One of my lockdown projects is to listen to all of my vinyl (in alphabetical order of course). Which made me think of crises of years gone by. When nuclear armageddon seemed just around the corner and the IRA were bombing somewhere nearby most weeks. Miner’s strikes in the 70s and 80s and riots just up the road in 1981. And in my parents’ younger days, the halcyon 30’s and 40’s when we still ruled the waves and had an empire, there was the Great Depression, Fascism and the Blitz. Will Covid overshadow the lot or be no more than a blip? Anyway. Still working my way through B for Bowie; so probs OK ’til September.
Making a difference?
The ’70s were for my coming-of-age time, as they were for Stuart Maconie, author of ‘The Nanny State Made Me’. It’s when I took my 0 and A Levels, went to uni and started my first job. My view of the decade will always be rose-tinted, I’ll remember the music, discos, student grants (wouldn’t have known what a tuition fee was) and monthly inflationary pay rises negotiated by unions of which I was not a member. The strikes, high taxes and IRA bombs were background noise to me and, yes, I was the first in my family to go to university and, yes, despite everything, felt more secure with a nanny state in charge than at any time since. I’d happily pay more tax to give my kids and grandkids the same.
