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ABSTRACT
This article examines the response of the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police to mass demonstrations in 1968. Using a variety of contemporaneous sources, including underused archival material, documents released through freedom of information requests, and evidence disclosed as part of the ongoing Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI), it shows how the experience of mass demonstrations that year, which came against the backdrop of widespread international protest, prompted significant developments in terms of crowd control tactics, covert intelligence gathering practices and the use of new technology to enable greater command and control over police resources. Taken together, these measures represented a permanent change to the public order capacity of the Metropolitan Police, providing a model that was gradually exported to other forces across England and Wales with the encouragement of the Home Office. However, despite the significant changes introduced in 1968, this article shows how police officers, civil servants, and politicians emphasised the continuation of ‘traditional methods’, a term that functioned as a way of situating public order policing within an idealised image of a uniquely English policing tradition, with an appeal to historical continuity that aimed to convey legitimacy and construct consent.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Sam Raphael, Mark Roodhouse, and the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Sedlmaier ed. Protest Vietnam War Era.
2. Undercover Policing Inquiry (henceforth UCPI), MPS-0730076, “Metropolitan Police Special Branch (henceforth MPSB) report on VSC demonstration,” March 17, 1968.
3. ”World in Action the Demonstration 1968” (undated) [online audio visual], (accessed March 1, 2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgbAsiW9Q3Y
4. A total of 1,437 officers were deployed in connection with the demonstration. See Waldron, Report of the Commissioner: 40; Hull University Archives (henceforth HUA), Liberty Archive, U DCL 640/4, ‘Report on the Demonstration in Grosvenor Square, London, on March 17 1968’, Apr 1968.
5. Ellis, “Promoting Solidarity at Home and Abroad”.
6. University of Warwick, Modern Records Collection [hereafter MRC], MSS.189/V/1/10/1, ‘In Solidarity with Vietnam: the VSC case’, undated.
7. For a contemporary discussion of the protest tactics, see MRC, MSS.149/2/14/1/8, “Geoff Richman, ‘On Demonstrations’, VSC Bulletin No. 14,” May 1968. For the politics and protest tactics of the anti-nuclear movement, see Nehring, The Politics of Security; Burkett, ‘Direct Action and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, 1958–62’; on the changing politics and tactics of the anti-war left, see Ellis, ‘Promoting solidarity’; Bruendel, ‘Global Dimensions of Conflict and Cooperation’. For the relationship between the anti-war movement and the press, see Thomas, ‘Protests Against the Vietnam War in 1960s Britain’.
8. For an early study of press reportage in advance of the 27 October demonstration, see Halloran, Elliot and Murdock, Demonstrations and Communications, 344–47.
9. This bizarre chorus was later used by former Home Office civil servant turned police historian, T.A. Critchley, as evidence that the British has miraculously ‘conquered violence’ as a result of national mores. See Critchley, The Conquest of Violence.
10. Parliamentary Debates (Commons), 772, 30 Oct 1968, 11–153; Parliamentary Debates (Lords), 297, 31 Oct 1968, 34–114; Parliamentary Debates (Commons), 772, 7 Nov 1968, 137; The National Archives: Public Record Office, Kew (henceforth TNA:PRO), MEPO 2/10986, ‘Greater London Council, Petition’, 1968.
11. This article has tried to be specific in distinguishing between references to ‘English’ and ‘British’ policing, particularly given the formal separation and different historical development of policing in England and Wales and policing in Scotland. However, not all sources are consistent and part of the argument of this article is that the public order experience of the Metropolitan Police, whilst based on an appeal to a uniquely ‘English’ policing tradition, became something of a national standard after 1968. While maintaining consistency in its references to English policing, this article uses Britain when discussing the broader social, cultural, and political context of the period. On the subject of the ‘symbolic power’ of the ‘English’ policing tradition, see Loader and Mulcahy, Policing and the Condition of England, 37–60. For a discussion of the ‘English’ approach to public order policing, see Reiner, ‘Policing, Protest, and Disorder in Britain’.
12. See, for example, Fielding, The Labour Governments, 1964-70, 18; Byrne, Social Movements in Britain, 32; Harman, The Fire Last Time, 155; Ellis, “’A Demonstration of British Good Sense?’” 54; DeGroot, The 60s Unplugged, 355–363; Marwick, The Sixties, 634.
13. Vinen, The Long ’68, 196.
14. Parliamentary Debates (Commons), 761, 28 Mar 1968, 1717.
15. St John, “The Metropolitan Police and the Politics of Public Order”.
16. Jefferson, The Case Against Paramilitary Policing, 2–3; King and Brearley, Public Order Policing, 37–39; Joyce and Wain, Palgrave Dictionary of Public Order Policing, 137–39.
17. Thomas, ‘Protest’; Fowler, “From ‘Danny the Red’ to British Student Power”; Fowler,Youth Culture in Modern Britain; Prince, “’Do What the Afro-Americans Are Doing’”; Jobs, ‘Youth Movements’. The exception here is Ben Taylor, whose doctoral thesis includes a brief discussion of the changes introduced in 1968. See Taylor, ‘Science and the British Police’, 123–25.
18. For a discussion on the different models and types of policing, see Emsley, “Policing the Empire/Policing the Metropole”.
19. For accounts of the shared origins of the Irish Constabulary and the London Metropolitan Police Force during the early nineteenth century, see Brogden, ‘The Emergence of the Police’. For accounts of the process of ‘imperial feedback’ that took place between the colonies and the metropole during the twentieth century, see Sinclair and Williams, “’Home and Away’”; Sinclair, At the End of the Line; Go, ‘Imperial Origins’; Go, ‘From Crime Fighting to Counterinsurgency’; Linstrum, ‘Domesticating Chemical Weapons’.
20. Emsley, ‘The English Bobby’; Lentz and Chaires, ‘The Invention of Peel’s Principles’. For more on the social construction of police legitimacy in post-war England, see Williams, ‘Police Governance’; McLaughlin, ‘From Reel to Ideal’.
21. Porter, Origins of the Vigilant State; Brückenhaus, Policing Transnational Protest, 8–41; Solomon, State Surveillance, Political Policing and Counter-Terrorism in Britain, 1880–1914; Paola, ‘The Spies Who Came in from the Heat’; Smith and Varnava, “Creating a ‘Suspect Community’”; Morgan, Conflict and Order, 93; Clark, ‘Sincere and Reasonable Men?’; Clark, The National Council for Civil Liberties and the Policing of Interwar Politics.
22. Report of the Royal Commission on Police Powers and Procedure (Citation1929), Cmd. 3297, 40. See also Wood, “Press, Politics and the ‘Police and Public’ Debates in Late 1920s Britain”.
23. Roodhouse, “The ‘Ghost Squad’”.
24. Williams, ‘Rotten Boroughs?’.
25. Charman, “Lobbying and Representation”; Charman and Savage. “Singing from the Same Hymn Sheet”.
26. Morris, “What the Met Brought to the Party”.
27. Wark, “In Never-Never Land?,” 201.
28. The UCPI was set up in 2015 after a sustained investigation by activists and journalists forced the government to appoint a series of independent reviews that found ‘appalling practices in undercover policing’. The Inquiry is now in its eighth year and has only just completed ‘Tranche 1’, which focuses on the period between 1968–1982. See UCPI, ‘About the Inquiry’ [online], https://www.ucpi.org.uk/about-the-inquiry/ [accessed 21 Sep 2023]. At the time of writing, the UCPI has released more than 3,000 documents, all of which can be found online. See UCPI, ‘Published Evidence’, https://www.ucpi.org.uk/published-evidence/ [accessed 27 Aug 2022].
29. Luff, “Covert and Overt Operations,” 756.
30. TNA:PRO, MEPO 2/11229, “Report of the First Working Party on Public Order,” 1968, 2.
31. Ewing, “The Cold War, Civil Liberties, and the House of Lords”.
32. NCCL, Public Order and the Police; TNA:PRO, HO 325/180, ‘Note from Mr Glanville to Mr Allen’, 24 Oct 1961.
33. TNA:PRO, MEPO 2/11229, “Memorandum from Assistant Commissioner ‘A’ Waldron on demonstrations involving civil disobedience or serious public disorder,” 1965.
34. TNA:PRO, MEPO 2/8483, “Syllabus of Instruction for Constables on Probation,” 1955, 39.
35. Knight, “Recent Book”.
36. TNA:PRO, MEPO 2/11229, “Report of the First Working Party on Public Order,” 1968, 2.
37. Ibid., 8.
38. Membership included Chief Superintendent Fowler and Superintendent Hope (both from A8 Branch), Chief Superintendent Gilbert (Uniform Branch), Chief Superintendent Gerrard (CID), and Detective Superintendent Lawrenson (Special Branch).
39. The Times, 20 Mar 1968, 2; The restructuring followed a nine-month study by PA Management Consultants, aimed at the reorganisation and rationalisation of the Force’s central departments. See Lowe, ‘Management Consultants and the Police’.
40. TNA:PRO, MEPO 2/11229, ‘Report of the First Working Party on Public Order’, 1968, 4.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid., 5.
44. Linstrum, ‘Domesticating Chemical Weapons’, 568–9.
45. TNA:PRO, CO 1037/201, ‘Tear smoke and gas: enquiries by colonial governments of occasions in previous five years that tear gas was used’, 1963–1965.
46. Linstrum, ‘Domesticating Chemical Weapons’, 575.
47. TNA:PRO, MEPO 2/11229, ‘Appendix A—Use of Tear Gas in the Apprehension of Violent Persons’, 1968; TNA:PRO, MEPO 1/10155, ‘Provision of mattresses and protective shields for use in arresting violent persons’, 1961–1971.
48. TNA:PRO, MEPO 2/10990/1, “Assistant Commissioner ‘A’ quoted in Minute 3,” undated.
49. TNA:PRO, MEPO 2/11229, “Report of the First Working Party on Public Order,” 1968, 4–6.
50. Ibid., 4.
51. Provenzano, ‘Beyond the Matraque’.
52. TNA:PRO, MEPO 2/11229, ‘Report of the First Working Party on Public Order’, 1968, 4.
53. Ibid., 15.
54. Ibid., ‘Minute 24 by Commander Lawlor’, 21 Nov 1968; Tendler, ‘Sir Kenneth Leslie Newman’.
55. TNA:PRO, MEPO 2/11229, “Minutes on the provision of public order training at the Cadent Training School in Hendon,” 1968.
56. HUA, Records of the Association of Chief Police Officers (hereafter ACPO), U DPO/10/694, ‘Letter from Chief Constable Osmond to unknown’, 16 Aug 1968.
57. HUA, ACPO, U DPO/10/694, “Letter from Chief Constable Osmond to all Chief Constables,” 1 October 1968.
58. Keene, ‘The Metropolitan Police Special Patrol Group’. In January 1965, Liverpool City Police had begun experimenting with the use of CCTV cameras and a squad of ‘commondos’ to stop street crime in the city centre. See TNA:PRO, HO 377/15, ‘Report on visit to Liverpool City Police Force, 18–20 January 1965’, 1965 and HO 377/16, ‘Supplementary report on the experimental use of television cameras and commando police patrolling by Liverpool City Police’, 1966.
59. TNA:PRO, MEPO 2/11229, “Appendix P—Demonstrations Involving Civil Disobedience or Serious Public Order,” 1968.
60. For a classical study of crowd psychology, see Le Bon, The Crowd. For a contemporary discussion of crowd psychology, including criticism of Le Bon’s theory, see Mannheim, Comparative Criminology, 645–50.
61. TNA:PRO, MEPO 2/11229, “Report of the First Working Party on Public Order,” 1968, 6.
62. Ibid.
63. Ibid., 4.
64. Ibid., 10.
65. Ibid., 4.
66. TNA, MEPO 2/9956, “Notes of a meeting to discuss the use of closed-circuit television cameras,” January 12, 1961; Williams, “Police Surveillance and the Emergence of CCTV in the 1960s”.
67. Released following request under the Freedom of Information Act (hereafter FOIA), HO 325/185, “Minutes of meeting at Home Office on August 16, 1968,” undated. Between 1967 and 1968, the total number of personal radio sets in the Metropolitan Police increased from 663 to 3,486, with 2,000 more ordered for 1969. Waldron, Report of the Commissioner, 34.
68. TNA:PRO, MEPO 2/9956, “Memorandum from Commander Lawlor to unknown,” August 1, 1968.
69. UCPI, MPS-0730084, “MPSB report on VSC Autumn Offensive,” October 9, 1968.
70. Parliamentary Debates (Commons), 772, November 7, 1968, 1059.
71. ”Grosvenor Square Anti-Vietnam Riots,” 1968 [online audio visual], https://www.britishpathe.com/video/grosvenor-square-anti-vietnam-riots [accessed 9 Mar 2020].
72. HUA, Liberty Archive, U DCL 640/6, “Letter from Mr Smythe to Mr Callaghan,” November 27, 1968.
73. Sinclair, “’Get into a Crack Force’”.
74. See, for example, Ibid., 61; Sinclair and Williams, “’Home and Away’,” 231; Trafford, The Empire at Home, 68. On the ‘domestication’ of riot control equipment in Northern Ireland, see Linstrum, ‘Domesticating Chemical Weapons’, 577–85; Drohan, ‘Unintended Consequences’.
75. Sinclair and Williams, “’Home and Away’,” 221–38; Northam, Shooting in the Dark, 126–39.
76. Go, “Imperial Origins,” 1210.
77. Ibid., 1211.
78. UCPI, MPS-0736497, ‘MPSB report on a meeting of the Britain Vietnam Solidarity Front’, 25 Jul 1966. ‘B’ Squad was also responsible for monitoring fascist, anti-fascist, anti-nuclear, and Irish nationalist groups. Elsewhere in MPSB, ‘A’ Squad was responsible for protection and port control; ‘C’ Squad was responsible for monitoring communist activity; ‘D’ Squad was responsible for naturalisations and visa applications, ‘E’ Squad was responsible for aliens, Commonwealth and Colonial communities, and “racial or ‘colour’ problems”; and ‘R’ Squad was responsible for discipline, internal security, positive vetting, vetting for government departments, research, lectures and training, and threats to VIPs. See UCPI, UCPI0000030040, ‘Note entitledresponsibilities of MPSB’, 21 Mar 1967. With the onset of ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland, ‘B’ Squad became solely responsible for policing Irish nationalism, with ‘C’ Squad taking over its other duties.
79. HUA, ACPO, U DPO/10/694, “Presentation by Commander Cunningham on Intelligence Gathering Problems for Major Demonstrations,” undated.
80. UCPI, MPS-0747773, “MPSB report on a meeting and torchlight procession held by the VSC,” August 6, 1966.
81. UCPI, MPS-0730079, ‘MPSB routine meeting report’, 11 Jan 1968.
82. UCPI, MPS-0730083, “MPSB report on meeting of Vietnam Ad Hoc Committee,” March 7, 1968.
83. UCPI, UCPI0000030764, “MI5 note for policy file,” August 22, 1967.
84. TNA:PRO, MEPO 1/11256, “Note from Chief Superintendent Attwood to Commander Townsend,” March 1964.
85. HUA, ACPO, U DPO/10/694, “Presentation by Commander Cunningham on Intelligence Gathering Problems for Major Demonstrations,” undated.
86. Ibid.
87. UCPI, UCPI0000030764, “MI5 note for file,” August 22, 1967.
88. UCPI, MPS-0730079, “Memorandum from Commander Cunningham to Commander Lawlor,” January 13, 1968.
89. UCPI, MPS-0730082, “Document redacted, gist provided,” March 2, 1968; UCPI, MPS-0730078, ‘Memorandum from Deputy Commander Wilson to Commander Lawlor’, March 14, 1968.
90. HUA, ACPO, U DPO/10/694, “Presentation by Commander Cunningham on Intelligence Gathering Problems for Major Demonstrations,” undated.
91. FOIA, HO 325/90, “MPSB report,” October 3, 1968.
92. UCPI, UCPI0000030046, ‘MI5 note for file’, August 29, 1968.
93. HUA, ACPO, U DPO/10/694, “Presentation by Commander Cunningham on Intelligence Gathering Problems for Major Demonstrations,” undated.
94. UCPI, MPS-0728973, “SOS annual report for 1969,” May 20, 1969.
95. HUA, ACPO, U DPO/10/694, “Presentation by Commander Cunningham on Intelligence Gathering Problems for Major Demonstrations,” undated.
96. See, for example, UCPI, MPS-0730061, ‘MPSB report on VSC Autumn Offensive’, 21 Aug 1968; MPS-0730066, ‘MPSB report on VSC Autumn Offensive’, 5 Sep 1968; MPS-0730063, “MPSB report on VSC Autumn Offensive,” September 10, 1968; MPS-0730064, “MPSB report on VSC Autumn Offensive,” September 19, 1968; MPS-0730095, “MPSB report on VSC Autumn Offensive,” September 23, 1968; MPS-0730096, “MPSB report on VSC Autumn Offensive,” October 3, 1968; MPS-0730084, “MPSB report on VSC Autumn Offensive,” October 9, 1968; MPS-0730091, “MPSB report on VSC Autumn Offensive,” October 16, 1968; MPS-0730092, “MPSB report on VSC Autumn Offensive,” October 22, 1968.
97. UCPI, MPS-0738726, “MPSB report on Notting Hill VSC,” August 14, 1968; MPS-0738834, “MPSB report on Earls Court VSC,” September 19, 1968; MPS-0730064, “MPSB report on VSC Autumn Offensive,” September 19, 1968.
98. UCPI, MPS-0733716, “MPSB report on meeting of International Socialism (Camden Branch),” August 6, 1968; MPS-0733721, “MPSB report on International Socialism,” August 8, 1968.
99. UCPI, UCPI0000034284, ”Notes on meeting held between the Home Office, MI5 and MPSB,” 13 Nov 1967. See also UCPI0000030040, “Note on responsibilities of MPSB,” 21 Mar 1967; UCPI0000030877, “Letter from Commander Smith to MI5,” July 3, 1967; UCPI0000030764, “MI5 note for policy file,” August 22, 1967.
100. UCPI, UCPI0000030045, “MI5 note for file, August 2, 1968. The role of F4 is listed in Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 498.
101. UCPI, MPS0730219, “Commander Smith, minute 2, minute sheet 1,” November 9, 1968.
102. HUA, ACPO, U DPO/10/694, “Letter from Chief Constable Pennington to all forces,” October 1, 1968.
103. UCPI, MPS-0724119, “Report on Penetration of Extremist Groups,” November 26, 1968, 1.
104. Ibid., 2.
105. Ibid., 3.
106. Ibid., 4.
107. Ibid.
108. Ibid.
109. Parliamentary Debates (Commons), 762, 4 Apr 1968, 752.
110. Loader and Mulcahy, Policing and the Condition of England, 271.
111. FOIA, HO 325/185, “Note by [redacted] on advice to the police on demonstrations,” June 13, 1968.
112. Ibid., “Note from [redacted] to [redacted],” 13 Jun 1968; HUA, ACPO, U DPO/10/694, “Letter from Stotesbury to Chief Constable Osmond,” June 19, 1968.
113. FOIA, HO 325/185, “Note from [redacted] to [redacted],” June 26, 1968.
114. UCPI, UPCI0000035301, “Presentation by Thistlethwaite to ACPO conference,” September 23, 1968.
115. HUA, ACPO, U DPO/10/694, “Letter from Chief Constable Osmond to unknown,” August 16, 1968.
116. Ibid., “Letter from Stotesbury to Chief Constable Osmond,” 19 Jun 1968; “Letter from Chief Constable Aston to all Chief Constables and Assistant Chief Constables,” September 12, 1968.
117. The Times, 6 Sep 1968, 1; FOIA, HO 325/185, “Memorandum from Waddell to unknown,” 5 Sep 1968; “MPSB report on VSC Autumn Offensive,” September 5, 1968.
118. The Times, September 5, 1968, 1.
119. FOIA, HO 325/185, “Memorandum from Waddell to unknown,” 5 Sep 1968; “MPSB report on VSC Autumn Offensive,” September 5, 1968.
120. Ibid., ‘Minutes of a meeting between the Callaghan and Lord Hill’, October 21, 1968.
121. Ibid., “Note of a meeting between Callaghan, Commissioner Waldron, Sir Allen and leading media figures,” October 18, 1968.
122. Ibid., “Minutes of a meeting between Callaghan, Commissioner Waldron, Sir Allen, and ten leading television and newspaper proprietors,” October 18, 1968.
123. Gregory, “Public Relations and the Police”; Chibnall, Law-and-Order News, 72.
124. FOIA, HO 325/185, “Minutes of a meeting between Callaghan, Commissioner Waldron, Sir Allen, and ten leading television and newspaper proprietors,” October 18, 1968; ‘MPSB report on VSC Autumn Offensive’, October 9, 1968.
125. Prince, “5 October 1968 and the Beginning of the Troubles”.
126. FOIA, HO 325/185, “Memorandum from Healey to Callaghan,” October 14, 1968.
127. Ibid.
128. Ibid., “Memorandum from Waddell to unknown,” October 23, 1968.
129. Ibid., ‘Minutes of meeting between Callaghan, Commissioner Waldron, Sir Allen and others’, October 10, 1968.
130. Ibid.; Williams, Climbing the Bookshelves, 228.
131. FOIA, HO 325/185, ‘Minutes of meeting between Callaghan, Commissioner Waldron, Sir Allen and others’, October 10, 1968.
132. Williams, Climbing the Bookshelves, 228.
133. Ellis, Britain, America, and the Vietnam War; Ellis, ‘Promoting Solidarity at Home and Abroad’; Ellis, ‘British Public Opinion and the Vietnam War’; Vickers, ‘Harold Wilson, the British Labour Party, and the War in Vietnam’; Roberts, “The Campaign of the ‘Red-Bearded Radical’”.
134. Pimlott, Harold Wilson, 194.
135. Luff, ‘Covert and Overt Operations’, 756.
136. Emsley, ‘Policing the Empire/Policing the Metropole’; Sinclair and Williams, ‘Home and Away’.
137. Emsley, ‘English Bobby’; Loader and Mulcahy, Policing and the Condition of England.
138. Lawrence, ‘Forging a Peaceable Kingdom’.
139. Ibid., 559.
140. Nehring, ‘Towards a Transnational Social History’.
141. Roodhouse, ‘Ghost Squad’, 175.