Egg throwing: a great British tradition of protest from the London crowd of the 1790s to Charles & Camilla in York
Egging has a long tradition in political protest
While Charles and Camilla have been the targets in York today they can count themselves part of a long British tradition.
E.P Thompson in the Making of the English Working Class records that when a perjurer was placed in the pillory in the 1790s the London crowd pelted him with eggs. Yet when a political radical suffered the same fate a few days later the crowd brought him glasses of wine to drink.
In more recent times egg throwing has been officially recognised as a legitimate protest. An anti-fascist arrested for throwing an egg at a National Front march in Wood Green in 1977, known as the ‘Battle of Wood Green’, was acquitted as the judge noted that it was indeed a traditional form of political protest.
John Prescott, who also egged on the campaign trail, didn’t agree (he whacked the egg thrower) but ultimately a point is made and no harm is done beyond making the person egged look silly and a dry cleaning bill
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