1985 - A harsh and divisive year under Thatcher as I enjoy family life, create The Hayling View mansion and achieve recognition and may bear Arms

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Published: 31 December 2015 31 December 2015

A year of record UK unemployment, industrial collapse, divisiveness and hardship at home and abroad as the decline of the Thatcher years see her losing friends and supporters by her economic experiments and resolute political prejudice that ends in endemic violence, riots and then subsequent repression of any dissent and delays to the process of liberalising South Africa and freeing its black population from Apartheid, whilst welcoming deployment of nuclear arms on British soil. After a year of famine and deprivation in Ethiopia, it was left to pop musicians as Band Aid to provide some relief. A glimmer of hope ends the year as a USSR/USA nuclear arms limitation agreement seems on the cards. On the other hand, a successful year personally and for my family as I am recognised by the granting of my own Coat of Arms and achieve some computer industry goals early in the year, before retiring to spend some very enjoyable family holidays and cruises on our boat and massive progress in creating The Hayling View, our new riverside mansion and gardens. 

A year that started with both icy weather and chilly economy with record unemployment against a background of industrial collapse as the misery of strike-torn and unemployed Britain eating away at Thatcher’s credibility as she faced widespread criticism but ended with some hope of world peace and even nuclear arms control  as the US and USSR get close to agreement.  Also some signs emerge that the oppressive regime in South Africa is weakening with apartheid has its future under challenge but it has yet to be reformed. It is left to the Band-Aid appeal  to tackle the humanitarian crisis with the Ethiopians caught all year in a famine of biblical proportions that governments ignored.