#winter of discontent

[whinlatter]

Beasts chapter 8 this week out now!

i will simply never stop with the vibes 🚂🧣☕️🏔️🌨️

art credits: sambourne house interior (royal borough of kensington and chelsea) | shakin steven by jerrybones | 155-oxford street in the late 1980s by warsaw1948 | picadilly by berk aksen | how soon is now/please please please let me get what i want by the smiths | the grapes by ron donoghue | modern life is rubbish by blur | sambourne house interior 2 | petit grand cafe by dutchamsterdam | a christmas carol by charles dickens

[georgefairbrother]

On the 22nd of January, 1979, life for the already beleaguered Callaghan government got a whole lot worse as tens of thousands of public sector workers joined crippling national strike action as part of the Winter of Discontent. Four major public service unions were incensed over the government’s policy of attempting to impose a ceiling on pay rises at 5%, as a means of inflation control, while workers at the privately owned Ford plant at Dagenham had recently negotiated a 17% rise. Ford had openly defied the government’s wage-restraint policy, despite the fact that the government was one of Ford’s major clients.

The public service unions represented a total of 1.5 million members, and argued that their members' pay, particularly for manual workers, was falling well behind private enterprise. They called for a minimum wage of 60 pounds and a 35 hour week.

The previous autumn, Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan had made the fateful decision not to call an early election, despite his minority government’s tenuous grip on power, stating, "The government must and will continue to carry out policies that are consistent, determined, that don’t chop or change and that brought about the present recovery in our fortunes…We can see the way ahead."

Opposition leader Margaret Thatcher was not best pleased, referring to the government as ‘chickens’ and stating, “The real reason he isn’t having an election is because he thinks he’ll lose."

Even Liberal leader David Steel, whose party had propped up the minority government through the Lib-Lab Pact, wasn’t happy, stating that the country was due for change and that an election was the only way to breath life into the four-year-old parliament.

As winter closed in, a nationwide transport strike created shortages of many essential commodities. NHS hospitals, ambulance services, rubbish collection, schools and even funeral and burial services were caught up in stoppages that created nationwide chaos. At one point 200 000 workers were temporarily laid off, and rubbish piled high in the streets.

Into this chaotic atmosphere returned Prime Minister Callaghan from a summit with US President Carter, French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing and the West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

The meeting had been held in the sunny Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe. Callaghan, looking 'relaxed and unconcerned' according to reports, said, "I don’t think that other people in the world would share the view that there is mounting chaos.”

He was rewarded by a famous headline in The Sun;

By the end of January, 1979, the strike ended with employers conceding to almost all of the various unions’ demands.

Opposition Leader Margaret Thatcher soon seized a golden opportunity to take command of the agenda. She introduced a motion of no confidence against the Government on March 28th, which passed by one vote, the first such successful motion since 1924. Jim Callaghan had no option but to go the country and an election was finally called, paving the way for 18 years of Tory government.

Following the inevitable election loss, Jim Callaghan stayed on as Opposition Leader until 1980 when he was succeeded by Michael Foot. He subsequently served in the Lords as Baron Callaghan of Cardiff and passed away in 2005, aged 92.

[acklum]

Nurses Strike

Against government advice

I drink enough to fall over.

When I manage to stay upright

I take that as a victory,

And drink again to celebrate.

[youcantcallmethat]

Why is Age of Ultron such a bad movie. How did Whedon mess up the throwaway action sequence at the beginning so badly?

[drdeejofficial]

[thoughtkick]

When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you’ve got two new people.

John Steinbeck; The Winter of Our Discontent

[perfectquote]

When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you’ve got two new people.

John Steinbeck; The Winter of Our Discontent

[quotefeeling]

When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you’ve got two new people.

John Steinbeck; The Winter of Our Discontent

[surqrised]

When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you’ve got two new people.

John Steinbeck; The Winter of Our Discontent

[maximura]

WAIT. THEY HAVE GREENLIT A DICK GRAYSON AND JASON TODD MOVIE. JASON? MY SILLY STABBY MAN? IN A MOVIE THAT MIGHT GET RELEASED? I AM EXCITED BUT ALSO. I’m feeling nervous about this, pookie.

[westerberg]

This was supposed to be the autumn of comedy yaoi

[georgefairbrother]

On March 23rd, 1977, just one year into the premiership of James Callaghan, the governing Labour Party faced a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons.  The minority government only survived by virtue of an arrangement with the Liberal Party; the Lib-Lab Pact.

 According to BBC News;

 "…In return the Liberal Party will be able to scrutinise future government policies and contribute their own policy proposals as part of a joint consultation committee to be overseen by the Leader of the House Michael Foot…"

The BBC also reported that some senior members of Callaghan’s Cabinet had reservations.  In what was seen as a test of the Prime Minister’s leadership, wavering Cabinet colleagues were convinced to fall in behind the arrangement for the stability of the government. 

Unsurprisingly, Conservative Opposition Leader Margaret Thatcher was not a fan, stating;

 "…it showed clearly that this government is more concerned to cling to office than it is to seek the verdict of the people…They have concluded a shadowy deal with the Liberal MPs based on one single identity of interest - the common dread of facing a general election…"

The issue of election readiness, or lack of, was probably a fair point. The Liberal Party, now under the leadership of  David Steel, was in no position to face an election (in the context of the times), following the departure of previous Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe in 1976, over publicised  issues surrounding his sexuality and personal life. (He would later be tried and acquitted for conspiracy and incitement to murder, with the judge highly critical of prosecution witnesses). Meanwhile, Labour would become an increasingly unpopular senior partner, with its failure to come to grips with with rising inflation, unemployment, and paralyzing industrial unrest.

The Lib-Lab pact expired in August 1978.  Rather than go to the country right away, Jim Callaghan decided to try and tough it out, but the destructive chaos of the nationwide Winter of Discontent strikes killed any chance of a political recovery.  In March of 1979, the government was more vulnerable than ever and Margaret Thatcher’s Tories steamed in once again. This time they had the numbers; their no confidence motion succeeded, and Labour was out of office within weeks.

[landwriter]

Absolutely begging you to write the Hob/Dream cheeseburgers and vengeance story

Back when I was doing Spotify Wrapped Prompts (remember those???) I made a list of what I would do for each of them before answering the actual asks (ie following the assignment before proceeding to not follow it at all). I am banned (by myself) from continuing them until Seventies San Francisco AU is done, since it was a Spotify Wrapped prompt before it was a 20K+ WIP, from an anon who has brought a curse upon my house (affectionate). BUT one of them, to finally arrive at the point, was Romance Dawn by Radkey:

canon verse between meetings, hob is a union organizer, hob is in the punk scene, hob is setting fires or putting them out, hob is at shows, hob is getting in fights, and the fierceness of it all transmits to his feelings for his stranger, and then one day he sees him, thinks it’s a dream (is it a dream?), he kisses him, tastes blood, something is wrong, wakes with vague memories, goes running back and back again, until he gets it out of him, where are you, fawney rig. and it’s maybe a fishbowl destruction fic. and like. london punk/hardcore scene & thatcherism & trade union strikes. burning down fawney rig. sort of green room energy but holy war against the burgesses. smashing it. saving dream. not even i. we. we will salt the fucking earth here.

Anyways, I think the cheeseburgers and vengeance would fit in great with that and Hob and his punk family deserve that experience.

cc: @fancy-rock-dove <3

[nightlyquotes]

When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you’ve got two new people.

John Steinbeck; The Winter of Our Discontent

[the-hearth-and-the-wild]

I have always from the time I was a child felt a curious excitement walking in new unmarked snow or frost. It is like being first in a new world, a deep, satisfying sense of discovery of something clean and new, unused, undirtied.

John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent

[thoughtkick]

When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you’ve got two new people.

John Steinbeck; The Winter of Our Discontent