2012 Annual Conference Lecture

Shot by both sides: Punk, Politics and the collapse of consensus in Britain

Matthew Worley: Reader in History, University of Reading

This paper examines the way in which organisations of the far left and far right endeavoured to appropriate elements of British youth culture to validate their analysis of British politics and society in the late 1970s. In particular, it focuses on punk - seen by sections of both the political left and right as a cultural expression of social and political crisis. It argues that by taking such a ‘cultural turn', both sides of the political spectrum served to undermine the principal basis on which they had initially built their core support.

 

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