Sir, – Claire Devlin’s question “If we do not learn the lesson of history, are we doomed to never change?” (September 7th) reminds me of the quote from Friedrich Hegel.
I’m afraid to report that according to Hegel (German philosopher 1770-1831) it’s far worse: “Governments have never learned anything from history, nor acted on principles deducted from it.” – Yours, etc,