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Blasphemy in the UK: A mini history

Steve Tomkins

Rib Ticklers (1921)
John William Gott was a trouser salesman from Bradford, leader of the Freethought Socialist League, and the last person to be imprisoned for blasphemy in the UK. He was tried in 1921 for writing two pamphlets, God and Gott and Rib Ticklers, or Questions for Parsons. Most famously, one referred to Jesus riding into Jerusalem on both 'an ass and a colt the foal of an ass' (Matthew 21:5), pointing out that this made him sound ...

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