This is England

This is England is a film telling the story of England during the eighties, an era with miner strikes, the Falklands war, skinheads, National Front, the working class and of course Margaret Thatcher.

The setting is England in 1983. Shaun is a lost boy with no friends. His father was killed in the Falklands War, which of course has had a large impact on his life. Shaun and his mother live in a grey town of England, a place with high unemployment- due to the shut down of coal mines and Thatcher's policy of free market. One day he meets a group of skinheads, a group of people who will change his life completely. Their friendship develops to something more, they become like a family. One day the leader of the gang returns from prison. This changes everything. He is more aggressive than the others and he is in need to express his opinions. . He, as well of the rest of the middle class struggles. The Thatcher administration has caused problems for them. Fighting a war and spending money on it, instead of trying to fix the unemployment, and letting immigrants into the country, creates the hatred Combo and his friends have. Combo himself believes that what he is doing is for the best to his country- he is a nationalist. At the end, Shaun ends his friendship with Combo. They are way too different. All Shaun wanted, I think, was to make a statement, to show he was angry because of the loss of his father. He didn’t want to kill people because of their nationality, but to get his father back.

The first thought that stroked me while watching the film was it couldn’t be that good, it couldn’t possibly tell the story as well as a documentary, but I was wrong. This is England is such a mind-gripping, real, powerful and honest film. The actors are credible and captivate me with their honesty. It depictures how England was and how it developed, how the war affected people and politics. This is England is the perfect film to watch if you want to see how the nationality rose in the white working class community during the eighties. An absolutely remarkable film!

The Falklands War

The inhabitants of The Falklands were (and still are) mostly Brits. Their ancestors were settlers from England, USA, Australia and New Zealand. The Falkland Islands became one of Britain’s crown colonies. In 1981 the Falkland Islands were named as a British-Dependent Territory.

On April 2^nd 1982 Argentina invaded the Islands and claimed control of them. They wanted their old territory back, the one Britain stole from them. But the Islands have always been fought over, by Argentina, Britain, France and Spain throughout the history. Since 1833 the Brits have lived there. Therefore the need of keeping the Islands was huge. They wanted to protect their people. In 1982 Argentina had had enough and claimed sovereignty.
The war lasted for two months- ending on June 14^th. By then 258 Brits and 649 Argentineans had lost their lives. The Brits spent a lot of money to win this war- and at the end they did. The Islands continued to remain under British control. But, Argentina will today not let go of the Islands.

The people in the UK thought the war was completely unnecessary, maybe not to protect the British inhabitants, but to spend a lot of money. Back home the unemployment rate was high. Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister at that time. Her economic policy was reduced state intervention, free markets and entrepreneurialism. This of course, caused unemployment. Only the strongest survived. They were indignant and didn’t support her decisions.

Margaret Thatcher’s resignation as Prime Minister was in 1990, after a reign of eleven years. Her policy was to save the British economy. When she resigned the country was in deep economically problems, because of her free marked.

Are we really THAT cruel?

During the last couple of days we have experienced numerous bush fires in Australia. The number of killed and hurt increases as the days goes by. Today 181 are confirmed dead, but the real numbers are higher.

Pursuant to the news the fires aren't innocent forest fires- they are caused by arsonists. By now to men are arrested, charged for arson. Is this some kind of chain reaction- when one lights the fire; others have to do the same? We experienced the same thing in California a few months ago. There as well, it was deemed as arson.
Because of these barbaric, horrible people towns are burned to the ground, families wiped out, effaced communities and destroyed forests. Due to heavy wind and hot temperature the firemen struggles to take control over the fire, and bad gets even worse. Australia has never experienced something like this, and as the situation is today it seems like it will never end.
The Australian Prime Minister said this was nothing else than a mass murder. There are no words to describe how terrible this is.

Dirty money?

The conflict in Northern Ireland has been reborn, between the terrorists and the victims. The hatred is yet there. The people who lost their family and friends are finally getting a symbolic amount of money, compensation. But now they have to face the fact that everyone who lost someone will receive the amount of damages- even the terrorists’ family. Of course that will create debate and displeasure from the victims’ family.

I understand why they react so strongly and refuse to accept the money. They are angry, hurt and doesn’t want to compare themselves with those who knew those horrible and cruel people. How on earth could the Government put them in the same position? We wouldn’t accept to give money to the families of the terrorists who attacked the Twin Towers. But why is that so bad? Were they meaner? I think it can be harder because they live in another part of the world- not in the neighbourhood.

Well, aren’t we all equal? Even though a father and husband was a terrorist and a murderer doesn’t mean his children and family are the same. They have too lost a family member and probably miss him as much as the other families do. It is as the Lord Eames says: There’s no difference in a mother’s tears. Therefore, the only right thing to do is to give all of them money.