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by Alwyn W Turner
now available...
About Me
- Alwyn W. Turner
- ...is a writer living in London. His next book will be The Last Post: Music, Remembrance and the Great War. Previous work includes a trilogy on modern British history: Crisis? What Crisis?, Rejoice! Rejoice! and A Classless Society, and some stuff about popular culture in Britain: The Biba Experience, Halfway to Paradise, Glam Rock, Portmeirion and The Man Who Invented the Daleks. That sort of thing.
Blog Archive
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2012
(87)
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March
(19)
- The missing generation of British politics
- Ziggy Stardust and the Plaque From Mars
- Things Can Only Get Bitter - the video
- Jocky Wilson Says
- Quote for the Week 15
- Passing the Tebbit Test
- New Statesman online
- University of Chichester
- The New Statesman (again)
- Dr Rowan Williams
- The Unswung Sixties
- The New Statesman
- Doctor in the House
- It was twenty-five years ago today (or thereabouts)
- Top Ten: Cultural Highlights of 1992
- Norman St John Stevas
- Janice Atkinson-Small
- Quote for the Week 14
- All thro' the House..
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March
(19)
Labels
- 1940s (1)
- 1950s (3)
- 1960s (3)
- 1970s (8)
- 1980s (7)
- 1990s (2)
- A Classless Society (26)
- Aurum (17)
- BBC (11)
- Biba (8)
- Billy Fury (4)
- Brian Freeborn (3)
- Bryan Gould (4)
- Charles Moore (3)
- Clough Williams-Ellis (3)
- Crisis? What Crisis? (33)
- Cult Rock Posters 1972-1982 (3)
- Daily Mail (10)
- Daily Mirror (1)
- Daily Telegraph (10)
- Dan Atkinson (8)
- David Aaronovitch (3)
- David Bowie (8)
- David Cameron (16)
- Doctor Who (6)
- Dominic Sandbrook (4)
- Ed Balls (4)
- Ed Miliband (20)
- Edwina Currie (3)
- Enoch Powell (5)
- European Union (4)
- First World War (4)
- Gary Glitter (4)
- gay marriage (4)
- Giles Radice (3)
- glam rock (9)
- Gordon Brown (7)
- Halfway to Paradise (21)
- Harold Wilson (5)
- Harry Goodwin (10)
- Harry Hammond (23)
- Hugo Frey (3)
- Iain Dale (3)
- Janice Atkinson-Small (3)
- Jeremy Vine (3)
- Jerry Lee Lewis (3)
- Jim Callaghan (4)
- Jimmy Savile (6)
- John Major (8)
- John Summers (9)
- Ken Livingstone (7)
- Labour Party (14)
- Larry Parnes (3)
- Let us now praise (3)
- Magic Gardens (3)
- Mail on Sunday (5)
- Margaret Thatcher (17)
- Mary Whitehouse (4)
- Mojo (6)
- My Generation (11)
- New Statesman (10)
- NHS (3)
- Nick Clegg (3)
- Nick Cohen (3)
- Nigel Farage (8)
- Norman Tebbit (3)
- Olympic Games (5)
- paedophilia (7)
- Peter Hitchens (3)
- Portmeirion (4)
- Prince Charles (3)
- Question Time (4)
- quote for the week (20)
- Radio 2 (3)
- Radio 4 (4)
- Radio Five Live (5)
- Rejoice Rejoice (16)
- Richard Littlejohn (3)
- Roger Lewis (4)
- Sam Harrison (6)
- Scotland (3)
- Simon Heffer (4)
- Stand Down Margaret (3)
- Steve Thomas (5)
- Sunday Times (4)
- The Age of Insecurity (3)
- The Guardian (7)
- The Last Post (7)
- The Man Who Invented the Daleks (22)
- The Spectator (4)
- The Sun (3)
- The Sweeney (3)
- The Times (4)
- Things Can Only Get Bitter (16)
- Tony Benn (5)
- Tony Blair (19)
- Tony Hancock (3)
- Top of the Pops (6)
- top ten (10)
- Trash Fiction (5)
- UKIP (11)
- University of Chichester (6)
- V and A (22)
- Wales (3)
- William Hague (3)
- Yesterday's Papers (5)
4 comments:
Bought the print edition, and thought it was an excellent article! I'd heard that theory somewhere before, that virtually no one at the top of British politics or business was born between 1955 and 1964, but to see it graphically was striking...
Very well done all round!
Thanks, Kieran.
In the News Statesman piece I list the senior Labour figures by decade of birth, but in the e-book, where I've got more room, I list all those born since 1905 who've served as prime minister, deputy prime minister/first sercretary of state, chancellor of the exchequer, foreign secretary or home secretary.
This is how the figures break down, in terms of dates of birth:
1905-14: 8
1915-24: 12
1925-34: 7
1935-44: 8
1945-54: 11
1955-64: 3
1965-74: 4 (and counting)
I'd add that those three from the missing generation aren't really quite the same calibre. Without wishing to be mean, I don't believe Jacqui Smith or Theresa May is likely to be remembered as a great home secretary, though who knows how William Hague will turn out.
By comparison, the lowest scoring previous decade (1925-34) included the slightly more memorable Margaret Thatcher, Nigel Lawson and Michael Heseltine.
It doesn't get any better as the figures become more detailed...
And are you trying to suggest that Jacqui Smith *won't* go down in history as influential a minister as Michael Heseltine and Nigel Lawson?!
Let's be charitable and say she's likely to be remembered as being in the same league as David Waddington.
Though if I were writing about the last decade, I'd be unable to resist mention of her husband's viewing habits.
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