A newspaper article about Hackney boys tripping up women and swearing in their faces? No, it’s not a scene on a Lower Clapton bus, or even an article about Diane Abbott’s recent walkabout: it’s an account of bad behaviour in Mare Street, as reported in the News of the World on Sunday 2nd May, 1886.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Now give me Jacqui Smith and a time machine.

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