Race and riots in Thatcher's Britain by Simon Peplow

Author:Simon Peplow [Peplow, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781526151681
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2020-11-03T00:00:00+00:00

Scarman Inquiry

Similar to his response following St Pauls, Whitelaw vociferously supported the police after the Brixton disturbances; unlike St Pauls, he also announced the establishment of a public inquiry headed by Lord Leslie Scarman. The scale, severity and even location of Brixton ensured such an inquiry was necessary – a meeting between Thatcher and senior ministers agreed ‘there would have to be an inquiry’ – although its very existence was simultaneously criticised as appearing to legitimise violence.30 A widely respected judge, Scarman himself recorded his ‘considerable experience of the administrative and organisational problems of enquiries of this sort’, having previously resided over inquiries into Northern Ireland disturbances of August 1969 and the 1974 Red Lion Square disorders.31 Whitelaw later recorded that Scarman’s Northern Irish experience was influential in his appointment, as he had familiarity with ‘similar circumstances’.32 Despite appearing to be an obvious choice, he was not universally supported. A prevalent opinion existed that, in the Red Lion Square inquiry, Scarman had wrongly absolved the police of responsibility for the death of Kevin Gately, also backing the controversial SPG.33 The same judge examining multiple police-related events encouraged beliefs that this inquiry would produce no different outcome than previous investigations: as the Brixton Defence Campaign stated, ‘Scarman has a history which we can’t afford to ignore’.34

Conversely, Conservatives and right-wing commentators believed Scarman was too left-wing, notably demonstrated by disagreement with his 1977 inquiry into the Grunwick dispute, a two-year strike by a small number of Asian women regarding union recognition at a small North London film processing plant, which garnered widespread support. Scarman had recommended both union recognition and the reinstatement of workers dismissed for supporting strike action, but this was rejected by the Conservative Party and right-wing groups. The eventual resolution, ending in defeat for the strikers, has been viewed as a major political and ideological victory for the Conservatives, paving the way for their 1979 election success and subsequent curbing of union power throughout the 1980s.35 Scarman was thus criticised from both sides, being simultaneously too left-wing and not radical enough.

Rather than falling under the Tribunals and Inquiries (Evidence) Act 1921, which had established more wide-ranging public inquiries, Scarman was appointed to hold a ‘local inquiry’ into policing in Brixton under Section 32 of the Police Act 1964. By design, it would have an increased focus on policing rather than broader social, political, and economic issues.36 As Timothy Brain concluded, it ‘certainly suited the Conservative government, already under fire for rising unemployment and cuts in unemployment benefit, to have the main focus on the police’.37 McNee shared this view, suggesting that, during the first turbulent years of Thatcherite policies, it was an effort to protect the Government at the expense of the police – a view perhaps unsurprising from the head of that organisation:

I was, to say the least, unhappy … Some faults certainly lay at our door but there were faults elsewhere too … An inquiry covering [policy] matters could lead to an embarrassing outcome at a time when the Government’s fortunes were low.

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