Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request Park Entrance

Grandad remembers somebody on their soapbox spouting about Mussolini. Grandad was heckling him as this person, in the past had been supportive of Mussolini.

He said there was loads of jeering from the crowd and the speaker was in hushed talks with three or four others.

Eventually, the Speaker addressed the crowd and said 'This young man is indeed right. I was politically immature at the time'

Wow, what a memory for nearly 95 years of age!!! he was laughing as he told us the story.

(This was in Liverpool, not Birkenhead).

Idle Hands, Clenched Fists

In July 1981, violence erupted on to the streets in Liverpool. In Toxteth unemployed blacks and whites launched an assault on the Liverpool police. For much of July of that year Toxteth was embroiled in a savage, unrelenting battle. The conflagration was born out of the frustration and boredom of unemployment, with the police initially providing a target for the hostility of those on the dole. But there were some watching the rioting in Toxteth who had seen it all before. In the autumn of 1932, those on the dole in Birkenhead had reacted similarly. For a week they had battled with the local police as their frustration finally reached breaking point. So many stories of those earlier riots have been passed down by word of mouth, much of it to become myth, while very little that is accurate has actually been written about them. This book, for the first time, records in detail the events of that autumn on Mersey side.

I am expecting an email any day now to say my reserved copy has arrived at my Branch. Woopy woop.

Finally read the book. Enjoyed it.

It wasn't nice walking around Birkenhead at that time, plod were on high alert and even going down Grange Road at night for a walk was a bit iffy even though they're may have been two of you, if you went out with four or more even though you were just doing the rounds of the pubs, plod would move you on and you didn't get dirty looks you got threats, I hadn't long been back from Saudi and I was working in London and was having a few weeks in Birkenhead, I was actually glad to get back dahhhn south,

Sounds awful. Innocent people beaten in their own homes? People not even involved in the peaceful elements of the demonstrations.

The Establishment colluding together- has anything changed?