2019 marks the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre. In 1819 there was a peaceful gathering of between 60,000 and 80,00 people on what was then St Peter’s Field in Manchester. These people were demonstrating about the lack of suffrage and the poor economic conditions being experienced in northern England, the people wanted political reform. The answer of the magistrates was to send in the troops who then killed 18 and wounded an estimated 700 people. This became known as the Peterloo Massacre because the troops involved had, only 4 years previously, been at the Battle of Waterloo.
With recent displays of appalling behaviour from those that we expect to behave well in their representation of us, the people, I wonder why anger & frustration is percolating to the surface.
Many commentators blame it on society becoming divided but it has always been so, remember Peterloo. Go back as far as you want and you will always find groups of people that disagree with each other, people that have become disenfranchised and people that believe they are right.
Society’s differences are nothing new BUT why are people becoming so much more angry today?
I believe that this behaviour can be partly explained by a lack of good health and wellbeing.
Research shows us that a lack of sleep will create negativity, it will make you less able to analyse and solve problems, it will depress you. In essence it will “dumb you down”!
The impact of a low quality diet, eating junk food, food high in sugar and additives will lead to severe health risks and depression.
The risks of working until late at night are well known in their contribution to ill health in that you will become depressed and your circadian rhythms will become disrupted making decisions difficult. .
The poor health choices of those that represent us provide us with one of the reasons for bad behaviour but they do not provide an excuse. We all owe it to each other, wherever we work, to take care of our health and ensure that we are able to display good behaviour. In our country we all have to support each other and fight for the common good.
In the 1860s the people of Manchester supported Abraham Lincoln in his fight against slavery by refusing to buy cotton grown in the Southern American states. This was at great cost to their own livelihoods but Manchester refused to support American slavery and this selfless act is remembered in Lincoln Square, which is just north of Albert Square and the Town Hall in Manchester. At this time my great, great grandfather was pushing a wheelbarrow round the streets of Manchester, as the family’s main bread winner, this was before he was a teenager – his father had been laid off from a Manchester Cotton Mill.
I wonder what the people of Manchester in the 1800s would say about those that represent us today? I think that they would be ashamed, ashamed that we have wasted the sacrifices that they made to ensure that we live a better life today.