What were the best bits about living in Britain in 1984? Despite a decided national tendency to ‘deplore discuss and dissect what is wrong’ (pub opening hours, football hooligans, the weather, Page Three, Margaret Thatcher) the Observer came up with a list of 99 ‘random and subjective’ reasons why Britain was still Great.
There are plenty you could guess: the Beatles, black cabs and crumpets; Pimm’s, panto dames, pubs, the Sunday papers. Some more overarching ideas about ourselves haven’t changed: the pervasive nostalgia behind the inclusion of country cottages, Georgian architecture, teatime and landscape painting is as heady as ever.
The NHS being ‘best seen as a triumph of devoted workers over the best efforts of Department of Health officials to screw it up’ feels familiar; TV drama in the era of Boys from the Blackstuff and Brideshead was already ‘something to be smug about’ and The Archers was the ‘voice of the middle classes’.
Others feel like a distant dream: what were ‘flag days’ (a charity collection of sorts) or a ‘floral clock’ (a horological themed municipal flowerbed, apparently)? Telephone boxes, the hovercraft, Woodbines and, sadly, libraries are virtually extinct. Speaking of which, the introduction emphasised how crucial state support had been in bolstering ‘national parks, lollipop ladies, Torvill and Dean, Blackpool’s illuminations, Radio 4, Ordnance Survey maps’ in ways that would surely be impossible now. Stranger still is the statement that Britain had the ‘Capacity to create islands of excellence where talented or committed individuals can work with a sense of security, free from pressure for instant profit.’
It’s cheerier to focus on some of the pleasingly neat definitions: trains – definitely not something you would consider the best of Britain 40 years on – made the list with ‘Puff-puffs may have gone but buff-buffs survive’; the Cup Final got ‘Sweet FA’. Best of all, perhaps, a queue was: ‘The shortest distance between two points without stepping out of line.’
