Christopher - Social and Cultural Context

1 The social and cultural context
Introduction
Since the 1950s, Britain has experienced a period of accelerated social and cul-
tural change. This has coincided with the disintegration of the British Empire,
the expansion of the Commonwealth, and the immigration of people of numer-
ous nationalities, languages and cultures, producing an ethnically diverse coun-
try with a plurality of identities and heritages. It has also been transformed by
the women’s movement. The entry of women into the labour market and their
increasing independence has brought about fundamental changes to their posi-
tion in society, and their relations with men. Similarly, the emergence of youth
as an identifiable group with attitudes, values and beliefs different to those of the
previous generation has helped shape the characteristics of the country since the
mid-twentieth century.
The impact of ethnicity, feminism and youth in Britain has been felt across
the arts. From 1948 and the founding of the Arts Council, their expression was
actively encouraged with funds for experimental and even counter-cultural styles,
as artists, writers and others sought inspiration from these transformational social
movements. The sense of progress, change and renewal continued until the mid-
1970s when, economically and socially, the country began to stagnate amid high
inflation, strikes and rising unemployment, and there was enthusiasm for change.
The Conservative Party led by Margaret Thatcher was elected in 1979. This
marked a key turning point. For the next 18 years, Thatcherism brought about
the greatest political, economic and cultural shift in Britain of the twentieth
century, as free-market economics, a ‘culture’ of individualism, private enterprise
and the values of the market place came to replace the socialist ideals of nation-
alisation and attempts to redistribute wealth through high rates of taxation. In the
arts, as in almost every area of society, state subsidies and benefits were reduced or
disappeared. Plays, films and exhibitions were seen as products for consumption by
consumers in a competitive market place, while it was left to a culture of impro-
visation and home-brew to create challenging new works outside the mainstream.
The consensus politics of the post-war era disappeared under Thatcherism,
and for 18 years the country became politically polarised between the Tory Party
and its laissez-faire philosophy of free markets, and the socialist ideals of the
political left. Paradoxically, this resulted in some key works and movements in
literature, art and music, film and other fields, as the inequalities, violence and
greed of the Thatcher years served as potent sources of inspiration.
But, by the mid-1990s the Conservative government was suffering from weak
leadership, corruption and profound internal divisions among its leading mem-
bers, particularly over Britain’s relationship with Europe. There was enthusiasm
for change, and the victory of the Labour Party in 1997 provided the country
and its cultural life with a sense of renewal and self-confidence, and in the years
that followed there was a period of relative prosperity and stability, characterised
by record levels of low unemployment, low inflation, rising living standards and
investment in public services.
The Labour Party had changed, and redefined itself for modern times. Under
its new leader Tony Blair, it was no longer the party of nationalisation or high
taxation, and its agenda was supportive of businesses large and small. But unlike
the previous Conservative administration, it sought to work with all sections of
society, seeking mutual agreement for public benefit. However, in the arts, there
was no return to the levels of patronage, investment and encouragement of previ-
ous Labour administrations, and the spread of business values in their production
and management became the norm, as practices once found only in the private
sector continued to be expressed in most areas of the economy.
There were many turbulent episodes during Labour’s time in office, for example
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But throughout, the economy remained stable
with low unemployment and low inflation. The cultural field was reinvigorated
with a series of measures to support equal opportunities for minorities of all kinds,
and official support for the British arts, which enjoyed their highest profile since
the 1960s.
In 2007 Tony Blair resigned and his Chancellor Gordon Brown became Prime
Minister. But, despite the promise of renewal, an international economic crisis
began to take hold. In 2010 an election was held, but no party emerged with an
overall majority and a coalition government between the Conservatives and Lib-
eral Democrats was formed, with Tory leader David Cameron as Prime Minister.
Faced with the greatest and longest economic crisis for many decades, a crisis of
public trust in major institutions and widespread uncertainty about the future, a
programme of cuts in public spending was announced, with the cultural indus-
tries among those worst affected.
New Jerusalem
Economy, politics and society

During the first half of the 20th century, for the majority of people most of the
time in Britain, there was poverty and profound social inequality. Food was scarce,
unemployment was common, most houses had no bathroom or indoor toilet, and
children left school in their early teens. Most areas of the economy were left to
private enterprise, and there were no pensions, health service or social insurance.
It was not until the late 1940s that conditions began to substantially improve
The social and cultural context 3
for the majority, following a programme of social and economic reconstruction
which would redefine the country until the 1980s.
Planning for the new society began during World War II, when the coalition
government aimed to introduce more equality and progress in key areas such as
health, education, transport and housing. Significantly, it was widely believed on
both the political left and right, that the way to achieve this was not with private
enterprise, but with centralised planning by experts, along rational, scientific lines.
In 1942 a manifesto for social change arrived with the Beveridge Report. A
former director of the London School of Economics, William Beveridge identi-
fied several areas for reform. In a key passage, he wrote: ‘Want is one of only five
giants on the road to reconstruction, and in some ways it is the easiest to attack.
The others are Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness.’ A sixth giant – ‘the
poverty of aspiration’ – was identified by economist John Maynard Keynes. As
president of the Council for the Encouragement of Music and Arts (CEMA),
Keynes advocated their funding on the same level as health and education, as it
was felt that the arts offered an important means of social improvement.
In education, reform quickly began with the 1944 Butler Education Act, which
made education free of charge in state grammar schools for children aged 11–18,
as long as they passed the ‘11-plus’ examination at age 11. This was an important
measure, as it was widely believed that education was key to promoting social
mobility, and the new exam offered all children the same opportunities to reach
university, regardless of their parent’s financial circumstances.
After the end of the Second World War, industry was in ruins, homes were
destroyed and many people struggled to survive. In 1945 the coalition govern-
ment was disbanded and a general election was held. Despite his success as a war-
time prime minister, Churchill and his Conservative Party were firmly rejected in
favour of a Labour Party led by Clement Attlee, who introduced further plans for
a more equal and open society.
There was consensus among the main parties that the state had to provide
jobs, homes and decent living standards in a way that it had never done before,
and after the reform of education came the nationalisation of all key industries,
such as coal, transport, iron and steel, to secure efficiency and mass employment.
This was followed in 1948 by the setting up of the ‘welfare state’ and the National
Health Service (NHS), which provided social security and health care free of
charge to all citizens. It was a brave attempt to build what the Labour govern-
ment called the ‘new Jerusalem’, in which the poverty of generations would be
abolished, and people of all classes, incomes and races would be cared for by the
state from the cradle to the grave.
Abroad, reform continued with the gradual dissolution of the British Empire,
which had begun with the granting of independence to India in 1947. But,
despite the progress made on many fronts, it was still a time of austerity, with
queuing, shortages and inconveniences in most areas of the economy. The gener-
ation that had won the war also wanted fun and consumerism, which the govern-
ment had conspicuously failed to deliver. Consequently, despite some of the most
progressive social measures ever introduced in Britain, the Labour government
was rejected in the election of 1951. But, instead of reverting to a free-market
economy, the incoming Tory Party continued the style of patrician government
set by the outgoing Labour Party; it governed not only in the interests of land-
owners, factory owners and other business people, but in the interests of society
as a whole. This way of managing society became known as the ‘post-war consen-
sus’, and characterised the way in which the country was governed by both main
parties until the late 1970s.
In 1951 the Festival of Britain was organised to improve the country’s morale.
It marked the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851, which had been held
in London’s Hyde Park to celebrate imperial achievements. Amid the post-war
gloom, it was a rare moment of national self-expression, with parties, parades,
speeches and optimism. It was a modest beginning to a decade in which produc-
tion rose, consumerism increased and crime rates fell. The rationing of foodstuffs
and other goods, which had been introduced at the beginning of the war in 1939,
was finally removed in 1954. The economy was booming, and between 1955 and
1960 average industrial earnings rose by 34 per cent. With their new prosperity
many ordinary people were able to discover cars, fashions and foreign holidays.
Greeting this new wave of prosperity, Tory Prime Minister Harold Macmillan
famously announced in 1957 that ‘[British] people have never had it so good’,
which was particularly true of the young, white working class, who were becom-
ing the first generation of consumers, and who had the choices, finance and free
time to be able to create a culture of their own.
Social change and public anxiety

Economic affluence and the socialist policies of the post-war Labour govern-
ment led to rapid social change. Britain’s economic growth created high lev-
els of demand for manual labour, particularly in low-paid areas of work such as
transport, health and catering. But there was a shortage, so the British municipal
authorities began to offer jobs to Commonwealth citizens in the West Indies,
India, Pakistan, Africa and Hong Kong. Members of Parliament from the two
main parties went to the Caribbean territories on a recruitment exercise, and on
21 June 1948 the ship Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury, to the east of London,
bringing 492 Commonwealth citizens from the West Indies to Britain. As the
country attempted to rebuild its shattered economy, many found work in the
newly nationalised essential industries, for example the health service, the rail-
ways, and in important manufacturing sectors such as textiles and automobiles.
The initial motive for migration was usually to work and save money before
returning to the country of origin. But economic realities meant that, within a few
years, the family and relatives also migrated to join their menfolk in cities around
the UK. However, the process of immigration did not go smoothly. Britain was
a strange, cold, alien country compared with the ones they had left behind, and
large immigrant communities grew in poor, inner-city areas where housing was
cheap and menial jobs plentiful. The latter was particularly important, as many
immigrants had to accept jobs for which they were overqualified; medical staff
were cleaning hospitals, bus drivers were cleaning the streets. But the presence
of large immigrant communities disturbed the local population. Daily lives began
to change, and as immigration increased, race became a source of social conflict.
Prejudice and discrimination from employers, workmates and landlords became
a regular feature of the immigrant experience, and several areas became the focal
point for racial tensions, most infamously the Notting Hill area of London, where
rioting broke out in 1958.
While immigration was mostly a working-class concern, middle-class worries
centred on the increasing danger of nuclear war. Britain had successfully tested
a nuclear bomb in Australia in 1953, but there was a strong feeling among the
political left that the country would be safer without such weapons. A group of
leading writers, musicians, artists and others formed the Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament (CND), some of the founder members including the philosopher
Bertrand Russell, the composer Benjamin Britten, the sculptor Henry Moore,
the historian A.J.P. Taylor, and the novelists E.M. Forster and Doris Lessing. At
Easter in 1958 some 5,000 protesters marched from London to Aldermaston, the
site of a nuclear research establishment. Bands and folk singers accompanied a
mixture of pacifists, Christians, trade unionists, young parents and children. The
movement captured the public imagination and became increasingly influential.
The following year some 50,000 took part, and the march became not just an
annual event, but marked the beginning of a trend towards popular, organised
protest that has since become a common feature of the British political landscape.
The idea of communism was still attractive to many middle-class intellectuals,
and the decade witnessed the exposure of a notorious spy ring, involving Kim
Philby, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt, who had met at Cam-
bridge University and subsequently passed Western secrets to the Soviet Union.
Maclean, Burgess and Blunt were also gay, but at that time homosexuality was
illegal and still seen as deeply subversive and taboo. Politically and socially, homo-
sexual men had to be deferential, conformist and skilled at leading a ‘double life’
of sexual and political ambiguity. Between 1950 and 1954 the annual prosecution
rate of gay men rose by 50 per cent, amid a belief that homosexuals could well be
spies, and therefore a security risk for the government and country.
The debate about popular culture

In a decade that witnessed the decline of deference to authority and an appar-
ent increase in lawlessness among young people, the marches at Aldermaston
were symptomatic of much larger social changes to come. Due to the post-war
‘baby boom’, by 1959 there were over four million single people aged between
13 and 25. Society was younger. It was also richer and more image-conscious.
Moreover, with full employment, it was easy to achieve financial independence
at an early age, and businesses began to market their products to teenagers who
now had enough money to create a new world of their own. During the 1950s
electronic goods such as televisions, small radios and record players had become
cheap and widely available, and by 1960 most homes contained at least one.
Cultural material was increasingly created for mass audiences in the form of tele-
vision programmes, popular music and films. The sale of popular novels, women’s
magazines, sensational newspapers and comics also increased to meet demand
for light entertainment. Coffee bars and ‘melody’ (music) bars opened, providing
meeting places for a generation with money to spend on leisure and pleasure.
Record players, radios and clothes were essential equipment in this increasingly
classless, hedonistic demographic. A ‘youth’ culture was emerging.
Around 1953 one of the most visible signs of change could be seen on the
streets with the appearance of ‘Teddy Boys’ or ‘Teds’, urban working-class gangs
dressed in colourful suits which recalled the Edwardian era of the early twenti-
eth century, mixed with elements of the American rock ’n’ roll culture. More
seriously, their behaviour was said to be threatening and brutal, and there were
frequent newspaper reports of violent confrontations. The mass media, especially
the tabloid press, began to report incidents involving the ‘Teds’, and presented a
scary, shocking image that succeeded in its aim of frightening people and selling
many newspapers.
Youth crime became a major cause of public concern. Even though unemploy-
ment was low, crimes by offenders under 21 rose from around 24,000 in 1955 to
over 45,000 in 1959, prompting frequent debates about the relationship between
affluence and crime. While politicians generally ignored the new commercial
culture, social commentators and academics were concerned about the mass
consumption by newly affluent youth of music, films, comics and other forms
of entertainment that had been created simply to make profits. They believed
that if standards and quality in the arts fell, so would standards of education and
behaviour in society.
The influence of television was often blamed, especially the content of the
newly created commercial television channel (ITV), with its adverts, game shows
and other cheap, populist programmes. It was believed that the displays of afflu-
ence and conspicuous consumption of goods in advertisements and game shows
were likely to excite feelings of envy, and make impressionable young men more
likely to become violent and steal goods that they could not afford. There was also
widespread public anxiety over the negative influence of rock ’n’ roll music whose
suggestive rhythms and lyrics were thought to encourage teenage promiscuity.
Like many earlier critics such as Matthew Arnold and T.S. Eliot, F.R. Leavis
argued that great works of art carried a moral, civilising message, which was edu-
cational and served to improve the individual and society. But mass-produced
forms of music, art and popular entertainment did not and could not do this.
Instead, they only encouraged individualism, hedonism, laziness and decadence.
For those holding such beliefs, the connection between mass, popular culture
and rising crime was clear. Moreover, while the study of crime had previously
been concerned with individual pathology, levels of intelligence and the role of
poverty, the idea that affluence could be responsible was difficult to understand
or appreciate.
Other commentators blamed rising rates of divorce and abortion on increasing
equality for women, while rises in juvenile crime, violence and sexual promiscuity
were said to be the result of a lack of discipline in schools and in society. How-
ever, studies showed that the sexual behaviour of young people in fact changed
very little, and that it was stories circulating in increasingly competitive and
sensationalist newspapers that tried to frighten people and increase their sales by
suggesting otherwise.
Public anxiety over the spread of popular culture produced several influential
books which pontificated over the probable consequences. In The Uses of Literacy
(1957), Richard Hoggart argued that the absence of moral content in popular
literature and the arts made it more difficult for the ordinary person to become
educated, wise and cultured. In The Long Revolution (1961) Raymond Williams
considered the collective, social consequences, believing it would lead to an
increase in materialism and self-interest, a reduction in the importance of the
social services such as education and health, and a less radical, more individualist
Labour Party. But he also believed that the negative effects could be combated
with education and strong, left-wing government.
In spite of the worries about moral decay and cultural decline, by the end of
the 1950s the consumer society had become firmly established, and society was
about to be transformed. Its ethic of individualism and pleasure-seeking con-
trasted sharply with the collectivism and austerity that marked the beginning of
the decade.
Progress and pop (1960–70)

In spite of the material gains of the 1950s, by the mid-1960s there was a feel-
ing of disappointment with a Conservative Party that had been in power for
13 years. The country had changed greatly, developing into a dynamic consumer
society, but the old-fashioned speech, manners and dress of the Macmil-
lan government identified them with a much earlier age. The party had also
begun to appear disorganised and out of touch with politics and people. In the
mid-1950s there were stories of top civil servants defecting to Russia. In 1956
there was a major government failure in the handling of the Suez Canal cri-
sis, which resulted in a brief war and an embarrassing retreat. Later in 1963 the
Minister for War, John Profumo, resigned from government after admitting he
had lied to Parliament about his affair with a prostitute. As a result, the pub-
lic was beginning to lose respect for the government, its institutions and the
ruling class.
In 1964 the Labour Party won the election with Harold Wilson as its leader.
With the rapid advances in science and industry, the Prime Minister famously
spoke of ‘the white heat of the technological revolution’, and, with a televi-
sion in nearly every home, the new revolution could be seen by all. There was
optimism and confidence in the future, a consumer boom and rising aspirations.
Demand grew for secretarial, clerical and administrative skills, creating posts
that were frequently taken by women. Tall, modernist offices and apartment
blocks, cars, supermarkets, domestic appliances and a commercial mass media
all became part of everyday life. There was work, wealth and welfare, on a scale
never seen before. In sport, the 1966 football World Cup was held in cities
around Britain, with England emerging triumphant against West Germany in
a thrilling final at Wembley Stadium in London. The sun shone on Britain in
every sense, and the country was proud and united in victory, but faced with
gathering economic problems and social divisions, it was a final cheer of glory,
Figure 1.1 A souvenir from English football’s greatest day, the 1966 World Cup Final. A
final united ‘hurrah’ before the strife of the 1970s and 1980s.
© David Christopher
togetherness and patriotism in a shared national history, the like of which would
perhaps never be seen again.
In spite of material improvements in the standard of living, dissent flourished.
Numerous groups began to demand new freedoms – political, economic and
personal – as rights. The government responded with a retreat from strict social
controls and punishments, many of which had been introduced in the Victorian
era. Capital punishment was suspended in 1965 and never returned, and criminal
law was reformed in areas affecting private morality such as obscenity, homosexu-
ality, abortion and gambling. In 1960 gambling was legalised, and many betting
shops, bingo halls and clubs appeared on British high streets. Homosexuality was
legalised in 1967, and in 1969 18-year-olds were given the right to vote, nine
years after the abolition of compulsory military service.
However, not everyone approved of the changes that the 1960s brought. The
Church of England, other Protestant churches and the Roman Catholic churches
remained firmly traditional, but their influence gradually declined. Similarly,
the political right opposed liberal reform, and when economic growth began to
slow down around 1966 the Tory politician Enoch Powell began stirring up anti-
immigrant sentiments. With almost half a million West Indians in Britain, in a
speech to the Conservative Party Conference in October 1968 Powell warned
that integration was impossible. In another speech in Birmingham the same
year, his inflammatory rhetoric used lines from an epic poem by Virgil, ‘Like the
Roman, I see the River Tiber foaming with much blood’, a stance which was to
be exploited by racist organisations such as the British National Front. Although
he was sacked from the shadow cabinet by the party leader Edward Heath, it was
a sharp warning of the increased polarisation of society that would characterise
Britain in the 1970s.
But significant advances were achieved in the position of women. To fight for
equality of opportunity and against discrimination, the British women’s move-
ment modelled itself on the women’s movement in America, with the holding
of marches, sit-ins and strikes to achieve their aims. Soon, a mixture of effective
campaigns and public support resulted in new laws that gave women the rights
they had demanded. In 1967 the Abortion Act permitted legal terminations
for social and health reasons. The same year, the Family Planning Act enabled
women to obtain contraceptives on the NHS, and in the 1974 the oral contra-
ceptive known as ‘the Pill’, was prescribed free of charge to single women. The
Divorce Reform Act of 1969 also made divorce easier to obtain, by allowing mar-
ried women to break away from violent and abusive relationships.
Before the advances of the 1960s many women’s lives were conditioned by
their reproductive abilities. But on taking control of their fertility, they could
begin to control their lives. They could decide if they wanted to become wives
and mothers, or if they wanted to plan or postpone family life to fit in with their
work. These measures helped to ensure that women could take control of their
lives and their futures in a way never seen before.
As well as demands for more personal independence, the 1960s also witnessed
demands for greater regional autonomy, as Scottish, Welsh and Irish national-
ists all began to demand political freedom. In 1968 there were riots in Northern
Ireland where the Civil Rights Association demanded equal treatment for Cath-
olics and Protestants. In 1969 the British government sent troops to suppress the
rebels, where they remained into the twenty-first century.
While public opinion over Northern Ireland remained divided, the major
reforms that took place were largely regarded as positive. Moreover, although
some commentators said the fun and freedom of the 1960s were only charac-
teristic of ‘swinging London’ and rarely happened ‘north of Watford’, many
social reforms of the period were both national and liberating for millions of
people. Before the 1960s it was rarely possible to challenge the decisions taken
by the police and magistrates. There was capital punishment. Theatre censor-
ship was implemented by ex-military gentlemen with an office in St James’s
Palace. Gay men were often blackmailed, as homosexuality was a punishable
offence. In schools there was beating and caning, and secret files were kept
on students. The position of women was particularly unjust and often precari-
ous as there were no equal rights in law and discrimination was widespread.
Divorce was difficult to obtain, and required witnesses to sexual misbehaviour.
Contraception was not easily available, and illegal abortions were dangerous
and often went wrong. Single mothers and the children of the very poor were
routinely separated from their parents, as were the blind and disabled. How-
ever, by the early 1970s all that had changed.
Anger and division (1970–79)

In 1970 the Conservative Party was returned to power with Edward Heath as
its leader. In contrast to the optimism, hedonism and progress of the 1960s, it
was the beginning of a decade marked by social division, strikes, high inflation,
unemployment and political violence. The period was also characterised by steep
immigration: between 1968 and 1974 a final, major phase took place when over
70,000 Kenyan and Ugandan Asians arrived as refugees, and by 1974 there were
over one million Afro-Caribbean and Asian immigrants in Britain. Later, at a
time of growing unemployment, high inflation and social anxiety, the National
Front began openly to provoke black communities and their supporters. Con-
flict intensified following the ‘Spaghetti House siege’ in 1975, when three Afro-
Caribbeans attempted a robbery and took hostages in a restaurant in the Brixton
area of London. The National Front was able to exploit the growing tension,
and for a short time it became a significant force in British politics, beating the
Liberal Party in several contests.
In a climate of demands for personal and political rights on every side, Scottish
and Welsh Nationalist parties began to press home their demands for indepen-
dence with vigorous campaigns, marches and forms of direct action, while the
Irish Republican Army (IRA) began a bombing campaign in several British cities
with the loss of many lives.
Apart from the political troubles, the economy was stagnating. By 1973,
unemployment was still very low at around 3.5 per cent, but inflation was accel-
erating to over 20 per cent, provoking even more strikes. Economists believed
the long-term decline of mining, shipbuilding, steel production and motor-
vehicle manufacture were all significant contributors to the economic malaise.
Heavy industries were no longer competitive in global markets. The resistance
of the trade unions to industrial change, the tendency of management to think
and plan only for the short term, as well as high rates of inflation and the oil
crisis of the mid-1970s were all said to be contributory to Britain’s economic
performance.
Nevertheless, for the early part of the decade there was still a sense of living in
prosperous times. Sales of houses and cars continued to rise, and sleek new mod-
ernist flats, houses, shops and offices changed the face of Britain’s cities. Women’s
rights had made progress, and by the mid-1970s around half of all women were
employed, although despite the Equal Pay Act of 1970, they were still earning
around 25 per cent less for the same work, and in mainstream entertainment
women were still portrayed as playthings for men, and sexism was commonplace.
Greater affluence allowed more people to take holidays abroad, with Spain the
preferred destination. Most visitors had little interest in the culture, but were
attracted by the weather, the pleasure to be had, and the assurance that fish ’n’
chips, a pint of Watney’s Red Barrel and a copy of the Daily Mirror could be all
bought within a stone’s throw of the hotel. The new affluence made Britons more
confident and individualist. Youth was experimenting with a sexually ambiguous
look, long hair, eye make-up, glitter and platform shoes. Space travel was becom-
ing commonplace, and a sense of being in new, alien territory applied as much to
the British high streets, as it did to the moon.
But, as the decade progressed, the economy took a rapid downturn. Fuelled
by rising oil prices, inflation escalated quickly, and strikes became numerous.
In Downing Street, the Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath had been unable to
steer the economy effectively through troubled economic waters, and in 1974
with inflation at 25 per cent and prolonged strikes by the mineworkers’ union,
the lights went out around the country in a series of national power cuts, which
quickly forced an election. The result showed a narrow victory for the Labour
Party with a minority government. Its leader Harold Wilson was able to settle the
miners’ strike, and in a second election the same year Labour won with a small
majority. Disillusion with mainstream politics and an increasing public interest in
the environment saw the creation of the Green Party in the UK in 1973. But its
message of recycling and pacifism in rural enclaves was slow to catch on in heavily
urbanised Britain, as political tension continued. International Marxists became
more numerous, and various anarchist groups were visible, vocal and violent.
Towards the end of the decade social fragmentation across Britain was increas-
ingly obvious. The tension was amplified by the popular press, as the Sun, the
Daily Mirror and others carried sensational stories about racial violence, robbery,
football hooliganism, pornography and rape. Punks appeared on streets, their
shocking appearance reflecting a sense of disgust with a society that seemed to
have abandoned its youth and its future. Confrontation appeared to be every-
where, and towards the end of the 1970s there was an acute sense of public
desperation.
The end of consensus: Britain under the Tories (1979–97)

Following the Conservative Party defeat in the 1974 election, Margaret Thatcher,
a grocer’s daughter from the market town of Grantham in Lincolnshire, became
the first female leader of a British political party. Her early publicity depicted
her as a happily married suburban housewife, cheerfully washing up in her semi-
detached house. But at the same time she was developing economic ideas that
were guided by the fashionable theories of monetarism. These involved reducing
inflation with high interest rates, and submitting all aspects of the economy to
free-market economics and the laws of supply and demand.
The late 1970s were times of strikes and confrontation, and many electors
were attracted by her forceful personality and the simple certainties of her free-
market ideology. It recalled a Victorian Britain when nation and Empire were at
their height, but conveniently forgot the inequality, exploitation and suffering
on which imperial success was based, and the need to police and control it with
tough laws and punishments. Moreover, in a decade when the political and eco-
nomic achievements of feminism had been remarkable, she would be Britain’s
first woman prime minister. Yet Thatcher would do little to help the situation of
women, and many argued she set back the movement by ten years.
Thatcher went on to lead the Conservatives to victory in the election of 1979,
and the party remained in power until 1997. But in the early 1980s, as Thatcher
began to implement her policies of withdrawing state support for nationalised
industries, Britain’s economic crisis worsened. Manufacturing declined, and the
shipbuilding, mining and steel industries practically disappeared. The regions of
Scotland, the north of England, Wales and the West Midlands had traditionally
depended on this kind of industry, and were economically devastated. Unem-
ployment rose to over 13 per cent, and with more than three million people out
of work the government became deeply unpopular. There was civil and indus-
trial conflict in most areas, and in April 1981 rioting broke out in the streets of
Brixton, south London, and in other cities around the country. It was spontane-
ous and anarchic, directed against the police and the local environment. The
crisis seemed to deepen on 2 April 1982, when Thatcher led Britain into war
with Argentina over the occupation of the Falklands Islands. However, when the
British forces emerged victorious on 14 June, Thatcher was able to exploit the
moment and distract attention from the economic crisis at home.
Next, the government forged a closer alliance with the USA to develop a
Cold War strategy that involved holding nuclear weapons as a deterrent. A cen-
tral element of policy was that of mutually assured destruction (MAD) of both
parties in case of a strike by the forces of the Soviet Union. The government’s
policies were supported by virtually all the daily newspapers except the Guardian,
the Daily Mirror, and from August 1982 The Voice, a new weekly paper aimed at
young black Britons. With the press on its side, in spite of record unemployment,
riots and a war, the Conservatives emerged victorious in the general election of
1983, and the economic and political ideas that came to be known as Thatcher-
ism began to be fully expressed and implemented. These included an even greater
reduction of public spending, and measures to privatise industries in the pub-
lic sector, such as gas, steel, transport and telecommunications. The measures
were highly unpopular with the working class and unemployed, and resulted in
more violent industrial disputes. They were also expensive to implement, being
at great cost to the welfare state, but the discovery of oil in the North Sea in the
1970s helped to finance Thatcher’s project.
To cement the government’s authority, she next addressed those she called
‘the enemy within’: the powerful trade unions, the miners, left-wing local gov-
ernments, the IRA and its supporters, immigrants, the ‘greens’ and ‘unreliable’
members of her own party. The most notorious confrontation was the miners’
strike of 1984–5, which Thatcher saw as part of her plan to break the power of
the trade unions. She became known as the ‘Iron Lady’ and passed legislation to
weaken the unions’ power permanently.
The trade unions showed their opposition to Thatcher in their readiness to
strike, while many other protest groups also emerged composed mainly of middle-
class activists. The most notable was the establishing of a women’s ‘peace camp’
outside Greenham Common air base in 1981 against the stationing of nuclear
weapons there. Other protest groups were more concerned about the environ-
ment, such as Greenpeace, the Ramblers’ Association, Friends of the Earth and
Hunt Saboteurs Association, which all increased their memberships.
The Arts Council was created to support the arts in 1946 under the chairman-
ship of the economist John Maynard Keynes, and had never interfered with the
work of artists and performers, even when their work was critical of government.
Its ideology was supported by parties on the left and right, and helped to support
British theatre, music and the visual arts in its mission to bring a civilising influ-
ence to society. But in the 1980s its funding was sharply reduced, and the arts
were treated as any other area of economic activity. The effects were widely felt.
For the first time, many museums and galleries began to charge admission prices,
while to attract subsidies, arts productions became less critical and adventur-
ous and more populist, for example by showing Shakespeare’s plays in ways that
removed their social content and stressed their sentimental aspects.
While the expression ‘Thatcherite’ was being applied (often pejoratively)
from 1979, the term ‘Thatcherism’ only began to be heard after the British gen-
eral election of 1983 following Thatcher’s re-election. Her majority was large
enough for the party to reject the ‘middle road’ consensus politics that had char-
acterised the post-war period. The party increasingly spread the view that state
management and regulation of the economy was wrong; that large government
bureaucracies and nationalised industries were inefficient; and that subsidies for
business and industry promoted poor practice and laziness, a view that recalled
the thinking of early nineteenth-century economists.
But implementing Thatcherism came at a high social cost. Industrial strife
increased, reaching a bitter, violent peak with the miners’ strike of 1984–5.
Crime rose dramatically, and during 1985–6 there were more riots in cities around
Britain. Burglary, car theft, violent crime and vandalism all increased. Football hoo-
liganism became a serious social problem, and relations between the police and
public were tense. Commentators on the political right blamed the permissive
society of the 1960s, which had allowed the young to grow up with no respect
for the police, teachers or authority. In contrast, those on the left blamed high
unemployment (almost four million), homelessness (around one million) and
the loss of community, which an ethos of economic individualism had promoted.
Moreover, the withdrawal of state support for nationalised industries had deci-
mated communities, particularly those who depended on mining and shipbuild-
ing; and as with the British involvement in the Iraq war some 30 years later, there
was no plan for withdrawal, no exit plan to deal with the human casualties of lost
economic support. The social and economic aftershocks are still reverberating.
Tory policies had the most severe consequences for the poorly educated and
least skilled, who were unable to obtain manual work as they had done in previ-
ous generations. Some of the major casualties were immigrants and their fami-
lies, and there were riots in many poor, racially mixed inner-city areas in 1979,
1981 and again in 1985. Many women also suffered, in particular those who
transferred from manufacturing work to low-paid, part-time service industries
in which there were no company pensions or union benefits. However, those
on a different social level were beginning to occupy posts in traditional male-
dominated areas such as business, law and banks. Many could enjoy the benefits
of financial and personal freedom, and were postponing marriage and children
until much later in life.
In the mid-1980s, towards the end of the Tories’ second term in government,
restrictions on moneylending and share-dealing were lifted, and the financial
sector boomed. Credit was easy to obtain and taxes were cut. Share prices rose
quickly, especially those of newly privatised public industries such as British Air-
ways, British Steel, and all the public utilities including gas, water and telecom-
munications. The dominant economic influences in Britain changed from heavy
industry and manufacturing to financial services and North Sea oil revenues. By
1986 the economy was stronger, and house prices were rising sharply. There was
an air of excitement and optimism as a new society emerged. Britain became
more affluent and competitive; spending on restaurants, clothes, cars, homes and
holidays reached record levels, fuelled by a new generation of aspirational, stylish
and image-conscious consumers. But, the benefits were felt chiefly in the south.
In the north, the traditional heavy industries of steel, mining and shipbuilding
were being closed down, with the resulting widespread, long-term unemploy-
ment, and little or none of the benefits of the economic boom being experienced
in the south-east.
Advertising and publicity became fine arts, even in politics. The Conservatives
employed the services of the Saatchi and Saatchi advertising agency to promote
the party, creating their logo of a flaming blue torch, a symbol closely associated
with the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire. Meanwhile, Labour adopted a red
rose as its logo, and hired the services of Hugh Hudson, the director of Chariots,
to make a publicity film of the leader Neil Kinnock.
Following a third election victory in 1987 Thatcher claimed she had cured
Britain of its strikes, low productivity and low investment for ever. But the same
year the economy began to stagnate again when share prices crashed. In a brief
Figure 1.2 A view of the Docklands financial district; temples of Mammon and symbols of
the 1980s, seen across the River Thames from the ship Cutty Sark in Greenwich.
© David Christopher
phase of recovery, house prices continued to rise dramatically, as did inflation. But
government spending was further reduced, resulting in greater poverty and inse-
curity for the unemployed and sick. Homeless beggars appeared on the streets, the
use of illegal drugs increased, the numbers of sufferers from HIV and AIDS grew
alarmingly, and warnings about sexual behaviour were broadcast on television.
The spread of AIDS prompted more open, public discussion of gay lifestyles,
but this was opposed by the Tory government, who in 1987 introduced the Local
Government Act with its infamous Clause 28, which prohibited state schools
from ‘promoting homosexuality’, in other words from teaching students that
it is acceptable or normal. To counter this, groups promoting gay rights began
campaigning for a better understanding of homosexuality with more widespread
publicity, a high-profile annual Gay Pride march, and membership of pressure
groups increased such as Stonewall, Act Up and Outrage. Gay men and women
in public life were still reluctant to openly declare their homosexuality, fearing it
would lead to criticism and censure, and some tactics involved public exposure
(‘outing’) of those in politics and the media, which guaranteed high levels of
public interest.
By 1990 it was becoming increasingly difficult for Thatcher to keep her party
united, particularly over the issue of closer political and economic integration
with Europe, an issue that she had always opposed, and that would go on to
divide the party into the next century. The same year, violent rioting broke out
in London when the Tory government introduced the ‘poll tax’. Eventually, a
combination of recession, antipathy to Europe and the universally unpopular poll
tax dislodged Thatcher after 11 years in Downing Street, and one of the most
controversial periods in British politics. To replace her, John Major was elected
as the new leader of an increasingly divided party and a fractious nation. He man-
aged briefly to reverse the Conservatives’ fortunes with an unexpected victory in
the 1992 election, bringing a record fourth consecutive Tory victory.
For the first half of the 1990s there was an overwhelming sense of public disil-
lusionment. Studies repeatedly showed that public confidence in all the major
institutions had fallen, especially in Parliament, the legal system and the press.
And throughout the decade, the monarchy looked increasingly fragile and irrel-
evant, amid the devolution of power to Scotland, the plans of the Labour govern-
ment to abolish the House of Lords and the increasing popularity of the pressure
group Charter88 with its demands for the introduction of a British republic.
By the middle of the 1990s there were more internal divisions in the Major gov-
ernment over weak leadership, an uncaring attitude towards more vulnerable sec-
tions of the community and doubts over closer European integration. In response,
Major attempted a nostalgic appeal to traditional values under the banner of
‘Back to Basics’. But the press saw this as an opportunity to expose Tory hypocrisy
with frequent allegations of ‘sleaze’ – financial and moral impropriety – within
the party. As a result, several high-profile politicians such as Jeffrey Archer and
David Mellor were arrested or forced to resign, amid high levels of public interest,
incredulity and amusement. There seemed to be no end to the hypocrisy when
it later emerged that Major himself had departed from his own ‘family values’ in
having an affair with married Tory MP Edwina Currie, who subsequently served
as a junior minister in his government.
The decline in popularity of the Conservatives continued, and gave the Labour
Party an opportunity to reorganise. Tony Blair was elected the new leader follow-
ing the death of John Smith. Young and charismatic, he set about transforming
the party, leaving behind the traditional socialist beliefs about stronger unions,
nationalisation of the major industries and redistribution of wealth. Many of
Labour’s traditional supporters worried that the party was becoming too much
like the Conservatives, but Blair repeated his message about party principles
being futile without power.
Forward with ‘New’ Labour (1997–2007)
Economy, politics and society

As the Tory Party faltered in a storm of sleaze and incompetence, the opinion
polls swung strongly in favour of Labour, and in May 1997 the party gained a
historic electoral victory, with a massive majority of 179 MPs. The early days of
Blair’s rule brought important political changes in terms of devolution at home
and intervention abroad. In 1997 Hong Kong was handed back to China. Then
plans were made for a devolution of power to Scotland, an assembly to aid regional
autonomy for Wales and a peace treaty with Northern Ireland, which diminished
political violence in the home nations. The theme of devolution continued with
a return of power to the London area and the establishing of the Greater London
Authority with its own mayor and assembly. Labour supporters saw devolution of
power as a democratic response to people’s needs but critics said Blair was presid-
ing over the break-up of the UK.
Since 1945 the Conservative Party had presented a strong challenge to Labour,
but now it was divided and weak. In its place, the press repositioned itself as the
‘unofficial’ opposition, subjecting the government to intense, critical scrutiny.
Consequently, there was a need to maintain order to ensure party unity, which
was often reported as Blair’s obsession with centralisation and control. However,
changes in the landscape of British politics now meant that government was sub-
ject to more external controls than internal ones. These came in the form of the
European Union (EU), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World
Bank, the press, big corporations and business tycoons, which now limit more
than ever what government can do.
As the Cold War disappeared, so did political ideology in the Labour Party,
which was no longer committed to programmes of nationalisation and high lev-
els of taxation for the richest earners. With pragmatic economic management
the economy showed steady improvement, and the persistent post-war worries of
inflation, unemployment and nuclear war diminished. Economic stability con-
tinued, and by 2004 inflation was low at 2–3 per cent, and there was almost
full employment for the first time since records were kept. Some 70 per cent of
people owned their own homes, although between 1997 and 2002 house prices
doubled, making it more difficult for people to buy for the first time, or to buy a
larger house.
New issues of education, health and social security came to dominate the
domestic political agenda. In 1975 only 7 per cent of the population went to
university, but in 2005 the figure was 33 per cent and rising. But education came
at a price, as for the first time university fees were introduced, and students were
offered loans from the government, except for Scots studying at Scottish uni-
versities, whose education remained fee free. Public health in particular was a
major concern, as the government attempted to modernise and improve the
NHS. Although hunger and malnutrition had once been the problem, in 2004 it
was obesity, as 67.6 per cent of men and 56.4 per cent of women were classed as
overweight. Food standards also become a public issue and the risk posed by eat-
ing ‘fast’ food such as burgers and frozen meals, and ‘junk’ food such as sweets and
chocolates which exacerbated the problem, especially among school children.
Alcohol consumption was also increasing, especially ‘binge’ drinking where large
amounts of alcohol are consumed in a short time, often leading to anti-social
behaviour and juvenile crime. The incidence of sexually transmitted diseases and
cancer also rose, while the traditional pleasures of sex, smoking and sunshine
were revealed to carry greater health risks than had earlier been suspected.
Despite greater economic stability and material prosperity, political partici-
pation continued to decline. In the election of 2001 only 39 per cent of peo-
ple under 25 voted, and the total percentage of voters was the lowest since the
election of 1918 (59.4 per cent). Public trust in politicians and institutions was
falling, and would shortly get worse. The royal family was one of the first institu-
tions to be affected in this way. The best of British family values were said to be
exemplified by the House of Windsor, and were accentuated by the glamour, style
and romance of the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in
1981. But in giving confessional interviews to the media, Diana was said to have
damaged the public image of the royal family, as had many press intrusions and
‘confessions’ by former employees. However, Queen Elizabeth remained highly
respected, and the movement for a British republic weak. There had been no
discussion of a different head of state, and in 2003 research by ITV and YouGov
showed that 80 per cent of Britons wanted the monarchy to stay.
The Anglican Church also became less influential. The public felt it had been
unable to give clear guidance on many issues from abortion to genetic research,
and had problems accepting women and gay clergy, especially to senior positions.
In 1997 over 90 per cent said they did not attend church regularly, a statistic
which has risen to around 94 per cent in 2014.
Abroad, the absence of any obvious foreign enemy gave Blair a greater certainty
about Britain’s role in the world. When controversial wars erupted, his sense of
moral outrage led to several overseas interventions and his advocacy of the use
of force around the world, initially for humanitarian reasons. In his first six years
in office Blair ordered British troops into battle five times, more than any other
prime minister in British history. This included Iraq (1998 and 2003), Kosovo
(1999), Sierra Leone (2000) and Afghanistan (2001). The attacks on New York’s
World Trade Center in 2001 – commonly known as ‘9/11’ – convinced Blair to
support American president George W. Bush in the ‘war on terror’, which in
2003 involved the invasion of Iraq, despite a demonstration against it by over two
million people in Britain. The strength of US arms technology ensured the coun-
try was swiftly overrun, but almost every day since, there have been deaths and
injuries of Iraqi civilians and British and US army personnel, as well as questions
about Blair’s judgement and honesty over the reason given for the intervention –
that Iraq held weapons of mass destruction, which has since been shown to be
untrue.
The art of ‘Cool Britannia’

In the mid-1990s it seemed as if the country was emerging from a cultural ice age,
as Britain became more self-confident, diverse and expressive. The rapid changes
in society and politics of the late 1990s, and the establishing of the Department
for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) reinvigorated the creative industries of
fashion, design, architecture and pop music. After years of popular discontent
with the Conservative government, many felt the time was right to express feel-
ings of national pride again, a feeling heightened in 1996 when England hosted
the Euro ’96 football championship, the national team playing with character
and spirit before passionate crowds. The flag of St George (rather than the Union
flag) had been adopted by numerous England fans and was ubiquitous not only
in the stadiums, but in cars and houses around the country, in a show of national
unity rarely seen since the country held the football World Cup in 1966.
The Euro ’96 tournament was the prelude to a powerful sense of renewal across
the country, which was emphasised by the size of Labour’s victory in the election
of the following year. Blair’s interest in the music scene (he had once played in
a band called Ugly Rumours) helped create a sense of expectation across the
arts, and in 1997 musicians and designers were invited to a reception in Down-
ing Street, echoing a similar gesture by former Labour Prime Minister Harold
Wilson in 1964, who invited the Beatles and others to a reception there. Like
Wilson, Blair was keen to present a new image of Britain as a youthful, progres-
sive, dynamic place for pop, fashion, film and design.
The cultural ferment drew much press attention. In an article in the Indepen-
dent on Sunday, 15 March 1998, entitled ‘The Cool Economy’, the journalist
Peter Koenig referred to ‘Cool Britannia’, a pun on the patriotic song ‘Rule Bri-
tannia’. The name quickly became used to label almost any cultural activity that
renounced American influences, and stood proud and alone in splendid isolation.
This brief but significant period for the arts has since come to be understood as
an expression of many things: a celebration of youthful communality; a reasser-
tion of national identity through the arts and sport; a joyful reaction to 18 years
of Tory rule and the class divide; a time when people seemed to express a desire
to be part of a larger community, which since the 1980s had almost been lost.
On the other hand, the new trends were sometimes criticised as elitist, on the
grounds that in a multicultural country they were mainly embraced by white,
middle-class males, while the more ethnically diverse arts such as the sounds of
British club culture went relatively ignored by the press. Moreover, the terms
‘Britpop’ and other ‘BritArts’ were inaccurate, as almost all the styles and trends
were made in England, indicating a clear trend towards the centralisation of
creative activity.
Britpop provided the background to the millennium celebrations, which cen-
tred around the construction of an enormous dome at Greenwich in London,
while a programme of other public-sector projects including arts buildings, sports
stadiums and transport schemes was created to greet the new century. In the area
of arts administration, the Department for National Heritage was replaced by the
DCMS, which took responsibility for policy and expenditure on museums and
galleries, the Arts Councils of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland,
plus regulation of the film industry, broadcasting and the press.
But despite many centrally directed initiatives for the development of creative
activity, public funding of the arts has declined, being replaced by an individ-
ualistic entrepreneurial ethic. Most projects are now largely self-funded, using
online fund-raising, or ‘crowdsourcing’, schemes such as Kickstarter, although
some projects are assisted by funds from the National Lottery, which began in
1994. Camelot – the company contracted to run it – pays 28 pence in every
pound towards a variety of health, education, environmental, sports, arts and
heritage projects around Britain. Critics argue that a decline in centralised fund-
ing has necessarily led to a commercialisation of the arts, and to a ‘dumbing
down’; that trying to attract large audiences leads to a reduction in quality and
variety. However, others argue against a ‘patrician’ model of funding that only
funds those projects that a small number of official ‘specialists’ think are good for
‘the people’. Instead, they believe that limited funding enables works to be more
responsive to public wants and needs, in turn leading to greater access and wider
public involvement, as well as the freedom to be critical of officialdom.
The age of insecurity (2007– )

By the mid-2000s, it seemed the years of economic boom and bust had been
cured for ever. The threat of a nuclear holocaust largely disappeared with the
collapse of communism in the early 1990s, which in turn prompted the disap-
pearance of ideology in the political parties. The divide between left and right,
which characterised politics and society since the 1970s, had vanished, and by
2007 the Labour Party was often being accused by its own supporters of resem-
bling the Tory Party, and vice-versa. The ‘tribal’ identities of the main parties
and their supporters had also weakened. Home owners and business people no
longer automatically voted Tory, while those who cared about a more equal and
tolerant society did not automatically vote Labour, and in many cases did not
even bother to vote at all, as political participation and electoral turnouts fell,
and people felt the boom years would continue for ever. Society was also more
secular and ethnically diverse, and less hierarchical, more liberal, tolerant, with
higher living standards and improved levels of health and education than at any
other time.
The British were said to be richer and more tolerant than ever before. They
were pro-capitalist, pro-social solidarity, secular, individualistic and libertarian
about personal behaviour. However, research also revealed the British to be
depressed, apathetic, celebrity obsessed and, in an age of uncertainty about the
future, badly in debt. Moreover, surveys persistently showed that social inequality
was still extensive.
In 2007 Tony Blair resigned and Chancellor Gordon Brown took over as Prime
Minister. The government was looking tired and unimaginative after ten years in
office, and there was growing dissatisfaction among the electorate, fuelled by an
anti-Labour press. Politically, storm clouds also seemed to be gathering, following
terrorism in London with the bomb attacks of 7/7 and increasing tension with
Muslim communities. But, despite the promise of renewal as Brown walked into
Downing Street, an international economic crisis began to take hold. Britain was
about to become the latest victim of the raw power of global economic forces, as
reverberations from America’s troubled financial sector spread out around the
world which would put an end to New Labour’s years of abundance.
In 2010 an election was held, but no party emerged with an overall majority.
The electorate had lost confidence in Brown’s leadership and ability to deal with
the new economic problems, and a coalition government was formed between the
Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, with Tory leader David Cameron as Prime
Minister. Shortly afterwards, and faced with the greatest economic crisis for many
decades and widespread uncertainty about the future, a programme of cuts in pub-
lic spending took effect, with further reductions in subsidies and grants to the arts,
in order to repay government debts.
The economic crisis had many consequences for Britain, with unemployment
almost 10 per cent (2.7 million), the highest since 1994, with homelessness,
‘payday’ loan shops, pawnbrokers, food banks, and the spectre of international
terrorism on the streets of Britain’s cities. The crude visibility of the recession’s
consequences stoked a crisis of public trust in major institutions. The banks and
financial services were the first to suffer, when in 2008 the Royal Bank of Scot-
land, Lloyds TSB and HBOS had to be bailed out by the government. At the
same time, leading executives in these and other banks were shown to be receiv-
ing huge salaries and bonus payments, despite their conspicuous lack of success.
Public anger was expressed most notably in the Occupy London protest, a non-
violent encampment organised to protest against economic inequality. Set up for
nine months in 2011–12 outside St Paul’s Cathedral and close to the London
Stock Exchange, the campers and their issues attracted much public interest and
media attention.
In 2009 and subsequently, public trust in politicians fell even further when
many politicians on both sides of Parliament were exposed by the press for mak-
ing exaggerated or non-existent expenses claims. In a time of public austerity this
was seen as particularly serious, especially as some were advocating harsh punish-
ments for those caught falsely claiming social security benefits. Many resignations
followed. Also accused by the public were the utility companies of gas, electricity
and water, which had been privatized during the Thatcher years. Prices rose by
almost 100 per cent between 2002 and 2012, while the government did nothing
to change the situation, which further intensified public anger and disgust in a
time of economic hardship, cuts in social security benefits and unemployment
running at 2.6 million.
Figure 1.3 ‘Tent City’, which was set up outside St Paul’s Cathedral to protest against
economic inequality and the lack of affordable housing in the UK in 2011–12.
© Tony French/Alamy
For the British press it was also a turbulent time, as circulations and profits fell
dramatically, due to a number of causes. The presence of free, online content was
blamed, as was the presence of rolling, 24-hour news on the radio and television.
But the emergence of a major scandal in the house of News International (now
known as News UK), the company founded by Rupert Murdoch, was also said to
have a major effect, particularly as NI held a big percentage of sales in the UK.
This involved serious accusations and a police investigation (Operation Weet-
ing) into how reporters had illegally listened to the phone messages of celebrities,
politicians, the royal family, a murdered schoolgirl and the families of deceased
British soldiers and others, as well as the payment of bribes to police to obtain pri-
vate information. A powerful, weekly tabloid newspaper, the News of the World,
was closed down, and in 2011–12 the Leveson Inquiry, a judicial inquiry into
press standards, took place. Many resignations followed and Murdoch appeared
to answer questions, amid high levels of public interest.
Media scandals continued at the BBC, which became the butt of frequent
public criticism, following a police inquiry (Operation Yewtree) into allegations
of sex abuse against children and sexual harassment in general, by many of its
light entertainers of the 1970s and 1980s, including Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris,
Stuart Hall and Dave Lee Travis, amid high levels of public disgust and revul-
sion. In a time of recession and cuts, the amounts paid by the public through
the TV licence to attract and retain its ‘top talent’ were also criticised, and in
2012 the Director-General George Entwistle was forced into a humiliating public
resignation.
The year 2012 brought some light relief, with the Diamond Jubilee celebrations
of Queen Elizabeth II in Britain and the Commonwealth, as well as the Olympic
and Paralympic Games in London. The former was marked by pageantry, a river
parade, music and fireworks on a scale rarely seen, while the Olympics showed
that, despite the parlous state of the economy, Britain could still put on a show
which was the envy of the world.
But domestically the problems continued with a lowering of public confidence
in the police, following a number of high-profile incidents. In particular, there
were allegations of racism, and the treatment of young black people in large cities
has become a major cause of public concern. In 1999 the Macpherson Report had
made similar allegations of racism in London’s Metropolitan Police Force, but
more recently the policy of ‘stop-and-search’ has allowed police to randomly stop
suspects on the street and search them, and this has resulted in a disproportionate
number of young black men being detained, often without reason.
Tensions with ethnic communities worsened in 2011 when a young man, Mark
Duggan, was shot and killed in a police operation in London, which led to riot-
ing and looting in the capital and around the country. On a previous occasion,
a young Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes, was shot and killed on a
London Underground train, in a case of mistaken identity. Other issues followed,
including violent and provocative tactics when dealing with peaceful demonstra-
tors, collusion by officers attempting to incriminate an innocent government
minister, the behaviour of some undercover officers who had started personal
relationships with those they were investigating and the sale of information to
journalists from the national press.
Even the reported crime rates could not be trusted. Despite the impact of the
recession, overall crime rates fell by 25 per cent between 2007 and 2013, figures
that went completely against public expectations. However, an inquiry found
police officers to have been failing to record crime in some areas, in order to
reach ‘targets’ set by senior officers. Consequently, in 2014 the UK Statistics
Authority declared it could not approve the crime figures submitted by police in
England and Wales.
It seemed the state was not only impotent in the face of global economic
forces; in a free society it was virtually powerless to regulate the police, banks,
media and energy companies, many of whom had powerful public relations
departments to defend their interests. Democracy itself seemed under threat,
and there was a public mood of quiet anger, frustration and despair, memora-
bly reflected in the popular wartime slogan of ‘Keep calm and carry on’, which
became a popular slogan adorning T-shirts, coffee mugs and office walls around
the country. It also seemed the ideal political moment to hold the scheduled ref-
erendum on Scottish independence. In September 2014 Scots went to the polls
to answer the question ‘Should Scotland be an independent country?’ With a
turnout of almost 85 per cent, the highest for any election in the UK since the
introduction of universal suffrage in 1918, 55.3 per cent said ‘No’ compared with
44.7 per cent who said ‘Yes’, effectively silencing the question of home rule for
the foreseeable future.
Despite the stoical mood of the British public, when Mrs Thatcher’s death was
announced in April 2013, old divisions briefly re-emerged in the media and on
the streets between Tory Party loyalists and those for whom Thatcher was the
most divisive and damaging prime minister ever to occupy Downing Street. In
the mining communities of the north there were parties and bonfires, and it is
said not a bottle of champagne could be bought anywhere. Meanwhile, in Lon-
don crowds lined the route from Westminster to St Paul’s, as Thatcher received a
controversial ceremonial funeral.
The multicultural society

In most successful countries immigration increases when the economy is strong.
In previous centuries population movements took place from rural England, Ire-
land and Scotland to the industrial cities. In the early years of the new mil-
lennium the success of the British economy attracted the ambitious and the
dispossessed from around the world. The census of 2011 showed that in England
and Wales 7.5 million (around 4.5 per cent) were born abroad, with approxi-
mately half arriving between 2001 and 2011. India, Poland, Pakistan, Ireland and
Germany were the main countries of origin. Of these, 80 per cent said they were
white British, 5 per cent fewer than in 2001. London has become the most inter-
national city in Britain, and of a resident population of around 7.5 million, only
around 5 million were born in the UK. The other 2.5 million constitute almost
half the total minority ethnic population of Britain, of which Indians (around
Figure 1.4 The Sun newspaper, possibly Mrs Thatcher’s greatest ally during her time as
Prime Minister, says goodbye in April 2012.
© Kathy deWitt/Alamy
200,000), Bangladeshis (around 115,000), Irish (around 113,000) and Jamaicans

(around 108,000) are the most numerous foreign-born groups.
In terms of religious faith, 59.3 per cent (33.2 million) of the British popula-
tion identified themselves as Christian, while some 4.8 per cent (2.7 million)
said they were Muslim, the most significant minority. The Muslim population is
mostly of Pakistani and Kashmiri descent, and live mostly in London, Bradford,
Birmingham, Leicester and Oldham. There are mosques in most towns, and halal
shops and restaurants are easy to find. Many Kashmiris came to Britain in the
1960s with the aim of earning money before returning. But due to the unstable
politics of their home region they were unable or unwilling to do so and stayed
on, forming communities in deprived areas where unemployment is high. Today,
many have settled and formed young families; around 50 per cent of the com-
munity are aged under 25. But levels of achievement are often low; around a
quarter of families have no qualifications, and around a fifth earned their living
from taxi driving.
After the devastating events of 11 September 2001 in America, when the
country was attacked by suicide bombers, the subsequent wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq, as well a second wave of mass asylum-driven immigration into Britain,
fear of terrorism increased, and immigration and asylum seeking became contro-
versial issues. Tension rose in communities with large populations of Muslims,
and continued following the ‘7/7’ suicide bombings in London on 7 July 2005.
The question of how to successfully integrate Muslims into British society is
frequently raised, yet studies show a mismatch between how Muslims are per-
ceived by white British and others, and how Muslims perceive themselves. A
report by Essex University in 2012 showed many non-Muslims assume Muslims
struggle with Britishness and loyalty to their homeland. Yet it was found that
Muslims identify with Britishness more than any other Britons, with 83 per cent
describing themselves as ‘proud’, compared with 79 per cent of others, and 77 per
cent strongly identifying with Britain, compared with only 50 per cent of the
wider population. However, the study found that 47 per cent of Britons see Mus-
lims as a threat, and only 28 per cent thought Muslims wanted to integrate into
British society. The small number who view British society with contempt fre-
quently explained their disaffection as the result of being labelled outsiders in the
first place.
Acts of Parliament and other measures to promote equality of opportunity
and facilitate integration and assimilation appear to have been largely successful
in the UK, since a new demographic trend is the growth of the mixed-race popu-
lation. The 2012 census revealed over one million people were born of inter-
racial parentage, although it has been estimated this figure could be closer to
two million, due to many of those with parents of different ethnicities describ-
ing themselves as ‘black’ or ‘white’ rather than ‘mixed’ or ‘other’. Current
evidence therefore seems to suggest there is an increasing amount of mixing
and assimilation taking place, which has led to a gradual disappearance of the pro-
nounced racial boundaries that characterised British society between the 1960s
and 1990s. In the arts, ethnically distinctive forms of expression have dimin-
ished, while an increasing number of leading figures such as the athlete Jessica
Ennis, racing driver Lewis Hamilton and singer Leona Lewis are all of mixed-
race families.
Nevertheless, during the recession years of the late ‘noughties’, immigration
was frequently said by some political parties to be the cause of many of Britain’s
economic and social problems. The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP)
campaigns to take Britain out of the EU and severely restrict immigration, poli-
cies that have contributed to its growing popularity among disillusioned voters
of all parties. But others argue that the issue of immigration is used by UKIP
and others as an easy target, when the real causes of current problems such as
unemployment, unaffordable housing and declining public services are far more
complex and difficult to deal with.
Gender issues
In spite of the progress made by the women’s movement since the 1960s, Britain’s
institutions remain largely male dominated. Within Parliament there are still
relatively few female MPs, with 24 in 1945, 41 in 1987, and of the 650 represen-
tatives in the 2010 election, there were only 143 women, with 81 in the Labour
Party and 49 in the Conservative Party. The former has recognised the need to
recruit more women candidates and has used all-women shortlists as means to
achieve this. Although it was initially in breach of the Sex Discrimination Act
(1975), the law was changed and the Equality Act (2010) allows an exemption
until 2030. In contrast, the Church has been less responsive to social change.
Within the Church of England, women were first ordained in 1994, but were
excluded from becoming bishops. However, this was due to change in 2015, fol-
lowing pressure to promote females into the rolecapa.
Despite the resistance in some traditional quarters of politics and the Church,
compared with only 20 years ago many women have been able to make con-
siderable advances in their chosen careers, although, mostly, those who do so
are white, middle-class, university graduates. However, in 2013 women earned
approximately 20 per cent less than men in business, industry and government,
even when doing similar types of work. In 2012 almost 20 per cent of company
directors of the UK’s 100 largest listed companies, 20 per cent of university pro-
fessors and 20 per cent of judges were women. Despite progress being made during
the past ten years, there were still concerns that not enough progress was being
made, leading to allegations of a ‘glass ceiling’ for women – the illusion of the
possibility of progress.
Within the domestic sphere, divorce rates have continued to rise, and in 2004
some 45 per cent of marriages in Britain ended in divorce. The figure increased
from one in three in 1994 to almost one in two in 2013, leaving many women
in single-parent households. Divorce, separation, delayed parenthood, work and
job insecurity mean women tend to marry later and have children much later.
Yet growing equality and liberation do not seem to equal happiness, and in 2012
it was estimated that around one in four women require treatment for depression
at some time. One conclusion is that an incompatibility exists between home
and working lives; that for many women, ‘having it all’ means doing it all, and
frequently doing it alone.
The progress of the last decade in gender equality extended to lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues. Only 35 years previously these had
been largely ignored or marginalised, but in the mid-2000s they had become
increasingly accepted and mainstream, and a series of laws were introduced to
promote equality in relationships and the workplace. The age of consent was
reduced from 18 to 16 in the year 2000, the same as for heterosexual relation-
ships. With greater public tolerance, and employment law that makes discrimina-
tion illegal, more individuals publicly declared their sexuality, even in traditional
fields, such as Parliament, the armed forces, the police and the Church. In 2004,
MPs voted to give same-sex couples the same property, taxation and pension
rights as married couples, and gay civil partnerships and marriages were officially
recognised in the Civil Partnership Act (2004) and the Marriage (Same Sex
Couples) Act (2013), which gave gay and lesbian couples the same rights and
responsibilities as married, heterosexual couples in the UK. Around 8000 cer-
emonies per year are conducted, around half with male couples.
The Equality Act (2007) also made it illegal to discriminate in the provision
of goods and services to same-sex couples, from rooms in hotels to fertilisation
treatment. Although most people welcomed the legislation, and were much more
understanding of gay and lesbian sexuality, it has been more problematic for the
Church of England, which has been divided over the issue. Some ministers are
in favour of holding same-sex marriages in church, while others are against it,
claiming it contradicts biblical teachings and canon law.
The arts in an age of insecurity

From the 1950s to the 1990s the artistic realm had been closely connected to
the political. Advances made by the political left regarding inequalities of class,
ethnicity, gender, sexuality, demands for women’s rights, abortion, divorce and
promotion of alternative lifestyles all inspired many cultural works, which in turn
helped to force change. But, by the twenty-first century there was a growing dis-
connection. With social progress supported by new legislation, many issues that had
once spurred creativity were increasingly considered to have lost much of their
potency. They had either diminished in importance, become mainstream, or had
become impossible to present to a mass audience. And, even though new chal-
lenges emerged, for example an international economic recession, global warm-
ing, terrorism, overseas wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the rapacious nature of the
financial services industry, a crisis of trust in politics, government and media, as
well as concerns about new diseases and the role of the food and tobacco manu-
facturers in obesity and smoking, there were few clear lines of creative expression
over how to engage with or solve what were often complex, global problems.
Unlike in previous decades, there was less optimism or certainty about the future,
and less of a belief that politics, science and progressive government could deliver
a better society.
Just as contemporary social issues have become more complex and diverse, so
have British audiences. The traditional working class has fragmented and largely
disappeared, through loss of heavy industries, the reduction in the need for man-
ual work, and the rise of retailing and financial services. Increased educational
opportunities and fewer social distinctions have also created a more diverse and
generally better educated population, with a variety of tastes and preferences. The
presence of many established ethnic communities and new immigrant groups has
also resulted in new audiences with disparate political and social attitudes.
The presence of diverse populations with varied attitudes, values, preferences
and interests creates a problem for both politicians and the creative industries, as
it becomes more difficult to address them collectively. Thus, it has become much
harder to find large, profitable audiences for creative works. Nevertheless, in
2012 the UK’s creative industries outperformed all other sectors of the economy.
They are said to be worth £71.4 billion per year, employing 1.68 million people,
5.6 per cent of the workforce.
At the same time, the trend away from publicly funded arts has continued,
and amid a global economic recession the coalition government has continued
to make cuts to arts funding. Consequently, to finance most professional projects,
the support of a major organisation is needed, or private financial support from
sponsors and investors has to be found. All these demand project profitability,
and therefore less risk-taking, and there is currently a reluctance to fund critical
or experimental new works. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the need for audiences and
profitability has sometimes led to accusations of ‘dumbing down’; that is, making
cultural material that is simplified and lacking in intellectual content or rigour,
in order to appeal to a mass audience.
The online abundance of free or low-cost books, films, music, newspapers and
information of all kinds has also intensified the situation, and made profitability
harder to achieve. Therefore, there is now much more caution about what gets
made, played and shown. Today, the route is open for almost anyone to become
a film-maker, photographer, musician, writer, citizen journalist, critic and so
on. But, while the processes of production, distribution and consumption have
become much more affordable, democratic and fun, they are frequently less prof-
itable unless they are done with the financial support of a major organisation.
In the new millennium the arts are increasingly used for instrumental pur-
poses. Public and business organisations regularly sponsor projects, exhibitions
and awards in order to gain publicity, earn cultural capital and enhance their
image. For example, Bailey’s Irish Cream sponsors the Women’s Prize for Fiction,
and the car manufacturer Chevrolet sponsors Manchester United’s kit. Similarly,
architecture by famous architects is often used to draw attention to a company,
city or region, such as Richard Rogers’ Lloyd’s building in London, or the Sage
Cultural Centre and Baltic Gallery in Newcastle/Gateshead. On a smaller scale,
sports and community arts projects are also used to foster social cohesion, bring-
ing people together around a shared interest, such as photographic projects,
drama or creative writing. Overseas, British arts are given platforms in exhibi-
tions, festivals and shows curated by the British government and others as part
of ‘soft’ diplomacy, to win friends, cement cultural credibility and attract people
to Britain.
But perhaps the most convincing evidence of the power of the arts to influence
people and move minds is that, despite the difficulty of developing a lucrative
career in many creative fields, subjects such as television, drama and media stud-
ies continue to be some of the most popular courses in British higher education.
Popular culture in the twenty-first century

Around 1960 the word ‘culture’ referred to ‘the best’ that had been thought,
said, written, painted, played. It was patronised by the state, and was something
closely associated with education and improvement. The term was generally used
in what today would be called an ‘elitist’ sense. This is known as the ‘Arnold posi-
tion’, after Matthew Arnold, which sees culture as works and practices of artistic
and intellectual activity,
However, today the term is used more broadly to refer to a diverse range of tastes
and entertainments – both popular and specialised – and to all the media and
signifying practices of different communities, as well as those of the country as a
whole. As such, the term is used in a more descriptive, anthropological sense. In
this view, culture is everything which isn’t nature; culture is made by humans and
defines us as humans. Critics argue that the difficulty with this is that it includes
everything and excludes nothing. Nevertheless, such a view currently prevails in
most areas of arts education, in community arts and in most areas of academia. In
contrast, the ‘Arnoldian’ view is sometimes considered to be controversial, apart
from in some traditional cultural fields such as ballet, opera and classical music.
Ways of discussing culture have also changed since the 1960s. Instead of citing
canonical works and showing deference towards them, discussion now involves
asking questions about how works emerged in the past, whose interests they
served, how the public reacted, why popular entertainments and practices were
frequently marginalised, derided and ignored, as well as understanding that tra-
ditions are not fixed and immutable, but have always been subject to evolution
and change. Consequently, debates about ‘high’ and ‘low’ forms are rarely heard
today, and there is greater emphasis on the role of the arts as entertainment and
information, rather than as a source of improvement, as well as a recognition that
both good and bad examples exist of different cultural forms.
As in the 1960s, there is still some concern expressed among the public and
critics about the political and moral emptiness of some modern works. This is
perhaps unsurprising, given that the great common causes of religion, war and
political ideology, which inspired writers and artists in the twentieth century,
have diminished or disappeared altogether. Moreover, many of Raymond Wil-
liams’s predictions of 1961 have some true, as has his wish for a broader education
in schools and universities. Today many courses include studies of society, the
press, film, television and drama, and cultural studies, media and communica-
tions are among the most commonly taught subjects in universities, and wide
public and scholarly interest has led to their being the most rapidly growing fields
of employment in Britain.

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1 The social and cultural context

Economy, politics and society

Social change and public anxiety

The debate about popular culture

Progress and pop (1960–70)

Anger and division (1970–79)

The end of consensus: Britain under the Tories (1979–97)

Forward with ‘New’ Labour (1997–2007)

Economy, politics and society

The art of ‘Cool Britannia’

The age of insecurity (2007– )

The multicultural society

200,000), Bangladeshis (around 115,000), Irish (around 113,000) and Jamaicans

The arts in an age of insecurity

Popular culture in the twenty-first century

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