It was interesting to hear it reported twice on this morning’s Today programme that the group of Labour rebels mustering forces for a fatal attack on Gordon Brown have dubbed themselves members of ‘the peasants’ revolt’. In terms of sheer upheaval – ‘the world turned upside down’ – the analogy between the (literally) bloody summer of 1381 and the (metaphorically) bloody summer of 2009 seems less and less fanciful by the day.
Of course, what was notable about the 1381 revolt was that it was a genuine expression of popular anger, led in the most part by community leaders from the localities and aimed against the political classes as a whole. What we are seeing in parliament today is factional infighting as an incumbent political party tries to save itself from precisely that fate.
Indeed, there is an argument to say that Labour MPs claiming to be the inheritors of Wat Tyler are actually as crass as the bunkered Brownites. The MPs aiming to oust their leader are doing so in order to limit the damage done to their party when the country finally goes to the polls in a general election. In other words, they wish to dampen as far as possible the electorate’s inclination to wreak full revenge on the government – at the ballot box, rather than the chopping block.
This is incorrect.