Things Can Only Get Bitter: The Lost Generation of 1992

by Alwyn Turner

‘It is a great night. It is the end of socialism.’ Margaret Thatcher, 10 April 1992 Twenty years on from 1992and the effects are still being felt. Some of these are so global in their scale that they can not be ignored. It was, for example, the year when the Maastricht Treaty was signed, setting in train the process of creating a single European currency, and when Yugoslavia imploded in a series of brutal civil wars, an event that brought into being the doctrine of liberal interventionism, still depressingly evident in Afghanistan today. It was also, less obviously, the year when a generation finally turned its back on politics. These were the people born a few years either side of 1960 – the biggest demographic bulge in British history – whose adult political experience was of a seemingly permanent Conservative government. Disillusioned by the unexpected victory of the Tories in the 1992 general election, this generation turned its attention instead to capturing the commanding heights of national culture. For a brief period, it was successful, creating a cultural renaissance that reshaped the identity of the country. In the process, however, it sowed the seeds of its own destruction, while its absence from politics ceded the field to a group of homogenised professional politicians, who were allowed to emerge unchallenged. This is the story of that generation, refracted through some of the key cultural moments of 1992. Alwyn W. Turner is the author of a number of acclaimed books on modern British culture, including Crisis? What Crisis?: Britain in the 1970s, Rejoice! Rejoice!: Brtain in the 1980s, Halfway to Paradise and The Biba Experience.

Genres: Politics, Essays, History

90 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 22, 2012

Reviews

[Toby Philpott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revived Memories of a Politically Painful Year

I really enjoyed this review of the years between 1992-1997 or so. If I have to take mild issue, I think the author glossed over the strategic error which was Neil Kinnock getting ahead of himself in Sheffield and the vitriol in the Murdoch press.

My memory of the General Election of 1992 (in which I stood) was of a shift in mood soon after that Labour rally. It was noticeable to me that a pro-Tory swing was happening on the doorsteps in Birmingham in the last week of the campaign.

Still, the cultural and social commentary in the book more than makes up for some of the glossing over and fits with my memories of the time. Definitely an interesting read.

[David Robert Bloomer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ooh Margaret

He really doesn't like Mrs Thatcher does he? I think he makes a valid point about voter apathy but he really needs to get over his Thatcher phobia.

[Gavin Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much of Things Can Only Get Bitter... will seem very familiar to anyone that has also read Turner's A Classless Society: Britain in the 1990s . That doesn't stop this book being an interesting way to pass half a day or so. At only 90 pages, you can fly through this very quickly and that is a real strength. The appendices demonstrate Turner's main argument pretty starkly, showing how few political figures have emerged from his 'lost generation'. There's a lot more than 90s nostalgia here, although there is some. Turner not only explains how a decade and a half of Tory rule led many of the would be left wing thinkers to give up on politics altogether but also why that has been damaging to the UK and has contributed to the complete lack of distinction between the modern versions of the Conservative and Labour parties. Taken over, as they have been, by career politicians with all the principle of an empty crisp packet blowing in the wind. Turner does not however, suggest any solutions, but neither has anybody else as far as I'm aware.

[Ipswichblade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice short book about life and politics in the nineties