By Blind Pew

I’ve just finished reading a book called "Zeppelin Nights" by Jerry White. It’s about London during the First World War and is a fascinating account of how the city and its people were affected by the conflict. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea but I like History and I hadn’t come across a book covering this subject before.

It was quite interesting in its own right but what struck me most was how the ruling Government of the day and the media treated the ordinary people of London. I couldn’t help but notice the similarities to today’s political climate.

First was the accounts of the Suffragettes. It seems their campaign wasn’t only about chaining themselves to railings, throwing eggs or hurling themselves under race horses. Some of the more extremist members allegedly turned to bomb making and even threatened to poison London’s water supply.

What was most interesting, though, was the public reaction to the Suffragette movement, even those who confined themselves to more peaceful demonstrations. Remember, what these women wanted was to be able to vote and have equal rights to men. That’s something we take as normal these days but a hundred years ago it was very different. Egged on by a hostile media, many members of the public adopted a very aggressive stance towards any woman who was even suspected of having Suffragette sympathies. Some women were verbally abused, some were physically assaulted, some were robbed and some thrown into any convenient stretch of water.

Their crime, of course, was to threaten the status quo. The media of the day were enlisted to demonise them and the public went along with it, with mobs happy to threaten any woman who betrayed Suffragette sympathies.

Does that sound familiar at all? A small minority group seeking powers of self-determination and equality being demonised and threatened. Hmm.

Then there was the response to foreigners. Naturally, Germans and Austrians were targets for the media and the mobs, even if they had lived in London for years and had married British men or women. What happened to many of these people was pretty awful but, in a way, perhaps understandable given the prevailing political views of the time. However, Belgian refugees who flocked to London when their country was invaded weren’t treated all that much better. After an initial response of friendly support, many of them suffered verbal abuse and they were regarded very much as second class citizens. British-born Jews suffered similar abuse if they did not join the British armed forces. This was despite the fact that many of them had fled from Russia to escape persecution and were naturally reluctant to join a war in which Britain had allied itself to Russia. I suppose it could be said that at least the UK let them in, in stark contrast to the current response to a refugee crisis but the way some of these people were treated would probably have brought UKIP into disrepute.

The third aspect which sounded familiar was the reaction of the Government in clamping down on the working classes. Pubs were closed or had restrictions imposed on opening times, sporting events were cancelled and arrests made on the flimsiest of suspicions. One man with a German-sounding name was even arrested for talking to a pigeon, apparently on the grounds that this meant he must be a spy.

The worst thing was that the Government refused to issue warnings of air raids because they were afraid that the working classes might stop working and the war effort might be disrupted if munitions factories stopped production as a result of a false alarm. The politicians also believed there would be panic and rioting in the streets if they issued an early warning. They only changed their minds in 1918, the very last year of the war when there were indeed panicking mobs who were desperate to find shelter when the bombs started falling, resulting in several people being trampled to death.

In other words, the Government regarded the ordinary people as almost as much of a threat as the German bombers and did everything they could to clamp down on any subversive behaviour, using the war as an excuse to introduce ever more draconian measures designed to keep the people in their place.

It’s always difficult to compare the past with modern life because values and customs were different back then. However, the most depressing thing about reading about these things is that the State continues to employ the same tactics against anyone perceived as a threat and that many individuals are persuaded to go along with the demonisation. Some things, it seems, never change.