Expanding on our ‘Year Like No Other’ series here’s the inaugural ‘Decade Like No Other’ blog and where better to kick off than 1980s Britain.
I’ll focus on seven landmark events across the ten-year span and how Parliament initially reacted and then learnt from these era defining moments. It features a cast of prominent political figures from all parties, dealing with an ever-changing modern society, that has formed the basis for the nation we live in now.
Conflict is an overriding factor within some of the episodes covered in this blog, yet unlike the turbulent seventies’, resolution and rebuilding were essential objectives.
On the Frontline
Youthful optimism was at a premium in Brixton in the early eighties. An area largely populated by a long-standing West Indian community, its unemployment rate stood at 40% for young black men. To make matters worse in April 1981 the Metropolitan Police introduced Operation Swamp a similar initiative to the controversial ‘stop and search’ procedure known as ‘SUS’. A small-scale melee concerning the arrest of a local man triggered two days of unrest. Behind barricaded frontlines combatants engulfed the police under a barrage of bricks, stones, and petrol bombs. All this was replayed to a stunned television audience on various evening news bulletins.
Previously, Home Secretary Willie Whitelaw chose not to act after a near-identical phase of disturbances took place the year prior in Bristol. In this instance, he promptly called for an inquiry, choosing Lord Justice George Scarman to chair proceedings. As the cost of property damages rose exponentially, fresh outbreaks of disorder occurred in July 1981 further north most notably in Liverpool’s inner city Toxteth district. Whitelaw approved the use of CS gas to quell the explosive situation. The Scarman Report recommended a recruitment drive for black officers and a wide-ranging liaison programme to bring the polarized sides together.
(Read the Commons debate on the Scarman Report - parliament.uk/historic-hansard)
Calling All Herbs
On being elected in May 1979 Margaret Thatcher gave her unequivocal support to America in the ongoing Cold War nuclear arms race. Backing this sentiment by allowing the Americans to station cruise missiles at the RAF’s Greenham Common airbase. This prompted a newly assembled female centred peace group to set up camp outside its entrance. Capturing the public imagination with an Embrace the Base demonstration that saw 30,000 women link hands around the base’s perimeter. On New Year's Day 1983, they defiantly entered the grounds and unveiled a Peace 83 banner and danced on the dormant silos before security intervened.
Once the cruise missiles were delivered the camp focused on monitoring military exercises involving the warheads. Starting a ‘Cruisewatch’ surveillance that used the signal ‘calling all herbs’ referencing the camper’s predominantly vegetarian diet. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) enjoyed a resurgence in this period and Lord Chalfont accused the organisation of receiving Russian funding in the Upper House. A diplomatic thaw began with Mikhail Gorbachev’s Russian presidential succession and in 1987, alongside his American counterpart Ronald Reagan signed a treaty removing cruise missiles from Europe. The women’s camp outlived its cause and was not fully disbanded until the millennium.
Don’t Stop Me Now
As the end credits rolled on the BBC’s mammoth coverage of the 1983 General Election the montage of a triumphant Margaret Thatcher was aptly soundtracked by Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now. Calling the nation to the polls is all about timing and Thatcher had nailed it on this occasion. She had credit in the bank due to a successful outcome to the Falklands Conflict and shoots of a growing economy were beginning to show. Also, a generational voting shift had occurred, with the Conservatives confident of an upwardly mobile working-class support benefitting from the council house ‘right to buy’ scheme.
Labour lost sixty seats including household names like Tony Benn and the blame fell solely on party leader Michael Foot. He had rubber-stamped a manifesto promoting socialist ideals and nuclear unilateralism that proved repellent to an aspirational electorate. Foot’s ambivalence to media grandstanding was evident throughout the campaign in contrast to David Owen and his Social Democratic Party (SDP) who embraced the press attention. There was huge expectation to see if the SDP could live up to the hype and make a serious dent on the two-party stranglehold. Ultimately a respectable 25.4% vote share only accumulated a small Parliament representation.
Enemies at the Gates
Relations between numerous governments and certain trade unions seemingly existed on a precipice. A review, by Thatcher’s administration, estimated that the coal industry was financially unviable and needed immediate streamlining much to the anger of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) chairman Arthur Scargill. Faced with multiple pit closures in March 1984 he implemented a national strike hoping to repeat past successes in former industrial disputes. However, the fact Scargill hadn’t balloted his members meant pits officially stayed open especially in the Nottinghamshire region and the government had covertly stockpiled coal reserves to keep power stations running for eighteen months.
Scargill carried on regardless confident his ‘flying pickets’ of strikers bussed over to protest at the gates of working mines would detrimentally disrupt production. The deployment of special police units to prevent violence caused consternation leading to a stand-off at the Orgreave Coking Plant resulting in mass arrests. As the strike continued mining families relied increasingly on charitable welfare. Musicians such as Billy Bragg performed benefit concerts and Bruce Springsteen sent a sizeable donation to the Durham Miners Association. Neither Thatcher or Scargill were prepared to compromise and a year on the miners returned to work burdened by unclear futures.
(Read the Commons debate following the Orgreave Coke Plant dispute - parliament.uk/historic-hansard)
Border Lines
When Northern Ireland Secretary Tom King addressed the Commons Chamber tabling the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement, he started his speech stating that 2,500 people had died in sixteen years as a result of ‘The Troubles’. This damning statistic was proof enough that another way was required to broker reconciliation. The Conservatives identified recently elected Irish Prime Minister Dr Garret FitzGerald as the ideal moderate politician to establish an historic British/Republic of Ireland Joint Secretariat. Agreeing upon a ‘twin track’ framework to constitutionally assist the beleaguered Ulster province in areas of economic social advancement and improve border security to derail IRA activity.
While FitzGerald briefed the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) on negotiations, Dr Ian Paisley’s Unionists weren’t granted the same privilege from Thatcher’s delegation. Out in the cold Paisley and his supporters went on the offensive, rejecting the proposals, that for them represented a foundation stone towards a united Ireland. At a 100,000 strong Belfast City Hall demonstration, he proclaimed his opposition with a cry of ‘Never, Never, Never’. Despite the good intentions of all parties concerned terrorist atrocities continued. The signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement was a beacon for change and the relative peace of today.
(Read Tom King tabling the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement -parliament.uk/historic-hansard)
Smiley Face Culture
Standard non-conformists don’t usually dress in baggy jeans and ‘smiley face’ t-shirts which was the typical attire of the average partygoer in the 1988 Second Summer of Love. Rave culture was an unregulated youth phenomenon that mixed illegal warehouse parties with electronic music marketed as ‘acid house’ and fuelled by MDMA pills dubbed ‘ecstasy’. The movement soon mushroomed into large outdoor gatherings, mostly on trespassed land, attended by thousands, that had the tabloid newspapers in a sensationalist frenzy. Home Secretary Douglas Hurd was besieged at the 1989 Conservative Party Conference with questions regarding the blatant criminality associated with the scene.
The Home Office acted by employing a Pay Party Unit to help tackle the issue and the task force was closely aligned with Conservative MP Graham Bright. He tabled a Private Members Bill in the 1989/90 Parliamentary session titled Entertainments (Increased Penalties) seeking to hit unlicensed party organisers in the pocket by imposing fines up to £20,000. Bright’s bill struck a chord with his fellow Parliamentarians and was passed without any contention. A highly publicized Trafalgar Square rally opposing the proposed legislation organised by Freedom to Party lobbyists produced a disappointingly low turnout indicative of the mainly non-politicised outlook of many ravers.
Learn more on our blog Rave Against the Machine - archives.blog.parliament.uk,
You’ll Never Walk Alone
In collective unison Liverpool and Celtic supporters sung You’ll Never Walk Alone, the shared anthem of the two football clubs to honour the ninety-six fans* who died the previous fortnight at the FA Cup Semi Final. This memorial friendly match, staged in April 1989, to raise money for the victim’s families, was the first time Liverpool had played since the Hillsborough Stadium Disaster. A fatal lack of crowd control management in the Leppings Lane terrace escalated quickly into a deadly crush against the high perimeter fences, erected to curb hooligan behaviour that had become an embarrassment at home and abroad.
Hooliganism and racism from the terraces had been severely detrimental to a sport stuck in the doldrums with attendances at a post-war low. Sports Minister Colin Moynihan appointed Lord Justice Peter Taylor to not just inquire into the tragedy but draw up a blueprint to rehabilitate the languishing game. Taylor’s findings published in January 1990 demanded that football club owners pay for the redevelopment of stadiums to fit his all-seater criteria or be partially closed on matchdays. Inadvertently the systematic overhaul dovetailed with the birth of the nineties Premier League franchise heralding a footballing golden age into the 21st century.
*Andrew Devine died from life-changing injuries suffered at the Hillsborough disaster in 2021 making him its 97th victim.
(Read Douglas Hurd’s statement on Hillsborough - https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1989/apr/17/hillsborough-stadium-disaster)
SOURCES
No Such Thing as Society: A History of Britain in the 1980s by Andy McSmith
Rejoice, Rejoice: Britain in the 1980s by Alwyn Thomas
Bang: A History of Britain in the 1980s by Graham Stewart
The Peace Protestors: A History of Modern-Day War Resistance by Symon Hill
Northern Ireland: The Politics of War and Peace by Paul Dixon
Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture & Acid House by Matthew Collins
Hansard Debates
BBC 1983 General Election coverage
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