By the end of the 1970s there was a widespread perception that the British post-war consensus of full employment, a mixed economy and the Welfare State had reached a point of terminal crisis. Following the election of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister in May 1979 Britain was about to undergo a radical and lasting transformation. One of the many virtues of Andy Beckett’s book is that it provides a nuanced account of a polarised and polarising period in British history. Historical memory has a tendency to simplify but this survey of the early 1980s complicates received wisdom in surprising and illuminating ways.

Given the eventual triumph of Thatcherism it came as something of a shock to be reminded that, by the end of 1980, the Conservative government was deeply divided and the most unpopular since polling began. Against a backdrop of the highest levels of unemployment since the 1930s, inner city riots and - perhaps most embarrassing for an avowedly monetarist administration - spiralling inflation, even traditionally conservative newspapers were writing the political obituary of Thatcher as Prime Minister and Thatcherism as an ideology.

Beckett correctly identifies the Falklands War as the turning point in her political fortunes. The Argentinian invasion was widely anticipated and largely the result of incompetence by the Thatcher government (‘one of the least surprising surprise attacks in modern military history’, as Beckett dryly puts it) but Britain’s eventual victory in the conflict unleashed a jingoistic wave of national pride which ensured Thatcher’s victory at the 1983 election.

He has an admirably unorthodox way of blurring the boundaries between Left and Right and dredging up often neglected and revealing facts. The 1980s regeneration of London Docklands, for example, was trumpeted as the triumph of free enterprise over the state, but Beckett points out that it was financed by Whitehall to the tune of £443 million, a figure far in excess of what had been spent on the area by previous governments.

The left-wing Greater London Council (GLC) was so detested by Margaret Thatcher that she eventually abolished the entire council (in the interests of preserving democracy against the threat of democratically elected politicians, presumably) but, with its emphasis on decentralisation and empowering people to change their own lives through voluntary associations, ‘red’ Ken Livingstone’s GLC carried a curious echo of Thatcherite rhetoric. In his own way Livingstone, the son of working class Tory voters, disliked the paternalism of the traditional British Labour movement as much as Margaret Thatcher did. The GLC was derided as the ‘loony left’ by the press, and not just the right wing press as Beckett points out, but its championing of gender equality, multiculturalism and LGBT rights was to have as enduring an influence on Britain as Thatcher’s espousal of market capitalism.

As Beckett shows the Thatcherite ideology of the untrammelled free market economy with its holy grail of commercial success began to spread almost by osmosis influencing even those who did not regard themselves as right-wing. In pop music, at that time still a strong indicator of wider societal trends, the insurrectionary anarchy of punk gave way to a shiny and tuneful new form of pop with previously left field musicians proudly declaring their desire to be rich and famous. Groups comprised of working class boys from the recession hit North of England made videos in which they sang and danced their way around country houses dressed up like characters from Brideshead Revisited or Restoration fops.

A chapter on Channel 4 television, launched in 1982, brings into focus the complex and often contradictory nature of the cultural changes taking place. Proposals for a fourth television channel in Britain went back into the mists of time (well, the 1960s) but Channel 4 was finally established by the Conservatives in November 1980. It’s perceived left-liberal programming agenda turned out to be not to Mrs Thatcher’s taste at all but the station gradually began to change the structure of British broadcasting in distinctly Thatcherite ways. It drew heavily on small independent production companies, previously largely unknown in British television, and displaced the duopoly of BBC and ITV in a way that Thatcher would have approved of (in 2023 independent production companies are key players in British TV with even the BBC now functioning as a publisher of programmes made by independents almost as much as an originator of them).

The independent production companies also began to erode traditional trade union practices and staffing levels. This was mainly for economic reasons rather than ideological ones but they were facilitated in this by the highly ideological trade union ‘reforms’ passed by the government. The story of Diverse Productions seems emblematic of the era: beginning as a subversively lefty sort of operation by the mid-eighties it was busy making a series in praise the free marketers called The New Enlightenment (predictably, this was the only programme shown on Channel 4 that Margaret Thatcher is known to have enjoyed). The independents might have started off as pioneering buccaneers but the successful ones gradually transmuted into fully-fledged capitalist businesses.

This is a wide-ranging and highly readable book which combines a journalistic narrative drive with subtle historical analysis. Beckett captures the mood of change, as both Left and Right sought to escape the stasis of the post-war consensus, and provides a fresh perspective on events too readily reduced to cliche. ( )

If journalism is the first draft of history, then Andy Beckett's description of Britain in the early 1980s is history version 1.5. Using a range of memoirs, contemporary accounts and personal interviews with man of the key individuals from the era, he offers a idiosyncratic description of the period that is leavened with his own memories of his life in Britain during that time. HIs argument is a somewhat contrarian one: that these years were not just the beginnings of a lurch rightward as has often been relieved, but a time of dynamic change in many other respects. In Beckett's view people like "Red Ken" Livingston and the Greenham Common protestors were in every respect as much an embodiment of the transformation taking place as was Margaret Thatcher, and with a legacy nearly as important to making Britain the country it is today. His analysis is provocative, as is his highlighting of how much of this change was built upon the achievements of the previous decades rather than reflecting a rejection of them. For anyone interested in learning ore about the history of Britain during this era this is an excellent book to read, one that hopefully Beckett will build upon with a successor volume that describes further how the decade unfolded from this provocative start. ( )

Many western democracies look to the 1980s as a pivot point in their history. Terms like revolution are tossed about in describing the disruptive and tumultuous social, political and economic transformations of this era. Such visible change draws historians like moths to a flame. In the UK, the period covered by this book (1980-1982) certainly sowed the seeds of significant transformations in Britain. Andy Beckett has little need to look too far beyond this timeframe, although he does follow some stories such as the Ken Livingston-led Greater London Council (GLC) through to their conclusion later in the decade.
Repeating the style of his previous book [b:When The Lights Went Out Britain In The Seventies|6372431|When The Lights Went Out Britain In The Seventies|Andy Beckett|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328442002s/6372431.jpg|6560035] Beckett mixes historic research with reportage, visiting relevant individuals and locations from the period. Beckett's describes the book as "not intended to be a conventional, comprehensive history – twentieth-century Britain has plenty of those – nor a simple thumbs up or thumbs down for Thatcherism". The book manages to account for this controversial period without yeilding to the temptation to follow a partisan political viewpoint, or present one of the two 'accepted' narratives - either triumphalism or doom and gloom.
Part One, Yearnings looks at some signs of promise and positivity in the early 1980s - the Austin Metro ("A British Car. To Beat. The World"), Charles and Di's wedding and the 1981 test match victory over Australia. In Morbid Symptoms however, Beckett examines the darker side of the period. Monetarism is examined and contrasted with the problems and riots in Liverpool. Part Three, Stirrings offers an interesting look at some new movements which offered alternatives to the apparently failing monetarist experiment - the SDP, Ken Livingston's GLC and the Greenham Common anti nuclear protest. Part Four looks at signs of changes of mentality which could be argued to be the Thatcher era's lasting legacy - new attitudes of individual success, home ownership through the "right to buy" schemes and encouragement of individual enterprise. The account of the Falklands crisis - progressing from procrastination to decisive military action after the invasion - is compelling and obviously one of the keys to understanding the period. Part Five looks at the New World being built. The account of the development of the Docklands is illuminating as is the early years of Channel 4. The account of the Women's Unit at the GLC is interesting. In one sense it seems the 'last gasp' of radicalism and the left wing. However its also interesting that many of the values of equality (or 'political correctness' as some might describe them) have become mainstream now.
Beckett's overall argument is that "we are all Thatcherites now". Through examples such as the pop singers of the early 80s he shows how even those more left wing individuals who ostensibly opposed Thatcherism ended up buying into the paradigm of individuality and self-help. He also highlights in some respects how Thatcherism owed a debt to what went before. For example "Thatcherism liked to present itself as a rejection of the post-war, state-driven, more profligate way of doing things. But in housing, her administration was actually the post-war state’s beneficiary, selling off the assets that it had built up".
Overall this is a subtle and thoughtful look at a controversial era and its legacy.

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Does it really make the case for shaping Britain ( )