“Lest we forget” – who’s been forgotten?

The Guardian has an article today taking the first steps in “constructing a true record of Britain’s ignored, decaying and under-resourced radical heritage … to celebrate the insurrectionary meeting places, non-conformist chapels and martyrs’ memorials of the people’s history”. The places/events he suggests commemorating (subject to future reader input) are:

  1. St Peter’s Fields, Manchester Scene of the 1819 ‘Peterloo massacre’
  2. Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, scene of the National Covenant of 1638
  3. Epsom Downs Racecourse, Surrey: Site of the martyrdom of Emily Wilding Davison in the cause of female suffrage, 1913
  4. Cardiff race riots, 1919
  5. Kennington Park, London, Scene of the Chartists’ monster rally in 1848

It strikes me that there is a part of the UK – at least, as the UK was in 1819, 1848, 1913 and 1919 – which is completely missing from this list. I’ve posted about this kind of thing before, but perhaps the Guardian could remember also that things happened outside England, Scotland and Wales as part of the United Kingdom’s political history?

One thought on ““Lest we forget” – who’s been forgotten?

  1. Distraction was a terrifyingly prescient work about political and ideological gridlock in the post-internet age: it seems more prophetic to me with every passing year. I would recommend a re-read, but I suspect it probably won’t play to your taste.

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