The Falklands War

The Falklands War, also called the Falklands Conflict/Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the
United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
The Falkland Islands consist of two large and many small islands in the South Atlantic Ocean east of
Argentina; their name and sovereignty over them have long been disputed.
The conflict was the result of a protracted diplomatic confrontation regarding the sovereignty of the islands.
Neither state officially declared war and the fighting was largely limited to the territories under dispute and
the South Atlantic. The initial invasion was characterized by Argentina as the re-occupation of its own
territory, and by the UK as an invasion of a British dependent territory.
During the war Britain took the upper hand by launching the naval task force, along with the amphibious
assault, engaging the Argentine Navy and Air Force. The British finally defeated the opponent and thus
kept the islands under their control.
The effect of the Falklands War was strong and multileveled. According to the British media, in the United
Kingdom, a cascade of patriotism was flushing through nationals and the government of Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher was bolstered. The stance as a flinty sovereignty-defender helped Thatcher's
government to victory in the 1983 general election, which prior to the war was seen as by no means
certain.
However, the glorious victory depicted by the British mainstream media was not what it looked like, if not to
the overwhelming majority, but at least to those who lost their beloved in the war. Among them Shaun is
probably the most powerful and poignant illustration. An authority can find any reasons to justify its intent to
wage a battle, yet war is still the worst possible political action. The patriotic surge largely evoked by the
highly patriotic as well as misleading press might be able to veil the atrocities of war. However, once
patriotism was mixed up with morbid passion for plunder and slaughter, it could be lethal
 THATCHER & THE WELFARE STATE

Thatcher: “There is no
such thing as society:
there are individual
men and women, and
there are families.”

During her campaign this is what Mrs Thatcher told a packed meeting of Conservative party
activists at Wembley: We are committed to a civilised society where the poor and the sick, the
disabled and the elderly are properly cared for. By the community, by their families, by voluntary
organisations. Mrs Thatcher made no mention of the state. Under the influence of New Right
thinking, the leadership of the Conservative party has become increasingly committed to a shift in
the emphasis of welfare provision away from the state to the individual. Any significant change in
this direction would have dramatic implications for the lives of the poor

Thatcher felt that British manufacturing industry had become uncompetitive and saw the cause as
weak employers and overly strong trades unions who were, she felt, only too willing to call their
members out on strike. She reduced the powers of the workers’ unions and privatised (‘sold off’)
many publicly owned companies. She closed many uncompetitive coal mines, too.
A short-term result was that Britain suffered an economic downturn and unemployment soared.
This particularly affected industrialised working-class areas in the north of the country.
One of Thatcher’s central political beliefs was that success came to those who chose to work hard.
She tried to reduce the role played by the welfare state and put this on the individual.
 1980S RACISM / IMMIGRATION
Meadows’ England is a white working-class England, a grey miserable place, plagued by
unemployment and resentment of immigrant ‘others’. The film portrays 1980’s white communities
struggling to come to terms with their country’s ‘new’ ethnic and cultural diversity[1]. At the same
time as adopting West Indian music as their own, the youthful protagonists are tempted into
radical right-wing politics and become involved in a hate campaign against the growing Asian
community, who they describe as “vermin”. Clearly many things have changed since the early 80’s
when the film is set, Thatcher is no longer with us and the fashion has certainly moved on, and
yet, as Combo shouts “These people think we owe them a living!” 1982/3 suddenly doesn’t seem
so far away. The hatred and fear of immigrants and nationalist sentiment portrayed in the film is
brutal, leaving the viewer hoping that this is not England… at least not anymore.
England is the largest and most populous of the four countries which make up the sovereign state
of the United Kingdom, however, an ‘English’ identity sits uneasily with many of England’s
inhabitants. This uneasiness is, among other things, evident in the apparent irrelevance of St.
George’s Day, which unlike other Patron Saints’ Days (for example, the ever popular St.
Patrick who is celebrated across the world and has his own public holiday in Ireland), goes largely
unnoticed by the majority of England’s population. As another 23 rd April comes and goes, again it
is discussed whether St.   George’s Day should be made a national holiday and yet a national day
of English celebration remains elusive[2]. It often seems that the only place left for ‘Englishness’ in
England is the great sporting venues of Lords, Wembley and Twickenham, and even here
the anthem sung at the beginning of every game is British, not English. While the Scottish and
Welsh people are free to be just that, the English are somehow not able to assert an English
identity, or perhaps they feel uncomfortable doing so.

 So why is an ‘English’ identity so uncomfortable for some people to wear?

 Many argue that ‘Englishness’, and particularly the St. George’s Cross, has too many historical
ties to nationalist and far-right political movements to be a symbol of national pride. A 2012 survey
carried out by think-tank British Future found that 24% of English people consider the flag to be
racist, with a third of under-40s associating the flag with racism and extremism. Displaying a St
George’s Cross on your house or your car can be misconstrued as racist and the internet is
flooded with examples of people being warned to take down England flags or being banned from
displaying them. The nationalist and racist connotations associated with ‘Englishness’ have tainted
it to the point where pride in an English identity has for many been superseded by pride in
‘Britishness’ which strives to be a fully inclusive civic identity. Interestingly, only 61% of English
people associate pride with the England flag (compared to 80% who feel proud of the Union Flag).
The St George’s Cross’ racist and nationalist connotations are to some extent the result of its use
by far-right groups like the EDL. England, rather than Britain, has been the subject of nationalist
and far-right rhetoric for decades. For example, Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech made a
clear distinction between the “decent, ordinary fellow Englishman” and the immigrants; the idea
that an immigrant could one day become decent, ordinary Englishman was not considered.
‘English’ was understood to be the contrary of Britain’s Black, Asian and other ethnic minorities. As
Norman Tebbitt, Conservative MP, once told British-Trinidadian TV presenter Darcus Howe, “We
are both British, but only I am English”.
The National Front (NF) is a far-right and fascist political party in the United Kingdom. During its
heyday in the 1970s, it had a small number of local councillors, although it has never secured a
seat in the British Parliament.

In the early 1970s, the group capitalised on growing concern regarding Asian migration to Britain,
rapidly increasing its membership and vote share in urban areas of East London and Northern
England. Its public profile was raised through street marches and rallies, which often resulted in
clashes with anti-fascist protesters. 

Ideologically positioned on the extreme or far-right of British politics, the NF has been
characterised as fascist or neo-fascist by political scientists. The party is ethnic nationalist, and
espouses the view that only white people should be citizens of the United Kingdom. It calls for an
end to non-white migration into the UK with settled non-white Britons to be stripped of citizenship
and deported from the country. It promotes biological racism, calling for global racial
separatism and condemning interracial relationships. It espouses anti-semitic conspiracy theories,
endorsing Holocaust denial and claiming that Jews seek to dominate the world through
both communism and international capitalism. Its social policies oppose feminism and LGBT
rights. 

Only whites are permitted membership of the party, with most of the party's support coming from
within White British working and lower middle-class communities in Northern England and East
London. The NF has generated much opposition from leftist and anti-fascist groups throughout its
history, and NF members are legally prohibited from various professions.

After the BNP, the NF has been the most successful extreme-right group in British politics since
the Second World War. 

The Race Relations Act

Racist advertisement for a room to let in Notting Hill in 1966. It would not have been outlawed
under the act if it applied to a private room.
Numbers of immigrants into Britain increases and tension builds. Triggered by race riots across
the country, the Race Relations Act comes into force.
The act outlaws racial discrimination in public places. It forbids discrimination on the "grounds of
colour, race, or ethnic or national origins" and includes hotels and restaurants. However, it
excludes not only private boarding houses, but shops as well. 

Through the 50s and 60s, immigration increases. The UK foreign-born population grows by over
one million people to 6.4% of the total population.
By 1971 the immigrant population numbers over three million, including 171,000 who identify
themselves as Jamaican origin, 313,000 from India and 676,000 from Ireland. People of Indian
origin become the largest immigrant group in the 2011 census.

Commission for Racial Equality

The government establishes the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), the statutory body
charged with tackling racial discrimination.
The anti-discrimination laws of 1965 and 1968 are considered ineffective. A new 1976 law
replaces them and establishes the CRE. Against a background of high unemployment and racial
tension, the commission's duties are to work towards the elimination of racial discrimination, to
promote equal opportunities and good relations between racial groups. 
11 April 1981: Brixton Riots
Riots erupt in Brixton. There is massive civil
unrest, accusations of police ‘heavy
handedness’ and over 300 people are injured.
In a huge anti-crime operation, the
Metropolitan Police uses powers of stop and
search. Over 1,000 people are stopped in
Brixton in six days. Black men feel
discriminated against; tensions build. Rioting
erupts after an arrest sparks violence. The mix
of racial tensions and poor police relations are
not unique to Brixton. There had been riots in
Bristol the previous year, then following Brixton
in Chapeltown (Leeds), Toxteth (Liverpool), Moss Side (Manchester) and Handsworth
(Birmingham).

A skinhead is a member of a subculture originating among working class youths

in London, England in the 1960s that soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a
second working class skinhead movement spreading worldwide in the 1980s. Motivated by social
alienation and working class solidarity, skinheads are defined by their close-cropped or shaven
heads and working class clothing such as Dr. Martens boots, braces, high-ankle straight-leg jeans,
and simple shirts. The movement reached a peak during the 1960s, and a revival in the 1980s but
since then, it has endured in multiple contexts worldwide.
**************************

Named for their close-cropped or shaven heads, the original skinheads were greatly influenced by
West Indian (specifically Jamaican) rude boys and British mods (another sub-culture), in terms of
fashion, music and lifestyle. When Mods were welcomed into the world of reggae clubs in London,
such as Ruby’s on Carnaby Street, they discovered not only Ska music, but the key style
components that defined the original skinhead look. The original skinheads were made up
of by black and white working-class kids who worked in shipyards and on factory lines in the late
sixties. These early skinheads were not necessarily part of any political movement, but that
changed by the early 1970s. 

As the 1970s progressed, racially-motivated skinhead violence in the United Kingdom became

more political, and far-right groups such as the National Front and the British Movement saw a rise
in white power skinheads among their ranks. By the late 1970s, the mass media, and
subsequently the general public, had largely come to view the skinhead subculture as one that
promotes racism and neo-Nazism. The mainstream media started using the term skinhead in
reports of racist violence (regardless of whether the perpetrator was actually a skinhead); this has
played a large role in skewing public perceptions about the subculture. 

The second wave of skinheads, in the early 1980s, were in one sense similar: poor kids from
council estates finding their place by being different together, like teenagers everywhere. Dressed
in Dr Martens and with heads shaved military style, these kids would give the V to anyone foolish
enough to give them the eye. These were teens who came from areas of high unemployment
looking for solidarity beyond Thatcher’s ‘me’ culture. They were abandoned by society and that, of
course, made them vulnerable to the advances of the National Front. 
‘The skinheads, because of their aggression and outward appearance, they’re almost
soldier-like, were I suppose almost handpicked to become soldiers for the National Front.
You don’t see the contradiction that you’re being indoctrinated into the National Front
whilst listening to black music. When I first heard about the National Front, the picture that
was painted to me was a Churchillian vision of Asian families rowing into the white cliffs of
Dover on boats, and that skinheads would be on the beaches fighting to stop them
entering the country. As a twelve-year-old kid that’s quite a romantic image. It’s almost like
‘what your granddad did.’’ Shane Meadows.

As a second wave skinhead who had always been aware of the sixties legacy, Meadows felt it was
essential to create a balanced and truthful picture of the scene as he had experienced it. ‘When
you’re twelve and no one in your town can get a job, and someone comes up to you and says
‘these people are to blame’ it’s easy to believe,’ says Shane of the racism he encountered through
skinheads. ‘I did for about three weeks, some people still believe that as adults and that’s
frightening.’

 To capture the inherent contradictions of skinhead culture, Shane presents a motley crew of
believable characters whose behaviour is often as farcical as it is threatening and disturbing.
Combo, the racist gang leader has L plates on his car, and graffiti-ing becomes a challenge of
spelling, for example. They are losers, but Meadows never lets you forget that there is always a
reason behind their behaviour. Today, racism and neo-nazism, along with other forms of anti-
social behaviour associated with ‘skins’ have become the snap-judgments most people make. 
Reduce the key points you have read into the table below:

  Thatcher & the welfare Thatcher & the

Thatcher & the Falklands state: miners
War:

The National Front 1980s: Skinheads 1980s: