After two weeks The Times discovers Peterloo does have ‘wider historical significance’
Two weeks ago on 3rd August The Times published an Editorial on the 200th anniversary of Peterloo which claimed it had ‘no wider historical significance’.
The Editorial was widely criticised although the paper failed to publish letters from several authorities in Peterloo in response.
Now just two weeks later The Times has discovered Peterloo does indeed still have significance as The Times report of events on that Manchester Monday ‘transformed British politics’.
It is I suppose reassuring that there is still progress in history, even at The Times
It was a shameful act. Contrary to the BBC’s demonology, however, it had no wider historical significance and did not “change Britain” beyond feeding a tendentious account by left-wing historians of Britain’s traditions of radical protest.
Times Editorial 3rd August
Newspapers exist to describe and analyse, rather than change, the course of history.
But the Times report on the Peterloo Massacre of August 16, 1819, is an exception: the paper’s depiction of the events in Manchester that day not only still stands as the definitive eyewitness account, it also made news, transformed British politics, and altered the way the nation saw itself.
Ben Macintyre The Times 17th August
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