to leave, countless people came to their defence.

and I'll say it again: there's something in the water in Chicago. For about 150 years, the city's been a non-stop carnival of American radical politics.

100 years ago, Britain was in election mode. It was the first in eight years - having disrupted the political routine - and it was going to be a big one. As I , it was the first time in British history when any women would be allowed to vote.

Ask a left-leaning Briton what the most momentous election of modern times was and they'd typically say 1945. That makes sense - was catapulted into office with a landslide unprecedented in Labour's history.

The 17th century poet laureate, , once wrote: "Nor is the people's judgement always true: The most may err as grossly as the few." It was a cautionary couplet on the principle of majority rule.

Today in 1940, was elected to a record third term as President of the United States with 55% of the vote.

'The Land of the Free' is how we're often introduced to the United States. Of course, there have been plenty of Americans who moved mountains to make America a freer place to live: Sojourner Truth, Abe Lincoln, Alice Paul, Muhammad Ali and many more.

In the age of empire, the British state always liked to keep in the colonies.

115 years ago today, in 1903, the (WSPU) was born at 62 Nelson Street, Moss Side, Manchester - the Pankhursts' family home.

Our is a beauty (I'm allowed to say so without being arrogant because I wasn't the one who designed it!). In the top right is a map of England with the route the marchers took in October 1936 from the North East to London.