Changing Britain 1979 - 1997

See our nation undergo rapid change as Margaret Thatcher sets about transforming Britain through radical economic and social reform.

For better or for worse, society changed in the 1980s. Large-scale privatisation, unthinkable at the start of the decade, was a commonplace by the end. De-industrialisation was matched by the dominance of the City. Mass unemployment, new legislation, and the defeat of the miners effectively destroyed the power of organised labour. Society became ever more marketised.

Altogether, it was a new socio-economic settlement that in the end was only palatable to the public when presented with a more human face: first John Major (PM from 1990, winning the 1992 election), then Tony Blair (with Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson, the architect of the New Labour phenomenon that won a landslide victory in 1997).

Ultimately, the winners outnumbered the losers, which meant that the Thatcher settlement survived; but those losers found themselves much worse off than they could have imagined before the 1980s.

There are lots of different ways to join us for the Changing Britain talks days. You can buy: ·

- a pass covering all three historical periods for £85*: 1945 – 1979 (18–19/4/15), 1979 - 1997 (25–26/4/15) and 1997 – 2015 (2/5/15)

- a pass covering one historical period for £40*

- individual day passes for £25*

All passes also gain you access to History Is Now: Seven Artists Take On Britain at Hayward Gallery, 10am - 11am on 18, 19, 25 and 26 April 2015.