'this Is England'

On 24th November I was lucky enough to catch the start of a British film on Channel 4 called “This is England”. On 25th November I was out buying a Ben Sherman shirt just like one I had about 27 years ago.

This film punched my lights out and took the moral high ground while it was doing it. Those watching this film whilst being in a position to reflect on growing up in the Thatcher years will recognise it as the bang on social commentary that it is. This article is not a review of this film so don’t worry, there are no spoilers in here. But it did raise some interesting thoughts regarding relationships between the political and economic trends of recent history and how we can learn from them.

Apart from reminiscing over the cars, music, fashions and some clips from a popular TV series called Nightrider this film had a dark undertone right from the start as it examined the social interactions of kids and young adults as they formed opinions of the wider world around them. Extreme right wing organisations were an ugly reality of the eighties and this fact wasn’t ignored by this film and I began to think about what lead to the rise of extreme politics during this period.

In some European countries in recent years there appears to be a resurgence of extreme right wing politics and I wonder what comparisons we can draw between this period, the eighties or even the thirties after the great depression and before the outbreak of Word War II.

It seems to me that extreme right wing political organisations gain strength during periods where populations feel they have been in some way let down or not listened to by the faction in power. Economic catastrophe or extreme political unrest appears to result in a population feeling this way. In 1929 we had the great depression, in the 80s we saw the demise of the coal industry in the UK and now we are in the middle of the global credit crunch.

It remains to be seen whether or not the current economic problems are generating momentum for extreme right wing groups. However, if we look back into recent history that is precisely what appears to happen so lets hope we don’t see the return of petrol bombings and other widespread xenophobic or racist behaviour.

By: James Sanders

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James Sanders MD, Surrey PC Support