We'd had over a million unemployed in Britain since the early 1970s. Rising to around one-and-half million by 1979. Now, in 1981, it was over two million and rapidly rising and the government did not appear, to many, to give a damn. All the Tories cared about was bringing inflation down. Inflation itself was in a dire state several years before Thatcher came to power, of course. The brilliant Ghost Town by the Specials, on the famous Two Tone label, captured the mood of frustration and decay - and Lefty 'paint the mood as grim as possible' wordings tried to convince you to vote Labour next time around. But the 'Do you remember the good old days before the ghost town?' lyrics struck hollow. We'd never danced and sung in a 'boomtown' in the financially dire 1970s, whichever party was in power. However, in the 1980s, Thatcher appeared to be to blame for everything. And the blame was often deserved. But the lyrics didn't always make sense. When the '80s boom happened a few years on, the Lefties denounced boom towns as being disgusting. Flipping heck, what a conundrum the 1980s were...
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