The British Extreme Right has a long history of violence and riots going back to the early twentieth century when Jewish communities were its main target. But it was the 1970s, that saw groups like the National Front and British Movement become a menace on the streets of Britain. Many of those who have shaped…
The Algerian female boxer Imane Khelif provoked howls of outrage when she won her boxing bout in under a minute at the Paris Olympics 2024 – with unfounded accusations that she wasn’t a biological woman. Once again, the whole issue of transgender athletes has divided opinion and created a social media storm. But this is…
At the start of the 1990s, the gay and lesbian movement – as it was then known – had been through the wars. The previous decade had seen the AIDS pandemic and battles over Section 28, a pernicious piece of legislation banning what was termed the “promotion of homosexuality”. There was a combative spirit among…
In June 2024, countless thousands of LGBT people will celebrate Pride in London with a huge parade, parties, and an outward display of their sexuality. This is a far cry from the Gay Pride marches of the 1970s where incredibly brave people took to the streets more in the spirit of defiance than celebration. And…
On the night of November 27, 1975, Britain was stunned by the shooting dead of household name celebrity, Ross McWhirter. He and his identical twin brother Norris created and compiled the world famous Guinness Book of Records in 1955 and both men appeared regularly on the BBC children’s show Record Breakers in the early 1970s….
Nearly forty years ago, an LGBT bookshop in London was raided by customs officials leading to a court case against nine directors and staff who faced over a hundred charges. This proved to be a landmark case, largely forgotten now. It advanced gay rights while also raising questions about censorship by the authorities. Key issues…
In the early 1980s, Glasgow University’s student union closed down its Gay Society. The explanation was that as the legal age of consent for same sex relations at that time was 21 – they couldn’t have a society encouraging men or women under 21 to have relationships with their own sex. They would be breaking…
In the early 1980s, I studied and worked in Liverpool at a time when there was stratospheric levels of unemployment, dire poverty, and faced with no prospects – men and women turned to sex work. In the Toxteth district, it was a daily fact of life to see women on the streets in both daylight…
In the 1970s and 1980s, youth unemployment skyrocketed among young Boomers born at the end of the 1950s and early 1960s – “late” Boomers if you want. Hundreds of thousands of young people were leaving school and months later had not found any work. The Labour government of Prime Minister James Callaghan in the late…
On April 19, 1995, the United States witnessed the worst single act of terrorism in its history. Just after 09:00 in the morning, a massive explosion ripped apart the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. This killed 168 people and injured 680. The building was left a hollow shell as if some gigantic…
