Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE BIG BANG
In 1986, at the same time as homelessness and unemployment were on the increase, the
so-called “
Big Bang
”, which abolished a whole range of restrictive practices on the Stock
Exchange, took place. The immediate effect of this deregulation was that foreign banks began
to take over brokers and form new, competitive conglomerates. The side effect, however, was
to send stocks and shares into the stratosphere, shortly after which they inevitably crashed,
ushering in a recession that dragged on for the best part of the next ten years. The one great
physical legacy of the Thatcherite experiment in the capital is the
Docklands
development
(see p.205), a new business quarter in the derelict docks of the East End, which came about as
a direct result of the Big Bang.
classes (the yuppies of the 1980s), the erosion of the manufacturing industry and
weakening of the welfare state created a calamitous number of people trapped in
long-term unemployment, which topped three million in the early 1980s. The Brixton
riots of 1981 and 1985 and the Tottenham riot of 1985 were reminders of the price
of such divisive policies, and of the long-standing resentment and feeling of social
exclusion rife among the city's black youth.
Nationally, the Labour Party went into sharp decline, but in London the party won a
narrow victory in the GLC elections on a radical manifesto that was implemented by
its youthful new leader
Ken Livingstone
, or “Red Ken” as the tabloids dubbed him.
Under Livingstone, the GLC poured money into projects among London's ethnic
minorities, into the arts and, most famously, into a subsidized fares policy which saw
thousands abandon their cars in favour of inexpensive public transport. Such schemes
endeared Livingstone to the hearts of many Londoners, but his popular brand of
socialism was too much for the Thatcher government, who, in 1986, abolished the
GLC, leaving London as the only European capital without a directly elected body to
represent it.
Abolition exacerbated tensions between the poorer and richer boroughs of the
city. Rich Tory councils like Westminster proceeded to slash public services and
sell off council houses to boost Tory support in marginal wards. Meanwhile in
impoverished Labour-held Lambeth and Hackney, millions were being squandered
by corrupt council employees.
Homelessness
returned to London in a big way for
the first time since Victorian times, and the underside of Waterloo Bridge was
transformed into a “Cardboard City”, sheltering up to two thousand vagrants on
any one night. Great efforts were made by nongovernmental organizations to
alleviate homelessness, not least the establishment of a weekly magazine, the
Big Issue
, which continues to be sold by the homeless right across London, earning
them a small wage.
Thatcher's greatest folly, however, was the introduction of the
Poll Tax
, a head tax
levied regardless of means, which hit the poorest sections of the community hardest.
The tax also highlighted the disparity between the city's boroughs. In wealthy,
Tory-controlled Wandsworth, Poll Tax bills were zero, while those in poorer,
neighbouring, Labour-run Lambeth were the highest in the country. In 1990, the
Poll Tax provoked the first full-blooded riot in central London for a long time, and
played a significant role in Thatcher's downfall later that year.
1956
1966
1971
1973
Clean Air Act
England win the World
Cup at Wembley
Decimal currency
introduced
Britain joins the EEC
