E P Thompson in the Making of the English Working Class discussed the ‘Freeborn Englishman’ the archetypal British patriot. He was referring to the early nineteenth century and the ‘man’ is related to historical evidence and documentation. Even so work on the ‘Freeborn Englishwoman’ is long overdue.
Thompson makes the point that the English patriot can be on the political left or the political right depending on the specific times and context.
He identified some key characteristics. The first he noted is ‘freedom from foreign domination’ which in a modern context was a feature of the EU Referendum campaign, whether genuinely so or not.
Many others relate not to economic or social liberty but political liberty. These included, freedom from arbitrary arrest, trial by jury, equality before the law and freedom from the home being arbitrarily entered by the authorities.
Thompson also indicated the notion of some specific political freedoms around elections, free thought and speech and Parliamentary opposition.
The bottom line however was what Thompson called a ‘moral consensus’ of limits beyond which the patriotic Englishman would not be pushed. In short the Freeborn Englishman wanted the right to be ‘left alone’.
Yvette Cooper’s attempt to call and ban Palestinian protest activism as terrorism shifts the emphasis from people who are actively involved in planning a terrorist attack to a wider layer of people who may, for example, have strong views about British foreign policy, but have no idea of taking that further than making a peaceful political point.
The plan is in short not to leave people alone, free to speak out.
The Guardian (9th August) reported that 365 people (many more were present) were arrested by the Met Police in Parliament Square for holding up a sign which had written on it words that Yvette Cooper and Keir Starmer don’t like. The Met Police later claimed they had arrested 466 people. I wouldn’t place much faith in that figure. The Met are incompetent and cant be relied on to add up and they also lie about lots of things. Of course I would say that but several official reports on the Met have concluded they are racist and corrupt but still they blunder on, unreformed.
Both claim that there is evidence that direct action on Palestine and Israel war crimes is in fact ‘terrorism’ but can’t say or perhaps can’t remember what it is. If this is what Parliamentary Democracy in 2025 looks like it’s a very bad look indeed
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