Questions to think about before the lecture

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What were the causes and effects of unemployment under Thatcherism?
How has unemployment been measured and how does that relate to how unemployment has been experienced?
How appropriate were the images of the 1930s to explain this particular form of unemployment?

Readings

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Readings

Set Readings

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Seldon and Collings Britain under Thatcher Chapter 3 (pp25-41)

The British Library

Louise Hale on the effects of her father's redundancy (05.20-08.50)

Trevor Tuffley on his redundancy after pit closure (0.55- 5.17)

Dev Padem (1.00.33 - 1.03.28 ) ( 1.03.52 - 1.06.30)(1.11.22 - 01.16.03)

Frederick Brady on unemployment (57:00-01:01:00) and the recession (01:46:00-01:48:00)

John Lee (33.55-41.10)

Identify your chosen respondent in 1983 Summer - Work

Clive Russell-Day's interview includes an insightful account of early responses to computerisation (17.49 - 24.06)

John Lee outlines his understanding of Thatcher's attitudes to employment (38.30-41.10), describes the emotional impact of unemployment and uses one individual to sum up the impact of unemployment after lost jobs at Consett. (37:18- 41.10) This was exacerbated whenThatcher closed the retraining facilities. (40:20-41:10) Lee goes through the long term legacies of redundancy and unemployment on families. (01:11:35-01:19:30)

Jenny Smith talks about unemployment as a young woman and youth training for girls.(14:04-17:13)

Louise Hale describes the impact of her father's redundancy on the family (05:20-08.50)

There were lots of cultural representations of unemployment and its impact in the 1980s. Bleasdale's drama Boys From the Blackstuff for BBC brought popularised a new language of unemployment and a new anti-hero Yosser Hughes.

Radio 4 brought together the cast and crew of the series for The Reunion (available through subscription to Box of Broadcasts)

In popular music musicians like The Specials summed up the impact of deep regional unemployment