We must never forget Peterloo

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/20/we-must-never-forget-peterloo

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Your coverage of the 200th anniversary commemorations in Manchester of the Peterloo massacre was superb (Peterloo protesters turn focus on modern inequality and need for reform, 17 August). Can I add one thing? I wish to suggest that the most effective and completely unmissable way to commemorate the event, crucial as it is in any narration of democratic progress in this country, would be to change the name of Manchester Piccadilly railway station to Manchester Peterloo station. The change would cost next to nothing. But it would put the name Peterloo on millions of train tickets and timetables bought and carried by millions of people every day, and would have the name, hence the event it commemorates, boomed out across station platforms across the whole country.Michael KnowlesCongleton, Cheshire

• A simple but effective way to keep the memory of Peterloo alive would be to rename St Peter’s Square “Peterloo Square”. In addition, removing the saint’s name from the square would be a useful nod to our multicultural city and its declining Christian dominance.Craig WrightStockport

• Hamer Shawcross would be proud of your leader (Our ancestors were at Peterloo. What does their story tell us today?, 16 August). He, the central character in Howard Spring’s 1940 novel Fame is the Spur, was inspired by the sabre of “the Old Warrior” that hung over the fireplace in his humble home in Broadbent Street, Ancoats. It had been dropped by a soldier that day in St Peter’s Field – the Old Warrior had broken the soldier’s elbow with his “good solid oak” staff after the soldier had slain his girl Emma with a single blow. Emma was indeed one of “those who fell in Manchester”. They helped us rise, as the leader concludes, and should never be forgotten.David ShannonIreland’s Cross, Shropshire

• Many in Manchester suffered appallingly at the hands of a brutally repressive administration just for demanding fair and democratic representation 200 years ago at Peterloo. What representation do over 16 million UK remain voters have in today’s parliament that seeks its own Westminsterloo with a metaphorical sabre charge against almost half of the UK population and 56% and 62% respectively of Northern Ireland and Scotland?Austen LynchGarstang, Lancashire

• Thanks, Arachne, for the crossword commemorating Peterloo (16 August): “Stand ye calm and resolute / Like a forest close and mute … / Then they will return with shame / To the place from which they came…”

Shelley could have been speaking of the present government.Brian PenneyMorecambe, Lancashire

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