A CENTURY OF CHANGE (1819-1919)

How to sum up this journey we’ve taken, from Peterloo,

through to the birth of a democratic Britain? Well for me,
it had to do with society finally learning, it wasn’t just
the rich and powerful who had value. We all have value.
And to illustrate this point, I wanted to show you this: it’s
a First World War memorial, it dates from 1919, alright?
so that’s exactly one hundred years after Peterloo. And
it lists by name every man that died in the trenches from
this particular town. Officers, soldiers – it doesn’t matter
what rank they held, they’re all listed here individually.

Now you rewind back to 1819, to Peterloo. Then we’d emerged from different conflict: the Napoleonic
War. Did we build memorials like this, to honour the dead? No. We put up statues to the Generals that
led the troops – the troops themselves, they were just forgotten, they were cannon fodder.

This is what I find so moving, the fact that each man

here counts as an individual – they’re someone’s father,
someone’s husband, someone’s son. That’s what the
marchers at Peterloo were struggling for – what the
Chartists were struggling for – what the Suffragettes
were struggling for: just the right to be counted.

And their struggle dragged Britain into the modern age.