The Ned Ludd cycle begins with a song about the enclosure movement in Early Modern England , effectively a pastoral ode to pre-industrial England , and then moves on to the plight of the workers who have been displaced by industrialization . The third song is an appeal to the mythical Ned Ludd to destroy the machines and lead the workers in a rebellion . The fourth and fifth songs deal with the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 , in which the British cavalry charged into a peaceful crowd of protesters supporting a repeal of the Corn Laws . Neither the Enclosure Movement nor the Corn Laws were directly related to the Luddite Movement , but in the cycle these serve to explore the wider problems of common workers
Peterloo Massacre
Peterloo Massacre
Bloody Men