It marks the anniversary of what's become known as the Battle of the Beanfield.
Jon Trickett, Labour MP and shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, has called for a full debate on the issue, adding: 'The dramatic concentration of land ownership is an inescapable reminder that ours is a country for the few and not the many. It’s simply not right that aristocrats, whose families have owned the same areas of land for centuries, and large corporations exercise more influence over local neighbourhoods – in both urban and rural areas – than the people who live there. Land is a source of wealth, it impacts on house prices, it is a source of food and it can provide enjoyment for millions of people.'
It's an historical event of genuine interest to me as I am passionate about the British countryside and our freedom to enjoy it. But I was also a police officer for 30 years and, like many colleagues, I hated the fact that during the Eighties the police were often used as the strong arm of a government with a political agenda.
Some would argue that it still happens now.
Here's the history. The Stonehenge Free Festival was an event that had taken place, mostly without any real problems, for just over a decade. Yes, there had been an issue with some biker gangs one year. And yes, there had been some issues with drugs - especially heroin dealers infiltrating the crowds (at one point, the old-style festival people got together to drive the heroin dealers off the site). But compared to some other annual public events - like New Years Eve or the Notting Hill Carnival - the Free Festival was pretty peaceful.
It was now 1985. And as you may recall, if you are old enough, it was a time of great social unrest. We had race riots and major industrial action - such as the miners' and printers' strikes. It was also a time of protests and marches against things like environmental damage, the fur trade and nuclear weapons. One of the largest protests was at Greenham Common in Berkshire were a womens' peace camp numbered in the thousands. Many of these protests were led by people who advocated alternative lifestyles to the capitalist agenda promoted by Margaret Thatcher's government. They were therefore painted as 'hippies' or New Age travellers' - and prejudice against them was drummed up in right wing press and in government polemic.
Meanwhile, the gap between the rich and the poor was growing )we're seeing the effects of that growth today with a very divided society). This was the era of the hard-faced banker who cared more about money than people, as exemplified by Michael Douglas' red braces wearing Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street. It was the age of the Yuppie - the youing upwardly-mobile professionals - who began the process of gentrifying areas so that local people could soon no longer afford to live there. The price of housing started a dramatic rise, property was seen as an investment rather than a place someone could call a home, and the number of people taking to the road as travellers was growing.
The Stonehenge Free Festival quickly became an annual get-together for these travellers and the numbers attending had been doubling, year on year. This made the authorities uneasy. And so, in 1985, English Heritage and the National Trust took out civil injunctions to prevent the festival taking place. Not everyone realised this - there was no internet back then and mobile phones were the preserve of the rich. So as the convoys of travellers arrived for the festival they suddenly found the area cordoned off and their vehicles being diverted down narrow country lanes away from Stonehenge. To make matters even worse, there were scores of police officers on scene dressed in riot gear and carrying shields and truncheons.
No one is entirely sure what lit the spark but violence soon erupted. I've heard stories from both sides: from people saying police smashed their windscreens to police officers saying people threw bottles at them. Whatever the reason, things kicked off. And the convoy of travellers decided to get off the country road. Fences were broken down and the cars and caravans drove into the now infamous bean field. What followed was a four hour stand-off where festival-goers tried to negotiate with the police. It didn't work.
Eventually the police moved in and the violence kicked up a few notches. I'm ashamed to say that the police were the bad guys here. Most independent eyewitness accounts report that the police used violent tactics against men, women and children, including pregnant women; and purposely damaged the vehicles used by the travellers. According to The Observer, the police were hitting 'anybody they could reach' and when some of the travellers tried to escape by driving away through the fields, the police threw truncheons, shields, fire extinguishers and stones at them to try to stop them.
Dozens of travellers were injured, and 537 were eventually arrested. This represents one of the largest mass arrests of civilians since at least the Second World War, possibly one of the biggest in English legal history.
The travellers had departed from Savernake Forest, which is owned by the Earl of Cardigan's family. The Earl of Cardigan himself decided to follow the convoy on his motorbike. He later stated that during the initial confrontation there were negotiations with police. But then 'police rushed out on foot, from behind their barricade clutching drawn truncheons and riot shields', he said. 'They ran round to the driver's door of each vehicle, slamming their truncheons into the bodywork to make a deafening noise, and shouting at every driver, 'get out, get out, hand over your keys, get out!''. He further stated that police were smashing up vehicles and shouting instructions to get out simultaneously, giving travellers no time to react before riot sticks were used to break the vehicles' windscreens. Cardigan described seeing a very pregnant woman being repeatedly clubbed on the head by police, many of whom had their ID numbers covered up. He also saw police with hammers smashing up the dashboards of several of the now-abandoned motor homes. He also described how he was approached by the police the following day, who wanted permission to remove travellers who were still at Savernake: They said they wanted to go into the campsite 'suitably equipped' and 'finish unfinished business''. The Earl did not give his permission.
ITN Reporter Kim Sabido was at the scene and recorded a piece-to-camera in which he claimed that he had witnessed 'some of the most brutal police treatment of people' that he had seen in his entire career as a journalist. Nick Davies reported for The Observer that 'There was glass breaking, people screaming, black smoke towering out of burning caravans and everywhere there seemed to be people being bashed and flattened and pulled by the hair. Men, women and children were led away, shivering, swearing, crying, bleeding, leaving their homes in pieces.'
Two years after the event, a Wiltshire police sergeant was found guilty of Actual Bodily Harm as a consequence of injuries incurred by a member of the convoy during the Battle of the Beanfield.
In February 1991 a civil court judgement awarded 21 of the travellers £24,000 in damages for false imprisonment, damage to property and wrongful arrest. Sadly, the award was swallowed by their legal bill as the judge did not award them legal costs.
Despite repeated calls, an inquiry into the events of 1 June 1985 has never been honoured. It's a shameful moment in British history. And I am disgusted by the actions of the police officers.
Which is why, on June 1st every year we should remember it, ask why it happened, and demand that these kinds of actions never take place again.
The appalling behaviour exhibited by some police officers ably demonstrates what happens when you dehumanise people. They just become 'the enemy'. It's a real example of the effects seen in studies such as the Stanford Prison Experiment. It exaplains the extreme behaviour of staff at the Nazi Daeth Camps and the Japanese treatment of prisoners of war.
And, sadly, we're seeing similar rhetoric being used today by politicians referring to people trying to reach Britain for sanctuary. They are described as a swarm, like dangerous insects. Phrases like 'Stop the Boats' neatly remove human beings from the equation. 'Stop the men, women and children who have left everything behind to risk their lives in the hope of a safer future' just doesn't fit the political agenda.
And let's not forget that at the heart of the Battle of the Beanfield incident were some basic human rights.
In the most recent UK census, the majority of British people described themselves as having no religion (52%). Meanwhile, one of the fastest growing religions is Paganism - there are now more Pagans than Rastafarians or Buddhists. And yet, many of their sacredites - such as Stonehenge - are on private land with limited or no public access. To a true Pagan, Stonehenge is as important and spiritual place as a cathedral is to a Christian or a Mosque to a Muslim. Would they be denied access?
Meanwhile, the phrase 'Britain for the British' is laughable. Britain belongs to the rich.
Astonishingly, half of all the land and wild spaces in the UK is owned by just 25,000 people - less than 1% of the population. And that ownership is invariably historical. Our land was stolen from us. Many aristocrats own land because some Norman baron ancestor claimed a chunk of it in the 11th century. Or maybe they own the land because, between 1604 and 1914, over 5,200 individual 'Acts of Enclosure' were put into place, removing 6.8 million acres of common land from public ownership and putting them into the hands of various Lords and Royals.
It's all very wrong.
Surely, as free citizens of a free country we have a right to enjoy our wonderful landscape and heritage?
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