Sarah Ingham is the author of The Military Covenant: its impact on civil-military relations in Britain.
“Bubbly was flying at HMP Nottingham this morning” reported the New York Post on Tuesday. With champagne sprays and all-round jubilation, the vibe outside His Majesty’s Prisons this week has been less correctional facility and more Formula 1 winners’ podium.
Given their vast earnings and low-tax Monaco domicile, few Grand Prix winners will probably share the love for Sir Keir Starmer professed by some of those offenders who happily profited from the government’s early release scheme. A spokesman quickly condemned this manifestation of champagne socialism outside the country’s jails as “completely unacceptable”.
As some are freed, others bid farewell to freedom. Early release was partly prompted by the need to create space for those convicted of offences during recent unrest. By 6 September, 863 charges were brought. With 1,380 arrests made but ‘hundreds more suspects’ identified, more are expected to be in the dock.
Most governments are tough on the crime of violent disorder: wise governments are tough on the causes of the crime too. But the messages sent from even the most peaceful of mass street protests should be heeded.
The Glasto-for-all atmosphere of the first Extinction Rebellion gatherings in April 2019 – that pink boat at Oxford Circus, actor Emma Thompson showboating, skateboarding police officers seizing a Notting Hill Carnival-type community relations opportunity – underscored what many had missed until then: eco-apocalypse now.
While XR might be wrong-headed radicals, they raised a green consciousness across the generations, a trend which was missed by too many Conservatives. In June 2019, in its dying hours, the May Government changed the Net Zero target. Theresa May’s successors seemed to think that NZ and the environment are synonymous – until voters reminded them otherwise. The Blue Wall was lost not least because Tories were too carbon-focused to notice the beaches.
The 1980s were rocked by riots. St Paul’s Bristol (1980); Brixton in April 1981, Toxteth (July) and similar disturbances across England that summer; Broadwater Farm and Handsworth in 1985; St Paul’s Bristol (1986).
The Scarman Inquiry concluded there was a “racial element” to the unrest in Brixton, although social conditions also played a part. Following Toxteth, Michael Heseltine told Margaret Thatcher that while the government must of course be on the side of the police and law and order, “I think there is something more complex about these riots.” He went to Merseyside to find out. His energy and vision sparked the regeneration of Liverpool, for which he received the Freedom of the City in 2012.
Throughout the 1980s Thatcher appeared invincible. Few would have guessed that local government funding would be the issue contributing to her downfall. In Spring 1990, a march through central London against the deeply unpopular poll tax led to what ITN described as “chaos, carnage and bloodshed”.
Despite the worst riots in London in living memory, the lady was not for turning. But before the year was out, her colleagues had turned on her – and she was turned out of Number 10.
The Stop the War march of February 2003 brought more than 1.5 million people onto the capital’s streets to protest against Iraq. It failed. The intervention went ahead, but at huge cost, not least to the stability of the wider Middle East. In the years ahead, the country became as divided over Iraq as it would be over Brexit.
How many cowardly Labour MPs knew the war was a mistake and wished they had voted against the Blair Government when they had the chance?
In November 2010 Conservative Party HQ at 30 Millbank came under attack during a 50,000-strong student march against a proposed trebling of tuition fees. Protestors stormed the building and hurled a fire extinguisher from the roof onto the crowds of police officers below. The fee hike broke a Lib Dem manifesto commitment and Nick Clegg’s party paid the electoral price in 2015.
Across the Channel, street protests are a routine part of life. Herding livestock up the steps of a Hotel de Ville to express la colère about cuts to agricultural subsidies or the cost of diesel seem to be in farmers’ calendars like the harvest.
In recent years, the British have taken to the streets with gusto. The post-Referendum, pro-Remain marches, including the People’s Vote March of October 2018; the unrest in Bristol over the Colston statue in June 2020 which coincided with the Black Lives Matter protest; the Just Stop Oil gantries-and-superglue gridlocks; Gaza …
These gatherings are not going away. How they are policed will remain under the microscope. A two-tier approach, alluded to by Nigel Farage at PMQs, will destroy faith in the police, which must strive for neutrality.
August’s unrest melted away like ice cream in the heat: peace returned to the streets. The Government, however, seems keen to keep the story alive. Starmer loses no opportunity to assert those involved were “far right”. Not only does this talk up the threat of extremism (and helpfully for Labour, taint anyone who is right-of-centre by association) but ascribes a political motive to all those involved. Surely much of the disorder had less to do with Hayek and more with Heineken?
While live-streaming judicial proceedings has become routine, in the context of the disorder there is a whiff of show trial. The “deeply offensive and racist views” held by one offender – for which he also appeared to be punished – are unlikely to be changed in jail.
England’s history is punctuated by violent disorder, including the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt against the original Poll Tax. Wat Tyler hardly relied on Ye Olde Facebooke to incite an uprising. Cracking down on X won’t bring about a nation at ease with itself.
Releasing some prisoners to make way for others is a political choice, one which the government is reluctant to own. Why not deport foreign-born prisoners or fast-track those on remand? Are none of those involved in the recent disorder eligible for community sentences?
Conservatives, meanwhile, should consult Lord Heseltine.
