Broadwater Farm 6th October 1985 The Met Police & what Government Papers later said
It is 40 years since events at Broadwater Farm in Tottenham made the headlines. A police intervention led to the death of a local resident Cynthia Jarrett. In the resulting in my view justifiable unrest a Muswell Hill based police officer PC Keith Blakelock lost his life. No one has ever been convicted of his death, despite several attempts
I was Chair of Haringey TUC which covers Tottenham (I remain a delegate) at the time and I am a local resident, living 10 minutes’ walk from Broadwater Farm.
My other interest is as an historian. I’m the Editor of a History of Riots (CSP 2015).
The historical angle is complex but important
In 2015 three files were released by the National Archives which amounted to around 500 pages of documents.
The first (and smallest) file of just under 100 pages related mainly to Tottenham. It contains some material including official reports on the Broadwater Farm riot (or uprising depending on perspective) a b that was in the public domain at the time.
It also includes some correspondence from Tottenham Tories to the Prime Minister’s Personal Secretary (March 1986) asking her to visit. She declined although the Home Secretary paid a private visit.
There is also a note, based on police evidence, that after Broadwater Farm there continued to be concern about civil unrest. It appears that a milk float with many milk bottles had been ‘abducted’. The thought was that the milk bottles would end up as petrol bombs. They didn’t and whatever the view about the police is now, this was the Met in the 1980s. The chances are this report was based on a rumour or just made up.
The five page report jointly authored by Oliver Letwin which attracted media attention in 2015 is on pages 68-72 of the third of the released documents. This and its companion relate to wider issues of Government policy in the mid-1980s.
In the report Letwin argued against funding to deal with social and economic issues in areas like Tottenham on the grounds that local people had a ‘bad moral attitude’.
Aside from the comments highlighted in the media in 2015 there is a line about the need to engage ‘sensible churchmen’ in Government attempts to improve morality in the inner city. We may take it that ‘not sensible’ churchmen were those who were not over enthusiastic about the Tories.
The leader of Haringey Council in 1985, later Tottenham MP, Bernie Grant was reported to have said that the police got a bloody good hiding on the Farm on 6th October. Bernie was known for robust statements but he actually said that ‘the youth think that the police..’
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