The Ely Bread Riots: Thirty Years On

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Jason Mohammad revisits the Ely ‘Bread Riots’ and the damaging legacy they left behind.

Jason Mohammad goes on a personal journey, back to the streets where he grew up, as he revisits the Ely ‘Bread Riots’, in a bid to understand the damaging legacy they left behind.

August 30th 2021 marks the 30th anniversary of the ‘Ely Bread Riots’. At the time it was claimed the trouble was sparked solely as a result of a dispute between two shop owners as to who could legally sell essential food items (including cheap bread) to the locals in Ely. But there are always two sides to every story. And those who were on the streets of Ely at the time paint a different picture of events. 
  
Ely born and bred broadcast journalist Jason Mohammad was 17 at the time of the riots. As the events began to unfurl around Wilson Road, Jason and his school friends headed out for a night on the town, oblivious as to what was happening on the other side of Ely. It was only as the boys made their way back home in a taxi, in the early hours of the morning, they discovered what was going on, as their cab driver refused to take them further than Ely Bridge.  

Jason goes on a personal journey, back to the streets where he grew up, to revisit the Ely ‘Bread Riots’, in a bid to understand the damaging legacy they left behind. He examines what happened on the night of the riot as well as the events that unfurled on the following three evenings, as over 500 ‘protesters’ and several hundred police officers in riot gear took to the streets.
 
Jason talks to members of the community, the local press, and the police that attended the riots as well as academics following the events at the time to get a 360-degree view of what actually happened on the ground and what was being reported in the press. As Jason delves deeper, he begins to question the role the press and media played in fuelling the tensions in Ely at the time. And what was the long term lasting damage left by the legacy of the riots on the area?

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