Monday, August 27, 2012

Redefining the decades


Alwyn Turner ‘s e-book, Things Can Only Get Bitter, dissects the generation born 1955-64 which is missing from politics, but has stormed the cultural world (including teaching) & produced lots of star commentators – particularly on the Left.

These were the first who were forced by law to stay at school until their 16th birthday.

Fewer went into traditional male manual jobs.

Fewer joined unions.

The 1992 election the clincher, turned them all off; the Guardian carried an article about how many had realised they would never get to make their contribution to running the country, even on an NHS board or other quango, because they had signed up to the wrong gang.

The fact that they are missing from politics is something which I half noticed in the coverage of the last election.

Have we been focussing on the wrong decades? Instead of The Thirties, Sixties etc we should be looking at the Inbetweenies, whose dates of birth straddled the years ending in zero.

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