Peterloo: The Liberal Democrats forget their own history
The Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England In The Late 19Th Century. From Our Own Country Published 1898 (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Banners complaining about the price of bread were present at Peterloo and several working-class attendees are on record as going on to be activists in the Anti-Corn Law League.
The League was led by Richard Cobden and John Bright, Whig/Liberal politicians and its HQ was based on the site of St Petersfield. The aim of the location of course was to claim the heritage of Peterloo.
From 1853 the Free Trade Hall (now the Radisson Hotel) was built. An extract from the Wiki entry is below
The Free Trade Hall was built as a public hall between 1853 and 1856 by Edward Walters on land given by Richard Cobden in St Peter’s Fields, the site of the Peterloo Massacre. Two earlier halls had been constructed on the site, the first, a large timber pavilion was built in 1840, and its brick replacement built in 1842. The halls were “vital to Manchester’s considerable role in the long campaign for the repeal of the Corn Laws. The hall was funded by public subscription and became a concert hall and home of the Hallé Orchestra in 1858. A red plaque records that it was built on the site of the Peterloo Massacre in 1819.
By the time of the centenary in 1919 the labour movement and the Independent Labour Party were claiming to be the inheritors of the tradition of Peterloo with some justification. However the Liberals still had the ACCL era to claim as their own heritage and the current Liberal Democrat History site makes the point below
The League’s Manchester base had particular poignancy given the city’s reputation as a leading importer of raw materials and key centre of manufacturing. The site of the infamous Peterloo massacre, at St Peter’s Field, became home to the organisation, which was so large that no building in Manchester had the capacity to hold a full meeting of its members. The organisation therefore constructed it’s own accommodation and a temporary pavilion, opened in January 1840, was soon succeeded by a brick structure, before finally being replaced by a stone building in 1856.
Liberal Democrat History Group
Unfortunately while on the day of the 200th anniversary Jeremy Corbyn tweeted that Peterloo is part of ‘our history’ and Boris Johnson perhaps understandably said nothing (the magistrate who sent the Yeomanry in at Peterloo, Hulton, was a lifelong Tory) neither the current Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson or the Liberal Democrats themselves had a word to say
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