Peterloo v Waterloo: the historical divide in British politics

THE CENTENARY of the armistice on November 11th is a welcome reminder that historical memories can unite the country. It is an unfortunately rare one. These days history is more commonly used to divide and inflame. The right of the Conservative Party and the left of the Labour Party—the ideologically ascendant factions in their respective worlds—are wedded to sharply contrasting interpretations of British history, which focus on very different events and freight them with very different emotions. Let us call them the Waterloo and the Peterloo interpretations.

Waterloo was one of Britain’s greatest victories over the French. In 1815 the Duke of Wellington ended Napoleon’s career for good and inaugurated a long period in which Britain could play Europe’s leading powers off against each other, to make sure that no new Napoleons could emerge. Peterloo, in 1819, was one of the worst peacetime massacres in British history. Troops charged into 100,000 peaceful protesters, who had gathered to demand more political rights in St Peter’s Field, near Manchester. Fifteen people were killed and hundreds injured.