pasttensehistories.bsky.social

#Spycops inquiry on ITV News.
Questioning of police whistleblower Peter Francis about spying on #union members defending labour movement events & #blacklisting of activists is likely to take place on Tues & Wed this week. (@DaveBlacklist)

YouTube video by Cops Campaign Spycops inquiry reaction: end of 1 Dec 2025 - Peter Francis evidence, day 1

Live reaction at the end of the 1st day of the Undercover Policing Inquiry questioning whistleblower #spycops officer Peter Francis. He's talked about having a list of people who visited Stephen Lawrence's family in the days after the murder.

youtu.be/-mcFGapZ3xk

You can also download the witness statement of ‘HN81’ (who, using the cover name ‘Dave Hagan’, reported on many of the same groups as Francis – the Movement for Justice and the Lawrence campaign amongst others): ...

Class Walls – Cutteslowe, Downham and roadworks… Some of last week’s news outlets covered the row about road resurfacing In Oxford, where the local council had ordered one end of a street re-tarmacked, but the work stopped abruptly. Local residen…

There’s a few more examples in our post :

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Surveillance of the anarchist 121 Centre by Special Branch undercover officers, 1981-1999 An account of how the squatted anarchist 121 Bookshop/ 121 Centre was targeted by undercover police officers (‘spycops’) working for the Metropolitan Police Special Branch’s ‘Special Demonstrations…

An account of how the squatted anarchist 121 Bookshop/ 121 Centre was targeted by undercover police officers (‘spycops’) working for the Metropolitan Police Special Branch’s ‘Special Demonstrations Squad’…
pasttense.co.uk/2025/10/27/s...

YouTube video by Cops Campaign Spycops inquiry reaction: morning of 1 Dec 2025 - Peter Francis evidence, day 1

Instant reaction from the morning at Undercover Policing Inquiry as we begin a week of questioning the only whistleblower #spycops officer, Peter Francis

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjJ_...

Today in London’s trading history: excise officers fight with smugglers, Lee, 1734 During the 18th century, smuggling in England’s Southeastern counties, especially Kent and East Sussex, grew to epic proportions. High taxes and excise duty on overseas goods created an opportunity…

#OnThisDay in London's trading history: excise officers fight with smugglers, Lee, 1734
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Today in London’s rebel history: Jack Cade’s Kentish rebels fight all night battle on London Bridge, 1450. In 1449 King Henry VI was almost bankrupted. The hundred years War in France was grinding to a halt through lack of funds and a succession of defeats at the hands of the French. Parliament refused …

And then Jack Cade’s Kentish rebels had occupied part of London
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Today in London’s radical history: riots break out as the Duke of Suffolk is banished, 1450. William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, was the effective head of the English government in the late 1440s. The king, Henry VI, was pious, frail and mentally unstable; during his reign a succession of…

In March the unpopular Duke of Suffolk had been banished and then murdered amidst protests against his rule: wp.me/p74yfw-5k

1450 had been a year of anti-government protest and disorder.
In January Nicholas Jakes had led a protest in London:
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#OnThisDay in London radical history, 1450: a crowd attacked Westminster, demanding the heads of king Henry VI’s aristocratic counsellors.  The Duke of Somerset’s lodgings were attacked at Blackfriars; a mob chased the Duke of York, who had to be rescued by barge on the Thames.

“Two languages” = English and Entitled?

The Battle for Wimbledon Green, 1901-4 The battle for Wimbledon Green Following on from a previous post detailing the long and intricate campaign that preserved Wimbledon Common from enclosure in the 1860s… a reminder that not all campa…

New post on the Past Tense blog:
The Battle for Wimbledon Green.
A struggle over open space that ultimately was unsuccessful.
pasttense.co.uk/2025/12/01/t...

History is just one more battleground in culture war being fought over the BBC | The Observer

The private company History Reclaimed is the hard Right’s most determined weapon in the propaganda war to control public history. Its attempts to drive the BBC rightwards were paying off with Robbie Gibb promoting its influence on the inside.

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

The Battle for Wimbledon Green, 1901-4 The battle for Wimbledon Green Following on from a previous post detailing the long and intricate campaign that preserved Wimbledon Common from enclosure in the 1860s… a reminder that not all campaigns to save open space from that era were successful. Wimbledon Green was a small piece of land, possibly roughly triangular, which stood next to, and may at some earlier point have become detached from, Wimbledon Common. In 1901-2 it became the focus of a plan to build on it, which faced vocal and violent local opposition. However, the campaign to keep the Green open and public ultimately failed.

The Battle for Wimbledon Green, 1901-4

The battle for Wimbledon Green Following on from a previous post detailing the long and intricate campaign that preserved Wimbledon Common from enclosure in the 1860s… a reminder that not all campaigns to save open space from that era were successful.…

New #spycopspod episode, but it's not about a #spycops officer!
@PeterSalmon7 of @UndercoverNet sits down with @tombfowler to examine the actions of professional infiltrator (and convicted child sex offender) Nick Gratwick (@SpycopsInfo)

New post on Ko-fi previewing this week at the Inquiry where former #spycops officer Peter Francis, who went whistleblower 15 years ago, is being questioned (@tombfowler.bsky.social)

Peter Francis, one of the undercover police spies who targeted me & other union & political activists in the 90s. Francis turned whistleblower and was key to unlocking the #spycops scandal. He is giving evidence at the public inquiry all this week ...

Bold Defiance A radical history pamphlet. Bold Defiance The Spitalfields Silk Weavers: London’s Luddites? For centuries, silk-weaving was one of London’s biggest...

For those who want to read more about the Silkweavers of Spitalfields & Bethnal Green & their struggles over wages & mechanisation; our pamphlet ‘Bold Defiance’ is on sale in our online shop:
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/bold...

Today in London’s industrial history: machine loom weavers fight handloom weavers, Clerkenwell, 1767. As we have related a number of times on this blog already (here, and here), the silkweavers of Spitalfields and Bethnal Green fought a long battle against mechanisation, to preserve their wage leve…

#OnThisDay in London's industrial history: machine loom silk weavers fight handloom weavers, during long war over wages, conditions and mechanisation, Clerkenwell, 1767.
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Today in royal history: king Edmund Ironside killed on the toilet, 1016. Normally past tense take a dim view of the kind of reactionary approach to history that concentrates on the doings of kings and queens. Today we make an exception: this post will focus on kings. An…

#OnThisDay in royal history: king Edmund Ironside killed on the toilet, 1016.
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‘Dung, Guts and Blood’: a wander up the lower reaches of London’s Fleet River ‘Dung, Guts and Blood Swimming against the Stream: a wander up the lower reaches of London’s Fleet River or Disorder, Repression and Radicalism in the lower Fleet valley Introduction The following …

A stop on our radical history walk up the river Fleet

pasttense.co.uk/2021/02/19/d...

Like the Chartists themselves, Chartist Lives is not confined to the UK.
#C19th #History #Chartism
🇮🇪 www.amazon.ie/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
🇺🇸 www.amazon.com/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
🇦🇺 www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
🇨🇦 www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
🇬🇧 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y

Good to see you there! Although my toes froze sitting there all day…!

UCPI Daily Report, 14 Nov 2025: Dan Gillman evidence Dan Gillman, activist with Youth Against Racism in Europe in the 1990s, is questioned by the Undercover Policing Inquiry

Just out - our summary of the Undercover Policing Inquiry questioning Dan Gillman, blacklisted trade unionist & antifascist who was the subject of a load of lying reports by #spycops officer HN014 Carlo Soracchi.

campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/2025/11/29/u...

It’s a bit autumnal in South London…
But you can beat the November blues - drop in on the Past Tense stall on Camberwell Green. Here today till 4pm.
Loads of London radical history publications, cheap and cheerful!

Ricky Reel died in 1997 after a racist attack in Kingston upon Thames. His family campaigned for justice after police failed to investigate properly. Rather than focusing on investigating his death, the police sent #spycops to
spy on the family campaign (@helensteel12)

So as the dust settles on another week of #spycops inquiry hearings, which saw harrowing evidence from bereaved families snooped on for no good reason by undercover coppers, and everyone prepares for the coming week of whistleblower Peter Francis HN43, one question ...

Japan: Last high court ruling a damaging step backwards on same-sex marriage In response to today’s Tokyo High Court decision that endorsed the Japanese government ban on same-sex marriage, Amnesty International’s East Asia Researcher Boram Jang said: “The court’s decision tod...

Japan is the only remaining G7 country not to legally recognise same-sex relationships and today Tokyo’s High Court ruled in favour of the constitutional ban.
It’s a frustrating setback but the fight for the rights of Japanese same sex couples will go on.

Two books titled Chartist Lives inside an opened cardboard box.

Chartist Lives fresh out of the box
#Chartism #C19th #BritishHistory #BookSky 🗃️
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y