Kmflett's Blog

Camberwell 13^th March 1848: Mobs, Riots and Protests. The complexities of history

In the Culture Wars peaceful protesters are often described in right-wing media as a mob. Historically there are complexities..

One example is the riot that took place in Camberwell South London on 13 March 1848.

Its start was at a Chartist rally on Kennington Common convened by the radical journalist and novelist GWM Reynolds.

It would be fair to say that the authorities were anxious about what was likely to happen. The army was held in reserve and 3,881 police were mobilised.

At the time the meeting was due to commence-midday- 400-500 people left the Common on a signal which was given by ‘raising a Pole’. Twitter let alone BlueSky and WhatsApp had not yet been invented

It was reported that the crowd took a route involving the ‘most unfrequented byeways’ to avoid the police. When they reached Bowyer Lane in Camberwell they started to attack small shopkeepers ,breaking windows, forcing shutters and carrying off goods. Shops looted in Camberwell included a pawnbrokers, shoemakers, tailors, bakers. The looters were armed with ‘sticks of all descriptions’ and palings.

David Goodway in his book on London Chartism reports that a shoemaker argued that ‘I am a poor man..no maker of laws’. 50 of 60 people passed by but the main crowd smashed his shop front and took 162 pairs of boots worth £35.16s.

The main effort of the looters was reserved for a pawnbroker. Shutters and doors were attacked with hammers and shovels to cries of ‘Hurrah for Liberty’. Watches were thrown out the crowd and the estimated loss was £900 worth of timepieces and rings.

The entire thing lasted an hour and nine arrests were made. However a number of rioters were later identified by locals and 25 people were brought to trial in April 1848. Of these several were black Londoners. Ten were aged twenty or over while there three were just thirteen.

The majority of those arrested had trades. Occupations included labourers, seamen, a fishmonger, brickmaker, printer, tailor and shoemaker.

The Camberwell riot could be seen, and in modern coverage probably would be, as opportunists taking advantage of a Chartist gathering and the significant deployment of police it attracted to loot an unprotected nearby area.

Yet when we note that the key shop looted was a pawnbrokers and the political cries of liberty were raised we can see that such a view would be simplistic. It was largely seen at the time as a Chartist riot and as Goodway notes it contributed quite significantly to the way the authorities and official society reacted to the Chartist rally again on Kennington Common less than a month later on Monday 10 April 1848. That rally was one of the biggest in the Capital in the nineteenth century.

The conclusion is that historically attempts to find some easy division between rioters and protesters is a matter fraught with difficulty.

A fuller account has been posted by Past Tense

Michael Gove, Extremism & the case of William Blake’s Beast & Whore

Michael Gove has apparently been compiling a little list of people and organisations that he considers to be extremist. There is an episode of the Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin that could have saved him the trouble.

Gove’s knowledge of British history is doubtful at best and it is worth reflecting that some of the most well-known figures in British history held minority and indeed what many would regard as extreme religious views. William Blake was certainly one.

The late historian EP Thompson wrote extensively about Blake and the religious traditions he stood in. There is a review of his Witness Against the Beast from a Blake related website which gives a flavour in overview of what he was looking at:

http://bq.blakearchive.org/28.2.paley

In another age these minority traditions were perhaps better understood. The paperback edition of Thompson’s Making of the English Working Class was published as the 1000^th Pelican book in September 1968. To mark the occasion the Guardian published a special supplement to which Thompson himself contributed a piece headlined ‘Beast and Whore’. In Blakeian terms the reference was to Church and State, but one wonders if mentions of Blake or exhibitions of his work could end up on Gove’s list

Lord Dave Cameron and Jeremy Clarkson pictured at Twickenham on 9th March (Times 11th March). Both are members of the Chipping Norton set (where they live).

Their guide to Gents styles for Spring 2024 clearly involves on Lord Dave’s part a baseball cap and in both cases layers of warm clothing. Lord Dave is drinking Guinness (who sponsor the rugby) while Jeremy Clarkson who has opened a brewery is obviously clutching a glass of wine, possibly of the fizzy variety.

Diane Abbott: Solidarity from North London. The battle for political inclusivity of the 1980s needs to be fought again

When Diane Abbott was elected along with the late Bernie Grant for two adjoining North London Constituencies, my own of Tottenham and Hackney North and Stoke Newington, at the 1987 Election then Labour leader Neil Kinnock welcomed it as a significant advance for Labour’s ability to represent all sections of the electorate.

The apparent decision to deselect Diane Abbott as a Labour candidate by Executive diktat reflects a Party not going forward in its approach to diversity and equality but back to the bad old days when such matters were deliberately consigned to the margins.

Full marks on this occasion to the Guardian for exposing extreme racist remarks and threats to Ms Abbott by a major Tory donor. A Tory Minister, Mel Suit, has said in response that its time to ‘move on’. Rishi Sunak has argued that Hester’s racism was wrong but as he has apologised its ok now

Keir Starmer, so far, has condemned the abuse that Diane Abbott has suffered over decades but done nothing more, reflecting perhaps an unpleasant and sectarian aspect of his political personality. Perhaps though on this occasion he will feel able to show the generosity of solidarityand reinstate her as a Labour candidate.

At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday 13th March, Diane Abbott was at the centre of discussion but despite numerous attempts was not called to speak by the Speaker. Not in 2024 political inclusivity but political invisibility

It suggests more than anything that the battles of the 1980s in terms of inclusive political representation need to be fought again, perhaps as William Morris noted by other people under other names, but it needs doing

Lee Anderson’s defection to ReformUK may be a footnote to the matter,but the growing support for its hard right policies reflects the rise of a politics of bigotry and prejudice. In Hungary and Italy the far right is in Government and in Germany, France and Holland, Spain and now Portugal it is a real challenger for power.

ReformUK is polling around 10% or so, but remains below the 15%+ that its predecessor UKIP achieved and saw that party top UK elections for the European Parliament. The presence and threat of the far right is not new but a cost of living crisis, a never ending war in Ukraine and Culture Wars are fuelling its existence in the UK. Similar factors apply in much of the rest of Europe.

As the far right grows so existing centrist and right Governments accommodate to it. Hence Macron in France is warmongering while in the UK the Tories are still pursuing their racist Rwanda policy. Social democratic parties- in Government in Germany and likely to be in the UK are in turn accommodating to this. They may speak out against racism which is welcome but policies that fail to challenge market economics provide conditions in which it can grow.

This weekend sees UN Anti-Racism Day with marches organised by Stand Up To Racism and backed by the TUC, unions and campaigns in London, Glasgow and Cardiff. A major focus is on opposing Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Perhaps on this occasion James Cleverley and other Ministers will take the point

Lee Anderson. The Great Lurching Right Show

Earlier this year Lee Anderson resigned as a Deputy Chair of the Tories after a year in post. He opposed Sunak’s Rwanda Bill because it wasn’t racist enough. But instead of voting against it he abstained because Labour MPs were sniggering at him.

It suggested that he doesn’t have the moral fibre to be part of a far right grouping associated with Braverman and Jenrick. Anderson then  said he wanted his Deputy job back and quite liked Rishi really. It didn’t happen.

A year ago in February 2023, Sunak had a small re-shuffle or as many saw it, re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. Someone who did have that you view- as he had recently made the comment on WhatsApp- was Ashfield MP Lee Anderson.

‘Red Wall’ MP Anderson who currently sits for Ashfield will almost certainly lose his seat at the next Election but in the meantime he had almost a year as Tory Deputy Chair.

Anderson who was a Labour member until 2018 is a hard to far right MP who has  frequently made comments many would see as racist about asylum seekers, is transphobic and was warned not to use the Anti-Semitic phrase ‘cultural Marxism’.

His most recent outburst involved racist comments about London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

It might be noted though that it was Labour manoeuvres over the Parliamentary vote on Gaza that helped to create the political climate for Anderson to lurch even further to the right.

Eventually he was suspended from the Tory Parliamentary Group with Sunak saying on 26th February that his comments were unacceptable. This simply caused Anderson to underline he would not apologise and renew his attack on Sadiq Khan.

Anderson come to public attention for his views on food banks. He is on record as saying that they are an ‘industry’, that they are used by people who don’t know how to cook and that a budget of 30p a day is enough to buy food.

The last comment related to the cost of food for an individual in a mass collective cooking project which sounds a bit socialist for Anderson.

Sunak who is the richest MP in Parliament probably doesn’t fully grasp the Anderson, food bank, cost of living issue.

After his appointment Anderson lost no time in shooting his mouth off in his new role by calling for the return of the death penalty because it is deterrent. Like other Anderson sayings this is of course evidence free. It is not currently Tory policy

The contradictions of Anderson were laid out in an Editorial in the Murdoch Times over a year ago on 10th February 2023. Headed ‘Loose Cannon’ it noted the last thing Sunak needs ‘is another personality focused distraction’.

Anderson led a until 11^th March 2024a group of hard right Tory MPs the Blue Collar Conservatives who claim to represent working class voters. Don’t expect to see them supporting strikes or opposing anti-union legislation though.

Anderson now sits ranting as Reform UK’s only MP on the back benches. If current polling is reliable he will soon be losing his seat as well. After which one suspects his GB News show will disappear as well.

Given the Telegraph (26th Feb) suggested that Anderson has the support of some Tory ‘Red Wall’ MPs who are very likely to lose their seats at the Election and so have nothing to lose, a Tory split to the far or further right may now be in progress.

Christopher Chope who does politics for the Telegraph and GBNews (perhaps they will have the same owner soon..) has tweeted

The ramping up further of Anderson’s right-wing rhetoric may not end well for either the Tories or him. The problem is those that will get caught up in the collateral damage of Islamphobia it may well provoke. The far right is on the rise across Europe and Anderson is part of that, albeit, a very insignificant part

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Anderson_(British_politician)

Wetherspoons supremo Sir Tim Martin was sometimes pictured in one of his pubs with Boris Johnson. He appears prudently to have swerved Liz Truss, but Nigel Farage is sometimes to be found addressing the masses in a Spoons for his ‘GBNews’ output.

According to the Sunday Times (10th March) Rishi Sunak is now also pursuing what might be called the Wetherspoons strategy. Last week he addressed Tory supporters in the Queens Head, Rotherham, which is a Spoons pub. Obviously the occasion was not exactly thronged.

He also opined that he stopped by his local Spoons the Ralph Fitz Randal in Richmond North Yorkshire where he buys his daughter breakfast via the Wetherspoons App.

Sunak is a teetotaller but Spoons offers a wide range of non-alcoholic drinks (in Sunak’s case probably cola) as well coffee with free top ups. The food might best be described as edible and not as cheap as it was. That said Spoons is one of the relatively few places that provides detailed info on what is in each meal and its nutritional value or otherwise. Sunak was paying but no doubt his daughter was using the App for him.

Its a sort of man of the right-wing people act which doesnt fit Sunak anymore than it did Johnson or in fact Farage who is actually a wine not a beer drinker.

It remains to be seen if Sir Tim will back Sunak at the Election. After all Keir Starmer is a real ale drinker- long Martin’s favourite tipple- albeit not in a Spoons for the mundane reason that there isn’t one that near to his Kentish Town abode

The introduction to E P Thompson’s Making of the English Working Class (1963) contains a still much quoted passage:

I am seeking to rescue the poor stockinger, the Luddite cropper, the ‘obsolete’ handloom weaver,the ‘utopian’ artisan and even the deluded follower of Joanna Southcott from the enormous condecension of posterity’

According to Patrick Maguire (Times 8th March) the passage needs to be updated to take account of more modern working class heroes like Keir Starmer

‘to rescue the toolmaker, the carer and kids in struggling comprehensives from the enormous condecension of politics’

Nothing wrong with that although one does wonder if Keir has mentioned it to Rachel Reeves, We might note however that social being determines consciousness and so Barrister & former DPP Starmer is not working class. His mission at best will be a Fabian top down affair whereas E P Thompson was firmly focused on history from below

Beard Liberation Front

10th March

BRITISH PIE WEEK. STEAK & ALE RETAINS MOST BEARD FRIENDLY PIE TITLE

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that with British Pie Week running from 4-10th March its annual poll on the most Beard Friendly Pie has seen Steak and Ale just shave the Butter Pie for the coveted accolade.

The hirsute campaign group say that as with many prepared foods the requirements of people with beards are often overlooked when it comes to pies. The outcome of the annual poll often reflects that, with traditional pies designed for eating ‘on the go’ easily beating leading pie brands.

The BLF says that common issues with pies for those with beards are:

Excessive gravy

Puff or flaky pastry which ends up in the beard not the mouth

‘Deep filling’ making it difficult to avoid contact of the pie with the beard

The campaigners cite some types of the traditional steak and kidney pie as an example of pies which are made without thought for the requirements of the hirsute pie consumer. Such pies often have excessive gravy- and comparatively little steak and kidney- which ends up in the beard.

Unfortunately the same issues tend to apply to many vegetarian and vegan pies too

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Steak and Ale when made to beard friendly standards will see the ale gravy bind the meat into a delicious mixture where the pie ends up in the mouth not the beard.

Finalists

Steak& Ale

Mushroom

Butter/Cheese & Onion

Pork

Report

Steak and Ale led throughout the poll & got 47% of the vote compared to the runner-up Butter or Cheese & Onion which scored a combined 26%. The two pies are different but represent a category for non-meat eaters but who do eat dairy. The other two pies Pork and Mushroom polled badly. In particular the search for a beard friendly pie that both appeals to vegans and vegetarians but also has wider appeal continues