I'm posting this for information purposes, acknowledging the anniversary of a large public meeting concerning social change in England.
Two hundred years ago today, a mass meeting took place at Spa Fields, Clerkenwell. The first Spa Fields meeting, on 15th November 1816, is believed to have attracted some 10,000 people. Its object was to seek popular support for the delivery of a petition to the Prince Regent, requesting electoral reform and relief from hardship and distress. 'Orator' Henry Hunt addressed that meeting and was elected to deliver the petition, along with Sir Francis Burdett. The second meeting, on 2nd December, was called after Hunt was refused access to the Regent to deliver the petition, and may have been attended by 20,000 people. This meeting degenerated into disorder, perhaps aided by the use of agents provocateurs, and led to the Government passing, the following year, what became known as the 'Gag Acts'.
...1816....1916...2016...
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
1
Comments
Bankers' bonuses, the Credit Crunch, Food banks, The Jungle.....
"Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf..."
Wayne Bridge should never have been kicked out.
commemorated in the Britons Protection pub