'Forgotten' disturbances in 1990s Britain.

[Lencoboy]

Why castigate Lencoboy for looking back at the social and political mayhem of earlier decades? The 1970s were lousy - poor government, industrial unrest, union militancy gone rampant, glam rock - ugh! and just a depressing time in a country fabled as the sick man of Europe. The 1980s - my decade - were much better in all senses with the country getting up of its knees, great music soundtrack to live life by, opportunities unheard of if you had the will to succeed. Don't remember much of the 1990s after my breakdown ... and I don't quite know what to make of the 2000s

However, what can can and should be learnt from the experience of past decades in comparison to what is going on today (nothing to do with this pandemic) is that without the internet, social media and all associated paraphernalia. intellectual and moral life was more sharply defined - polarised even - around people's local environment and life experience. You were somewhat shielded from the toxic underbelly of national political and social life by the fact that it rarely encroached on your own sphere other than highlights reported on the national news. Nowadays, it is splashed like a butchered carcass over the media 24/7 to the point that you (i rather) have stopped watching the news and disengaged for the most part from the national situation. I do wake up though sometimes and wonder if I am living through a re-run of the early years of the French First Republic.

Yesterday's disturbances (if you were around in those times) seem like an innocent walk in the park compared to today's Orwellian nightmare existence. As E M Forster said ' The past is another country ... they did things differently there...'

By the way Lencoboy - nothing wrong with Tamworth the last resting place of Aethelflaed and site of an impressive castle.... and Tamworth pigs are the most delightful and attractive creatures. Best bacon for an egg and bacon sandwich!

Thanks for your kind comments, Dorabella, and I agree with many of your comments above.

I think you've hit the nail on the head about the fact that in past decades (pre-2000s) events and issues closer to home seemed far more important to us, unlike today where we're constantly bombarded with stuff on 24/7 news channels, social media, etc with the slightest violent incident in say, London, or even in another country and we're all muttering 'oh what's the world coming to', 'kids today....', etc, whereas in the pre-21st Century era many of those horrible events happening elsewhere probably never would have registered, unless they were of a very serious and extreme nature, of course.
Personally (love her or loathe her), I think a lot of the mass 'virtue-signalling' rot first started with Princess Di's death back in 1997. Plus nearly everything nowadays has to have some kind of label and/or 'buzzword' attached to it, which I find mega tedious.

And thanks for coming to the defence of my current town of residence, whilst certain 'wards' went through a bit of a bad patch back in the early 90s, which was also largely blown out of proportion by the local press at the time, it's hardly gangland/'bandit country'!

As I'm sure you know very well, our original hometown of West Brom has had a lot of stick over the years, but I don't in any way feel ashamed to say that I am originally from there.

Sadly, there are many people who seem to revel in place-bashing, regardless of each place's respective qualities and/or deficiencies.

[dorabella]

Thanks for your kind comments, Dorabella, and I agree with many of your comments above.

Personally (love her or loathe her), I think a lot of the mass 'virtue-signalling' rot first started with Princess Di's death back in 1997. Plus nearly everything nowadays has to have some kind of label and/or 'buzzword' attached to it, which I find mega tedious.

And thanks for coming to the defence of my current town of residence, whilst certain 'wards' went through a bit of a bad patch back in the early 90s, which was also largely blown out of proportion by the local press at the time, it's hardly gangland/'bandit country'!

As I'm sure you know very well, our original hometown of West Brom has had a lot of stick over the years, but I don't in any way feel ashamed to say that I am originally from there.

Sadly, there are many people who seem to revel in place-bashing, regardless of each place's respective qualities and/or deficiencies.

Agree with you Lencoboy about the 'people's princess' phenomenon - after that mass public hysteria in 1997 (which I never understood) we really did enter into an age of washing dirty linen in public and open signalling of every sort of anguish, perceived offence, blaming and labelling ... and all on the back of an individuals and situations that the vast majority of the public have never met or been associated with or experienced. Unlike the older Age of Reason we have I believe entered into an Age of Un-Reason where restraint and objectivity have truly gone out of the window......

As a fellow West Bromwich native, I am certainly not ashamed to acknowledge the place of my birth. Like a lot of the West Midlands and Black Country towns, it has come in for a lot of stick in the post-industrial era, but I can still remember the beautiful late-Victorian / Edwardian town that it was before the town-planning vandalism of the 60s and 70s.. These local council thugs truly trashed and caused more harm to WB than industry ever did. They are the real villains of the age and created the ugly and uninviting hell-hole that we see today.

I'll get off my soap-box now!

[Lencoboy]

Agree with you Lencoboy about the 'people's princess' phenomenon - after that mass public hysteria in 1997 (which I never understood) we really did enter into an age of washing dirty linen in public and open signalling of every sort of anguish, perceived offence, blaming and labelling ... and all on the back of an individuals and situations that the vast majority of the public have never met or been associated with or experienced. Unlike the older Age of Reason we have I believe entered into an Age of Un-Reason where restraint and objectivity have truly gone out of the window......

As a fellow West Bromwich native, I am certainly not ashamed to acknowledge the place of my birth. Like a lot of the West Midlands and Black Country towns, it has come in for a lot of stick in the post-industrial era, but I can still remember the beautiful late-Victorian / Edwardian town that it was before the town-planning vandalism of the 60s and 70s.. These local council thugs truly trashed and caused more harm to WB than industry ever did. They are the real villains of the age and created the ugly and uninviting hell-hole that we see today.

I'll get off my soap-box now!

They did the same to Tamworth (where I currently live) in the 60s by tearing down many of the lovely old buildings in the town centre (and also in Burton on Trent) and by the 70s and 80s pockets of both town centres resembled uninspiring 'concrete jungles'.

One of the most depressing places for me in that respect is Sutton Coldfield, despite it (ironically) being one of the more desirable places within the W Mids conurbation, with its infamous Gracechurch Centre being one of the worst examples of hideous 60s 'concrete jungles' ever, and have always hated going there both as a child and a fully grown adult, but my mom always seemed to love it, though all she seemed to care about was M&S, BHS, Beatties, etc, and poxy clothes shopping, whilst seemingly overlooking the horrid architecture and general run-down appearance of the place (back in the 80s and 90s) but for me, it was a right hell-hole!!

Thank God the centre of the leafy cathedral city of Lichfield for the most part managed to escape such hideous desecration back then!

And don't even get me started on the Merry Hill Centre, which is a nightmare for me in its own right, for simply being too large, busy, and full of sensory overload-inducing sources!

[dorabella]

They did the same to Tamworth (where I currently live) in the 60s by tearing down many of the lovely old buildings in the town centre (and also in Burton on Trent) and by the 70s and 80s pockets of both town centres resembled uninspiring 'concrete jungles'.

One of the most depressing places for me in that respect is Sutton Coldfield, despite it (ironically) being one of the more desirable places within the W Mids conurbation, with its infamous Gracechurch Centre being one of the worst examples of hideous 60s 'concrete jungles' ever, and have always hated going there both as a child and a fully grown adult, but my mom always seemed to love it, though all she seemed to care about was M&S, BHS, Beatties, etc, and poxy clothes shopping, whilst seemingly overlooking the horrid architecture and general run-down appearance of the place (back in the 80s and 90s) but for me, it was a right hell-hole!!

Thank God the centre of the leafy cathedral city of Lichfield for the most part managed to escape such hideous desecration back then!

And don't even get me started on the Merry Hill Centre, which is a nightmare for me in its own right, for simply being too large, busy, and full of sensory overload-inducing sources!

If Dante had envisaged a tenth circle of hell then the Merry Hill Centre would be it!! What a waste of space and energy - when it was built I remember all the decent stores like M&S, Sainsburys etc promptly decamped from all the local high streets for the promise of cheap rents at the MHC ... to the detriment of high streets which then started to fall into terminal decline and 'pound shops. ..... Everyone I know says it is particularly inaccessible for non-car owners or people that value their sanity .... never been there myself and avoid it like the plague. Sutton Coldfield, Brum and Wolverhampton gone the same way ... wrecked by 'modernistation' and trying to cater for non-existent clientele who these days would rather shop online.

Perhaps we should form a Midlands town planning non-appreciation society...

[Noivous]

Do they? I don't know a single person that does.

Most people I know associate the 80s with cocaine and casual sex.

And big hair... that was a disturbance. I'm with you on the coke. But the casual sex you can apply to any decade probably.

[MyNameIsTerry]

And big hair... that was a disturbance. I'm with you on the coke. But the casual sex you can apply to any decade probably.

And shoulder pads and mullets.

Yep, every decade was the new debauched one. The 90s it was just with ecstasy (the pill variety, the sex might not have been described that way ). I've lost touch with trends these days (Fortnite and a quickie? ).

[NoraB]

Sadly, there are many people who seem to revel in place-bashing, regardless of each place's respective qualities and/or deficiencies.

Stoke has it's fair share of critics. There's even a episode of Last of the Summerwine where they diss Stoke!

Slight transgression, but I want to know is why are there are not more Stoke accents on tv? There have been one or two films set in Stoke - and I'll have to research those now - but where are the shows that are set in the Potteries? Except the pottery one, obvs! This was a show about pottery - set in the Potteries - and we got Mel Sykes (Manchester), Sara Cox (Bolton) and Keith Brymer (London)?

Couldn't they find a master potter/presenter from The Potteries?

Then again..

"Yer conna put tha in kiln yet duck - yer'll bost eet"

They could always subtitle it?

How about a period show like Call The Midwife - only with a moody CGI backdrop of smoking kilns instead of ships? Plenty of drama with small kids having to fill in for the master potter on a Monday because he's still too pissed to turn in for work. How about 6 year olds getting trapped under machinery? Wives having nervous breakdowns because their husbands have spent the housekeeping money in the pub? How about those horrible clay dust related diseases? Strikes? Murders? Oatcakes!!! The day there was no 'chaise' (cheese) for the oatcakes? That's an entire episode right there!

The Potteries can match 'Poplar' for grim but also for folk with hearts of gold who would literally give you their last penny, and I'm quite proud to say that my Stokie gran was one such a person, bless her.

Shall I pitch my idea to the BBC?

[Noivous]

And shoulder pads and mullets.

Yep, every decade was the new debauched one. The 90s it was just with ecstasy (the pill variety, the sex might not have been described that way ). I've lost touch with trends these days (Fortnite and a quickie? ).

I was strolling by a group of girls who were chatting in the office one morning. They said hey Noivous what do you think of short bangs? I said you mean quickies? I'm all for them!😁

[Lencoboy]

If Dante had envisaged a tenth circle of hell then the Merry Hill Centre would be it!! What a waste of space and energy - when it was built I remember all the decent stores like M&S, Sainsburys etc promptly decamped from all the local high streets for the promise of cheap rents at the MHC ... to the detriment of high streets which then started to fall into terminal decline and 'pound shops. ..... Everyone I know says it is particularly inaccessible for non-car owners or people that value their sanity .... never been there myself and avoid it like the plague. Sutton Coldfield, Brum and Wolverhampton gone the same way ... wrecked by 'modernistation' and trying to cater for non-existent clientele who these days would rather shop online.

Perhaps we should form a Midlands town planning non-appreciation society...

But at least Solihull got it right with their Touchwood Centre, which is both slap bang in their town centre, and has a lot of desirable retail outlets and restaurants/cafes, plus has almost always been buzzing whenever I've past through there, on the way to see live shows at The Core Theatre (pre-pandemic), which is adjacent to Touchwood.

Though that in turn would still be a sensory overload-inducing hell-hole for me if I had to spend any long periods traipsing around there, but probably the lesser evil compared to MH, B'ham City Centre, etc.

[dorabella]

But at least Solihull got it right with their Touchwood Centre, which is both slap bang in their town centre, and has a lot of desirable retail outlets and restaurants/cafes, plus has almost always been buzzing whenever I've past through there, on the way to see live shows at The Core Theatre (pre-pandemic), which is adjacent to Touchwood.

Though that in turn would still be a sensory overload-inducing hell-hole for me if I had to spend any long periods traipsing around there, but probably the lesser evil compared to MH, B'ham City Centre, etc.

And poor old WB's 'golden shopping mile ' high street condensed into a cheap, idiotically planned island of grossly over-proportioned modern shopping temples, pound shops and the like, surrounded by snarling circular traffic flow .... thank god the old Library, Town Hall, Law Courts and the Art School in Lodge Road have listings slapped on them or they would have gone the way of the modernism bulldozer. They would even build rabbit-hutch housing on the Oak House and Manor House if they could. All so ugly and no cultural benefit whatsoever.

Ranting today I'm afraid.....