Airbrushing history & the 206th anniversary of the Cato St Conspiracy
The 23rd February marks the 206th anniversary of the Cato St Conspiracy.
As anniversaries go the 206th is neither here or there. It will be noticed by various radical history sites but the big discussion on it took place in 2020.
On 23rd February 1820 a group of conspirators met at a rented space in Cato St (off the Edgware Rd in the West End of London).
Their plan was to go to a Cabinet dinner taking place that night in Grosvenor Square, decapitate the Ministers present and declare a Republic.
The aim of overthrowing the Government that had presided over the Peterloo Massacre was one that can certainly be understood and supported 201 years on. The decapitation reflected (perhaps) different times but in any case was a disastrous plan because it was based not on mass mobilisation like Peterloo (there is some evidence that the act was designed to spark a rising) but a conspiracy.
The conspiracy was uncovered because it had been infiltrated by a Government Spy. Indeed the spy was responsible for placing bogus notices of the Cabinet dinner (which never took place) in the press and in effect inciting the specific events of 23rd February, although the revolutionary mood was real enough.
Its a not insignificant part of British history but one that is often absent from tales of our island story.
Kmflett's Blog 
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