by Peter Beresford, professor of social policy at Brunel University
It's now 30 years since I painted this picture which at the time I called 'Royal Wedding and Riots'. Now a generation later we seem to be coming full circle. The media have been desperately puffing William and Kate's wedding but many people seem too worried about their own immediate insecurity to show much real interest. We have seen people's jobs and lives arbitrarily undermined with the application of the most draconian cuts in public spending, while bankers and other aspiring members of the super rich are encouraged to grow richer and widen inequalities. And now we have seen the first riots of 2011, first the anarchists attacking banks and multi-nationals on March 26th and now in Bristol, anti-Tesco protestors. Lined up is a summer of strikes, marches and demonstrations. One year into this government and 'big society' and 'all in it together', look a lot more like truly broken Britain and 'I'm alright Jack'.
In 1981, we saw major riots in Bristol as well as Brixton and Liverpool. In Battersea, where I live and this painting was set, shopfronts were boarded up, cars set alight and young people took to the streets. It was the prelude to much worse; smashed industries, mass unemployment, crushed regions, battered health service, neglected public services and a social care system that has never yet recovered, leaving many thousands of older and disabled people out in the cold.
Now's not really the time to say what a tragic lost opportunity New Labour represented, as it followed the economic and moral paths of Thatcher and Major. It began with such a wave of public relief and support that it really could have challenged the Murdoch media, multi-nationals and finance houses - if it had had the values and self-belief to do so. But instead it colluded with them and got us to where we are today.
If ever there were a time when we should accept that positive change is only likely to come from the bottom-up rather than top-down, it is now. The 26 March rally and march are a key token of that. But so are the efforts of progressive anti-cuts organisations, the service user and carer movements and radical groupings like the Social Work Action Network. We aren't on our own, but we will need to look mainly to ourselves rather than traditional powers-that-be like trade union and Labour party leaderships if we want to see positive change for the next generation. This time round few of us will have to make too conscious an effort to miss the royal wedding, or to be aware of the details of the royal bride's wedding dress. There is just to much to do for each other and our children.
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