University of Plymouth PEARL https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk 04 University of Plymouth Research Theses 01 Research Theses Main Collection 2014 Blackshirts and White Wigs: Reflections on Public Order Law and the Political Activism of the British Union of Fascists Channing, Iain Christopher Edward http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/2897 University of Plymouth All content in PEARL is protected by copyright law. Author manuscripts are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author. Copyright Statement This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author’s prior consent. 1 2 Blackshirts and White Wigs: Reflections on Public Order Law and the Political Activism of the British Union of Fascists by Iain Christopher Edward Channing A thesis submitted to Plymouth University in Partial fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Plymouth Law School March 2013 3 4 Abstract While domestic fascism within the United Kingdom has never critically challenged Parliamentary sovereignty, it has decisively disrupted public order since its roots were established in the inter-war political scene. The violence provoked by Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF) was one of the stimulating factors behind the enactment of the Public Order Act 1936. This Act significantly strengthened the powers of the police to regulate or proscribe varies forms of political activism. This thesis analyses the legal responses of Parliament, the police and the judiciary to interwar British fascism. In addition, by analysing the legal responses to public disorder from before and after the 1930s, it positions the BUF within their wider historical context which enables this thesis to assess and evaluate consistencies and discrepancies within the application of the law. By enhancing the historical contextualisation of the period with a critical legal lens, the principal forms of fascist propaganda are evaluated, including public processions, public meetings and the wearing of political uniform. It is argued that the application of a historico-legal methodology challenges the perception that the authorities were inherently politically biased. This thesis explores alternative factors which explain why the responses of the legal authorities appeared inconsistent in their approach to the far-Right and the far-Left. In order to critically analyse the police’s decision making process when monitoring political activism, the limitations of public order law and the nature of police discretion itself become fundamental components which offer a more balanced explanation for the appearance of political partiality within the police force. 5 Contents Table of Statutes .................................................................................................... 10 Table of Cases ........................................................................................................ 11 Illustrations ............................................................................................................. 13 Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... 14 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ 15 Author’s Declaration .............................................................................................. 16 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 17 1) Fascism and the Law ............................................................................................ 17 2) Public Order and the Common Law: Definitions .................................................... 22 2.1) The Breach of the Peace Doctrine ........................................................................ 22 2.2) Police Discretion ................................................................................................... 25 2.3) Human Rights and Residual Freedom .................................................................. 28 2.4) Unlawful Assembly, Rout, Riot and Affray ............................................................. 31 3) Aims and Methodology ......................................................................................... 33 4) Chapter Synopsis ................................................................................................. 36 Chapter 1 ................................................................................................................. 40 The British Union of Fascists and Public Order 1) Introduction ........................................................................................................... 40 2) The BUF in Historical Context ............................................................................... 41 2.1) The Predecessors of the BUF ............................................................................... 41 2.2) Patterns of BUF Support in Relation to Incidents of Disorder ................................ 43 2.3) Anti-Semitism in British Society ......................................................................... 45 3) The Historiography of the BUF .............................................................................. 47 4.1) Major contributions to the History of British Fascism ............................................. 48 4.2) Looking Back: Fascism, Society and Culture in Interwar Britain ............................ 51 4.3) The BUF and Political Violence ............................................................................. 52 4.4) Policing and Public Order Law .............................................................................. 61 4) Applying a Legal Lens to Research on British Fascism ......................................... 69 Chapter 2 ................................................................................................................. 72 No Pasaran – “They shall not pass”: Legal Responses to Public Processions 6 1) Introduction ........................................................................................................... 72 2) Legal Definitions ................................................................................................... 74 2.1) Public Assembly ................................................................................................... 74 2.3) Public Procession ................................................................................................. 75 3) Beatty v Gillbanks: A Common Law Solution to Regulating Processions? ............ 77 4) Obstruction of the Highway: The use of Existing Legislation to Regulate Processions ..................................................................................................................... 83 5) Responses to the Processions of the Far-Left ....................................................... 85 5.1) The Emergency Powers Act 1920 ......................................................................... 85 5.2) The Hunger Marchers ........................................................................................... 86 5.3) The Processions (Regulations) Bill 1932 ............................................................... 89 6) The Marching Blackshirts ...................................................................................... 96 6.1) The ‘Battle of Stockton’ in 1933............................................................................. 98 6.2) The Debate on the use of the Unlawful Drilling Act 1819 ..................................... 100 6.3) The Blackshirts March to the Albert Hall, 1934 .................................................... 103 6.4) The Public Order Bill 1934 .................................................................................. 106 7) The Resurgence of Disorder and the Battle of Cable Street ................................ 108 8) The Debate on Clause 3 Public Order Bill 1936 .................................................. 118 9) The Application of s3 from 1937-1939................................................................. 123 10) Post-War Legacy of s3 ........................................................................................ 129 11) Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 134 Chapter 3 ............................................................................................................... 138 The "Englishman's right of Free Speech": Public Meetings in Public Places 1) Introduction ......................................................................................................... 138 2) Legal Definitions: Public Meetings and Freedom of Speech ................................ 140 3) The Historic Claim to the ‘Right’ of Public Meeting .............................................. 143 3.1) Public Meetings at Trafalgar Square 1886-88 ..................................................... 143 3.2) The Unemployed Manchester Marchers 1908 ..................................................... 151 4)