News, current affairs, and cultural issues from the 1980s
Looking back at 1986, it was a year when two halves of Britain went in different directions. With the year-long miners’ strike defeated in 1985, industrial areas saw a further surge in unemployment and a sense of despondency. But in London, it was a different world. Financial deregulation in the City of London powered the…
Gen-Z is challenging the Boomer office culture of the 1980s and they might have a point.
There’s an astonishing number of unsolved murders from the 1980s and it’s very striking how varied these cases are. Mobsters, members of cults, victims of homophobia, and racist homicides. Some of the stories are truly sinister so let’s investigate. The People’s Temple and a cult defector In 1980, Jeannie Mills, her husband Al, and daughter…
With Iran back in the news, it’s an opportune moment to ask how did this country come to be ruled by a theocratic caste combined with a parliamentary democracy? Up until 1979, Iran was under the thumb of a monarch – the Shah – who was pro-western and effectively policed the Middle East on behalf…
Attitudes to sex in the 1980s were more liberal than is sometimes assumed. But the decade was very different from the liberated 1960s and rebellious 1970s. The AIDS pandemic and rise of political conservatism impacted how young people viewed sex. Despite a climate of fear and repression, a survey in 1986 had very surprising results….
It’s hard to remember a world – only a quarter of a century ago – when most people had no public visibility. Imagine it. A world without social media influencers, TikTok trolls, YouTube channels, and bots. The only way you ever got your name or face in public was if a newspaper published your letter…
There’s a small number of rock and pop albums that impacted me like no other. As a teenager I stuck the vinyl on the turntable, placed the stylus down, and was blown away. The albums concerned are a varied bunch from punk to indie and prog rock. Yes – prog rock. Tell me which albums…
It’s sad to have to post this on my blog about the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s – but I’ve noticed a sharp increase in nostalgia and history posts on social media clearly designed to fuel racism through a kind of toxic nostalgia. For example, show old film footage of London in 1985 and this is…
It’s hard to believe in our digital age but there was a time – back in the 1970s – when family entertainment for all generations centred on board games. The main upside of board games was that all ages could get involved bringing the family together for hours on end. The downside was that some…
The bank cheque book was part of our lives in the late 20th century but now it’s hard to remember having a cheque book in your pocket. Let alone using one. While the credit card arrived in the 1970s – with the launch of Access – in my experience, most of us didn’t start running…
