Late 1979. Apocalypse Now...Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz going mad. A world that has been going madder ever since.
The 1980s were the decade when the "modern" world started taking shape. Margaret Thatcher in London, Ronald Reagan in Washington. John Lennon shot dead in New York City by a "lone nut". The Soviet Union immersed in an unwinnable war in Afghanistan and slowly imploding as "star wars" technology threatened the status quo.
The emphasis was back on the individual rather than the common good. Controlling the money supply and "trickle down" economics were suddenly all the rage as mass unemployment was no longer morally unacceptable. Farewell Harold MacMillan and the post war consensus.
The dawn of neo conservatism was upon us. The eighties were a time when the Taliban were on the West's side against the "evil empire" of the Soviets and tax cuts for the better off and over three million unemployed men and women were the new normal.
In Britain, the Falklands War made Mrs Thatcher unbeatable for the rest of the decade. Michael Foot was a patriot and a decent man, but no match for the Iron Lady. Neil Kinnock seemed also to have his heart in the "right" place but his rambling oratory was just wish washy against the Prime Minister's straight to the point ultra certainty.
The "Big Bang" liberated the UK's financial market and the rise of the Yuppie contrasted with the fall of the working class. Computers entered businesses and homes and mobile phones began their takeover of the world. Britain was two nations again as the South East boomed and the North went bust.
In the end of course, Europe "did" for Mrs Thatcher. Little did we know then, however, that a quarter of a century later her successors would get their revenge with Brexit.
