Social issues

• • Major's campaign had been launched after the ERM crisis in which he outlined the revert to more traditional values such as the importance of the family.
  • Something Major didn't consider was that Britain was a socially liberal country at the time so people people found this campagin disturbing 


  Back to basics campaign 1993
• • Negative attitudes began to grow and this began in the 80s, more specifically in 1987 with the identification of AIDS. The first case had been recorded in 1981 and gay men seemed to be more at risk so this is were the term 'gay plague'
  • 40 million people worldwide died of AID in 1981 


  Social conservatism of Thatcher and changes in attitude towards homosexuality
• • The fact that gay men and drug users were more prone to getting AIDS meant that government interaction with it would be controversial
  • Gov launched a prevention campaign in 1985 and TV ads had titles such as 'Don't die of ignorance'
  • In 1987, Princess Dianna challenged unpopular opinions about AIDS by shaking hands with an AIDS patient which helped to de-stigmatise patients. 


  AIDS
• • fear of AIDS stirred up prejudice about homosexuals and 'looney left' councils were accused of promoting homosexual lifestyles by funding support groups.
  • Section 28 was passed which banned the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities in 1988. Although, it wasn't directly aimed ta schools many believed that it made it illegal to discuss homosexuality in schools. 


  Homosexuality and councils
• • used direct action, threating to out gay clergy and MPs
  • the different age of consent of 21 was challenged and brought to ECHR which was lowered to 18 for same sex couples in 1994, but it wasn't lowered to 16 until 2000 and made illegal to ban homosexuals in the military.
  • British Social Attitudes Survey found that a % of people who believed sexual relations of same sex couples were wrong fell from 70% in 1987 and 50% in 1998. 


  Outrage
• • family campaigners feared future of marriage as divorce rate was high in the 90s and % of unmarried people having children doubled from 12% in 80s to 30% in the 90s.
  • 1992 Peter Lilley: sang a song in conservative party conference saying things like 'there's young ladies who get pregnant just to jump the housing queue'
  • To counter this, Child Support Agency set up in 1993 to ensure absent parents paid maintenance for their children.

  Moral panics
• • Major aim in 90s was to create a classless society in Britain and in this period we can see a rise in the criticism of people in traditional authority.
  • This can be seen through the criticism of the monarchy
  • Decline in deference in the establishment.

  Anti-establishment culture
• • Rough time between 1987-997
  • marriage of 3/4 of the Queen's children broke down and an extramarital affair was proved through phone recordings which was all over the tabloids.
  • This shift in attitude comes from the financiering of Windsor castle after a fire in 1992 as people thought that this would come out their taxes so in the end the Queen had agreed to pay tax on her private income as well cutting the civil list.
  • This continued when the suffering of Princess Diana was exposed and when she passed as the Queen was accused of not caring. 


  Monarchy
• • Young British Artists led by Damian Hirst which created art from materials that weren't usually associated with art such as dead animals 


  Arts and anti-establishment
• • Late 1980s 'acid house', dance music, arrived from the US as well as 1988-89 known as the 'Second summer of love' as an explosion of raves and free parties was on the rise

  Youth and the establishment
• • Due to the rise in the use of ecstasy the gov passed Criminal Justice and Public Order Act in 1994 which gave more power to the police tot break up free parties
  • This overlapped with growing direct action with the envrionmental movement.

  Government response to youth
• • series of protests against road developments which started at Twyford Down M3 extension in 1992 and spread to other cities
  • They brough together a wide range of people such as local residents and environmental campaigners

  Environmental groups
• A move away from second to third wave feminism which was more focused on challenging stereotypes about women involving race and sexuality from second wave which was seen in the 60s in which a range of legislation was passed to support women legally and financially. As a result, underground Riot Gurrl grew in which sang about feminist issues. By the end of 90s the message of 'girl power' rose and was led by Spice Girls. 


  Feminism in the 90s
• • She was the first female PM so in a way her position did show that women are capable of a lot
  • One member of spice girls described her as the 'first lady of girl power' after her death in 2013
  • Some argue that Thatcher actually did very little for feminism as she only had one female cabinet member and did nothing to encourage more women in Parliament
  • In an interview in 82' she said I owe nothing to Women's Lib'

  Feminism and Thatcher
• • First female speaker of the house in 1992, Betty Boothroyd
  • first ordination of women priests in 1994
  • 1994: rape within marriage was illegalised
  • Increasingly normal for women to work , by 1993 68% of women of the working age were in employment and by 1996 50% of employees were women
  • Women's pay improved but it was still 80% of mens. 


  Women's advancement
• Late 80s Britain appeared to be more comfortable with multiculturalism unlike between 1979-87 there were no mass outbreaks of disorder. A series of riots happened in 1991 and 1992 in towns and cities across country from Oxford to Newcastle. In 1987, 4 non-white candidates won a seat since the 1920s. There were tensions between young black men and the police. 


  Society and race relations
• • Black a-level student who was murdered by a gang of white youths at a bus stop in southeast London.
  • The identity of these youths was believed to be known but CPS decided it was not enough evidence to convict them.
  • Police was widely criticised for not investigating the case properly and assuming that a black young student was more likely to be a perpetrator than the victim.
  • After failing to get any convictions, his parents continued to campaign for justice.

  Stephen Lawrence
• • Following a campaign in the Daily Mail in 1998 the Labour government order a public enquiry into the case chaired by a High Court judge
  • Macpherson Report concluded that the Met Police was had been incompetent and was institutionally racist. 


  Significance of Stephen Lawrence
• • 90s a sharp increase in asylum seekers rose from countries like Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq with the continuation of immigrants coming from the commonwealth such as India which were often relatives of those already living in the UK.
  • Many of these immigrants were Muslim and questions about their integration into British society was raised. 


  Social cohesion and race
• • Published by Salman Rushdie a British India which was considered blasphemous by many Muslims
  • Some British Muslims accepted the publishing of the book and others protested and burned the book.

  The Satanic Verses 1988