Great post NI, you saved me an hour putting together something not as good…
Alcy, people everywhere often think in the way you describe, that the past was always a better place, things aren’t the same now, everything’s got worse, it’s not like when I was a lad, etc. etc. Just look at how Alf Garnett used to rail against his own time, with its gay lib and blacks ‘everywhere’ and bra burners, and that was in one of your golden eras!
Romanticising the past is pure grandadology, but it’s not history.
True, there were a lot of legal reforms in the 60s and 70s which made life more equal for gays, blacks, and women in terms of pay, discrimination, reproductive rights and and not being locked up for your sexuality. But a lot of the time, and far from ‘that London’, attitudes stayed entrenched. Discrimination of all kinds was widespread, with marriage bars in some jobs, meaning women couldn’t work if they were married, and if they did could expect less pay. Gays were widely seen as either tragic or comic, and had to ‘hide it’, and for blacks and Asians both in society and on the sportsfield, it could be hell, and remained so for many years. For some, it still is.
But taking a critical look at history is not about hating Britain, on the contrary, it’s because we can open our eyes and see things clearly that we like it here.
