May Day, Armistice Day and the Politics of Public Space

The role of place remains a neglected factor in the political history of modern Britain. Yet where and how parties conducted their political campaigns was of fundamental importance in conferring legitimacy on movements and causes. In the immediate post-war period, urban public space provided a platform for the expression of a range of radical identities, most notably on occasions such as May Day. Yet after the 1926 General Striketolerance of such occasions declined; more than this, the willingness of leading Labour Party figures to appear amid the pageantry and class symbolism on display at May Day rallieswaned. Local public space became instead the venue for occasions such as Armistice Day, which expressed a shared national identity.