Liverpool has always been a city apart. Perched on the edge of the Irish Sea, looking out towards America and the wider world, it has often felt less like a provincial English city and more like a maritime city-state.

In this week’s podcast, I sat down with David Swift to discuss his new book, A Scouse Republic. We explored the deep roots of Liverpool’s unique identity—an identity that is fierce, political, and distinct from the rest of the UK.

The Melting Pot on the Mersey

The story of Liverpool is the story of the sea. In its 19th-century pomp, the city handled 7% of all world shipping. This brought immense wealth, visible today in its grand neoclassical architecture, but it also brought people.

Liverpool became a melting pot long before the term was fashionable. Irish immigrants fleeing the famine, Scandinavian sailors (who brought the “lobscouse” stew that gave the city its nickname), and communities from across the British Empire all converged on the Mersey. This created a population that was cosmopolitan, transient, and less tethered to traditional English hierarchies.

The Forging of Radicalism

Interestingly, as David points out, Liverpool came late to the Labour Party. While other industrial centers like Manchester and South Wales were electing socialists in the early 1900s, Liverpool’s politics were dominated by sectarian divisions and casual labor. The dockers, whose work was precarious and hard to unionize, didn’t find their political voice until later.

However, the city’s radicalism was forged in the fires of the late 20th century. The economic decline of the 1970s and 80s hit Liverpool harder than almost anywhere else. The Thatcher government’s policy of “managed decline” alienated the city, creating a fortress mentality of “us against the world.”

While the white working class in other parts of England (like Essex) drifted to the right, embracing ThatcherismMonetarism Monetarism is the economic school of thought associated with Milton Friedman, which rose to dominance as a counter to Keynesian economics. It posits that inflation is always a monetary phenomenon and that the government’s role should be limited to managing the currency rather than stimulating demand. Key Mechanisms: Inflation Targeting: Using interest rates to keep inflation low, even if high interest rates cause recession or unemployment. Fiscal Restraint: Opposing government deficit spending to boost the economy during downturns. Critical Perspective:Critics argue that monetarism breaks the post-war social contract. By prioritizing “sound money” and low inflation above all else, monetarist policies often induce deliberately high unemployment to discipline the labor force and suppress wages. It represents a technical solution to political problems, removing economic policy from democratic accountability. and later Brexit, Liverpool moved left. It became a bastion of resistance, electing the Militant Tendency to the city council and defying the central government.

The Trauma of Hillsborough

No discussion of modern Liverpool is complete without addressing the Hillsborough disaster of 1989. The death of 97 fans at an FA Cup semi-final was a tragedy compounded by a calculated cover-up.

As David explains, the lies printed by The Sun newspaper—claiming fans picked the pockets of the dead and urinated on police—were not just insensitive; they were an attempt to shift blame from the authorities to the victims. This wasn’t just an attack on football fans; it was an attack on the working class.

The resulting boycott of The Sun in Liverpool is still strong today, a testament to the city’s long memory and solidarity. It reinforced the sense that the establishment—the police, the government, the press—was against them.

A Secular Religion

Today, being “Scouse” is a powerful identity, intertwined with the city’s football clubs and its socialist politics. It is a form of “secular religion,” providing community and belonging in a way that traditional institutions no longer do.

Liverpool’s story challenges the simplistic narratives of the “red wall” and the “left behind.” It shows that culture and history matter just as much as economics. In a world of increasing homogenization, Liverpool remains defiantly, proudly itself.

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Transcript

Nick: Welcome again to the Explaining History podcast.

For our second interview this week, I am greatly appreciative of the time of David Swift, author of A Scouse Republic: An Alternative History of Liverpool.

For those listening overseas, Liverpool holds a complex and contested place in British culture. Most people know it for The Beatles and Liverpool Football Club, but its history represents something unique.

Welcome, David. Before we dive into the book, let’s start with the basics. What does the term “Scouse” mean?

David: It is very unusual for a people to be named after a food, especially a cheap, humble stew. “Scouse” comes from a Norwegian dish called lobscouse, a potato and lamb stew brought over by Scandinavian sailors. It’s an indicator of Liverpool’s maritime history. The name itself is maybe 200 years old, but it has only been applied to the people of Liverpool in the last 50 or 60 years.

Nick: I remember Darcus Howe engaging with Geordies in Newcastle and noting they identified as Geordies first, not English. Liverpool seems similar—very focused on its own identity.

David: Yes. Over the last 200 years, regional identities in the UK have generally broken down and accents have converged. Liverpool has gone the other way. The Beatles didn’t have a stereotypical “Scouse” accent, but since then, the accent has become much stronger and more distinct.

Liverpool is a city of about half a million people, but it is incredibly dense. In the 19th century, most men worked on the docks or in shipping. Unlike Manchester with its cotton mills, Liverpool didn’t have large manufacturing industries inland; everything clung to the river.

Nick: Let’s talk about Liverpool’s radicalism. Where does it come from?

David: It’s a strange concoction. In 1900, Liverpool was at its capitalist apex, handling 7% of world shipping. There was immense wealth, but also terrible poverty.

Because dock work was casual and unskilled, it was hard to unionize. You just needed strength to haul cargo, so workers were easily replaceable. The first wave of radicalism came with the great transport strikes of 1911, which were internationalist in nature.

However, Liverpool didn’t elect its first Labour MP until 1923, much later than other industrial cities. It lacked the traditions of craft unionism and nonconformist religion that drove the early Labour movement elsewhere.

The second wave of radicalism—the one we see today—was forged in the economic decline of the 1970s and 80s. The Thatcher government’s policy of “managed decline” created a sense of “us against the world.”

Today, the 10 safest Labour seats in the UK are almost all in Liverpool. Demographically, the city is older, whiter, and has fewer graduates than typical Labour strongholds. These are demographics that usually vote Conservative or Reform (or for Trump in the US). Yet, Liverpool has moved further left.

Nick: Why is that?

David: I think it’s the cultural memory of the 1980s. Liverpool was the epicenter of the social and economic crisis. You had the Militant Tendency running the city council, battling the Thatcher government. And then you had the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.

Nick: Can you explain Hillsborough for our international listeners?

David: In 1989, during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, massive overcrowding in the Liverpool end led to a crush. 97 fans died. It was the worst sporting disaster in British history.

Immediately, the police tried to blame the fans to cover up their own negligence. The Sun newspaper published a front-page headline “THE TRUTH,” claiming fans pickpocketed the dead and urinated on police. These were lies fed to them by the police.

This caused huge outrage. The Sun was the best-selling paper in Liverpool at the time, but the city boycotted it, and that boycott continues today. It wasn’t just the insensitivity; it was the fear that the rest of the country would believe these lies about them. It solidified the idea that the establishment was against Liverpool.

Nick: It reminds me of the contrast with Essex. Both areas have white working-class populations with Irish ancestry, yet Essex went right-wing and Liverpool went left.

David: Exactly. The East End diaspora in Essex drifted right as they became more affluent. Liverpool, faced with economic decline, went the other way.

Football plays a huge role in this identity. It’s like a secular religion. In the 50s, people might watch Liverpool one week and Everton the next. The fierce rivalry and the distinct “Scouse” identity really solidified in the 60s and then hardened under the political pressures of the 80s.

Nick: The book is A Scouse Republic. Is it available now?

David: Yes, it’s out in the UK and I believe in the US as well.

Nick: As always, please buy from an independent retailer or direct from the publisher. David, thank you so much. There is so much more to discuss—music, sectarianism, the Irish connection. We must do a Part 2.

David: Definitely. Cheers, Nick.