Saturday, May 12, 2007

Back to the Seventies

One of the naffest things about Britain these days is the growing addiction to the styles and culture of the Seventies. I was six when the Seventies started and sixteen when they ended, and I shudder at the things I was subjected to.

1. Power Cuts. The Unions were able to turn the power off! The government had to ask people to work three days a week so as to save energy. You'd be having tea and the lights would go out. There was a strike of some sort nearly all the time. Not sure I don't miss this, on reflection.

2. Joseph (And His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat). This is being inflicted on us again by the BBC with a talent show to pick a lead actor. Andrew Lloyd Webber's survival as a leading creative force in British theatre is a hell of an indictment. When I hear the songs from that dire musical my skin feels as if it belongs to someone else and my stomach gives a kind of nasty lurch.

3. The food. But prawn cocktails and Black Forest Gateaux are now gaining some kind of retro respect!

4. Racism. Casual, and promoted by LWT in shows like 'Love Your Neighbour', driven underground in the eighties and nineties but now fighting back strongly via councils seats in backwaters like Yorkshire under the flag of the BNP.

5. The colour Brown. You look for it, it's coming back. You'll see brown cars soon, mark my words. And he's the next PM!