The message of peace
Jonathan Doering writes about an inspiring campaign
In many ways the 1980s were a defining decade. The gaping gulf between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’, social strife and enormous cultural upheaval played out against a backdrop of dance tunes, power dressing and paper lantern dreams of plenty remain with me from my childhood. Presiding over the grand narrative of tearing down to build anew was Margaret Thatcher.
‘There is no such thing as society, only people’ she said. Her sociopolitical axiom paved the way for generational communities to be swept away, with new-look urbanised, gentrified developments replacing them. The sense of profound cultural loss and hollow financial acquisition is a lasting characteristic of these times. Nevertheless, protest groups began to coalesce from across a ransacked Britain.
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