Thursday, May 19, 2011

The Jam generation

The first episode of a Radio 4 series about the new young generation of people at the top of politics is called The Jam Generation because of their (in some ways) surprising shared affection for the pop group of that name.

One point stood out for me which casts current politics - coalition etc – in a new, more comprehensible light.

Our prime minister & others at the top of politics were all teenagers (or, in some cases, even younger) in the early years of the Thatcher government, culminating in the miners strike of 1984, & including on the way Labour’s ‘long suicide note’ of a manifesto for the 1983 election.

Having witnessed all that, they determined that that kind of divisive politics did nothing for the greater good.

But they are learning – fast – that just doing the opposite to your parents does not make everything come out all right