THATCHERISM.
Thatcherism in the early 80’s had a great impact on Skinhead culture.Skinhead style was already influenced by the working class, and with the arrival of Thatcher’s post war consensus and its trademarks like; The government abandoning its commitment to full employment, stating this was the responsibility of employers and employees, and accorded priority instead to keeping inflation low.
At the 1983 general election, in spite of unemployment doubling to some three million, the government won a landslide victory thanks in large part to Labour’s divisions and its left-wing policies.
“If it was law [to vote] I’d vote Labour ‘cos of its tradition and what it stood for when it was formed – power to the people, defenders of the poor and all that. But it ain’t that now, it’s not working class. It’s a middle-class social club! I’m a Militant at heart. I like their policies of, like, the abolition of the House of Lords and the monarchy, but I don’t like their leaders. They ain’t working class are they? They might be in Liverpool but not London.”
– Bushell
skinheads.