Abstract

Since the victory of the Conservative Party at the general election in May 1979 till her resignation in November 1990, Margaret Thatcher was a dominant figure in British society as prime minister. Her consecutive governments tried to reverse Britain's economic decline and embarked on radical reforms known as 'Thatcher's revolution'. She saw the social systems such as the welfare state which had been created by the Labour government elected after the Second world War had made British people dependent and weakened their spirits of self-reliance. Therefore, she determined to reduce the degree of state intervention and encouraged people to find virtues in individual success and self-help. In the 1980s, profitable nationalised industries were privatised, the size of the public sector was reduced by making thousands of workers redundant and public expenditure for the welfare state was curtailed. As a result, the number of the unemployed and the homeless increased sharply. While the rich got richer, the poor got poorer and the gap between the classes became bigger. Also the tension between the whites and the ethnic minorities became intensified seen in several riots in deprived areas of inner cities. Hence British people experienced many social changes under Thatcher's governments. By looking at a film, My Beautiful Laundrette which depicts racism, unemployment and Thatcherism, I will examine how those changes affected British society in the 1980s.