Unemployment in the 1980s | 1980s Britain | Merseyside | Tees Street isn't working | TV Eye | 1985

Please note that this is a shortened version of the original programme
‘TV eye’ reports from a street where nobody over 21 has a job - except for a blind man who works as a telephonist in the office where the unemployed sign on. Reporter Denis Tuohy talks to the families in Tees street, Birkenhead - on Merseyside - about their fears for the future.
First shown: 28/11/1985
To license a clip please e mail: [e-mail]
Quote: VT34612

[@s727r]

My dad was unemployed in the 80s, remember him being home a lot, having to walk to interviews in the pissing rain, getting constant letters about being unsuccessful after an interview. It was horrible to see him so dejected all the time, he eventually got a job with a building company as a labourer in 89 , but the damage to his mental health and self esteem was already done. He took his life in Feb 1990. Cue a round of suffering for us at the hands of the tories, our situation left us entitled to little to no help and my mum struggled for years sometimes we had bugger all to eat and relied on good friends a lot. I'm amazed she's still alive tbh.

[@davedogge2280]

Sorry to hear that, I was in the 80s with just my mother around Preston. My biological father was a deadbeat dad in a foreign country, never called us, never helped us financially and was a toxic narcissist and beat my mother up when I was an infant and we were living abroad, similar to the JK Rowling early story with her in Portugal but my mother didn't write an international best seller.

[@patkearney9320]

Your story makes me angry I knew men who like your father faced the same demons, men who wanted nothing more than to provid for there families and maybe a few pints the weekend. They gave so much for so little I hope you know peace and thank you for reminding people that what was done to a generation of working class men was WRONG.

[@06hurdwp]

It's all well and good banging on about the tories but Labour betrayed the working class

[@markrounding2731]

I got caught up in Thatchers destruction of the northern industries, I could not watch the Bleasdale play 'The boys from the blackstuff', as it reflected my life. The Netherlands saved me, providing work my own country refused to provide fro me and others. I despise the tories.

[@JACKPOTTT777]

Was it that bad during the 80s in the UK ?

[@kevinmcmahon7182]

My dad took us to Canada so my siblings and I could have a future, I am forever grateful to him

[@antman5474]

And then covid happened. Trudeau left a dark stain on your world renowned for its civility and amialibility. Same thing happened down under. Bad, just bad.

[@geoffdundee]

@kevinmcmahon7182 ..... my dad was a loser,heavy drinker and gambler...........his best friend went to canada andwas going to pay for my whole family to go across as my dad was a briliant cabinet maker,joiner,designer......my mum wanted to take us...my dad said no.....they were divorced 2 years later thank fcuk..........canada wouldve been the perfect change for everyone.

[@pissiole5654]

@@pm3302 that's what my dad did haha

[@andys2856]

Wish I went to Canada.

[@kevinmcmahon7182]

We were also supposed to go to Rhodesia but he messed that one up too

[@whitelines3097]

I worked on the building sites in Germany in the early 80s, bricklaying. Two people in our gang were sleeping in the tool hut to save money, they were in danger of losing their houses in the UK and were desperately doing their best to send the money home to their wives to pay the mortgage. These problems are coming back to the UK again.

[@dcasteaux9181]

Agree. I recall the crippling 15% interest rates in the later 1990s, my mortgage doubled and I nearly lost my house. At the time I had 4 jobs to keep things going. Today I know people who are mortgaged to the eyeballs on low-rate fixed deals. Some have even remortgaged to get that new electric car on their driveway. Their pain is coming. Fast.

[@bulltraderpt]

"These problems are coming back to the UK again." Are they though? There's so many opportunities here in the UK, we are importing boat people to help! Sarcasm mode well and truly on.

[@i_know_youre_right_but]

@@bulltraderptmate I’ve said the same. We have a labour shortage, getting a job hasn’t been this easy in years!

[@Pierrick2009]

Except thanks to Brexit you can’t work In Germany anymore 😂

[@squibys2262]

How dare they go abroad to find work to look after their families

[@martyjones1413]

I left school in 83 (St Helens) and was very lucky to do a trade. Emigrated to Australia in 88, job done! now retired.

[@chchedda]

What trade?

[@martyjones1413]

@@chchedda Fitter & Turner

[@nibbletouch7566]

Nice

[@Zopicloned]

I was born in St Helens, lots of people from there ended up emigrating to australia. Sadly getting out of the UK without a degree has become a pipe dream

[@chchedda]

@@Zopicloned having a trade helps

[@bulltraderpt]

Climbing roofs without any safety equipment to fit tv arieals! Wow just wow, fair play to him.

[@adriantowe278]

He did in a pire of shoes respect

[@th8257]

People who don't really remember the 80s, or look at it through ridiculous rose coloured spectacles, think it was amazing. This is what it was actually like in the UK's cities. Desolate and impoverished. It was a time of abject misery for millions.

[@masterperros]

For post industrials areas that were almost dead in the 70s but Thatcher finally killed them in the early 80s. Other parts of Britain, specially the suburbs of London, had a boom during those years.

[@neilhilton35]

​@@masterperrosYes. Thatcher encouraged yuppies in the City of London. 21 year olds becoming millionaires by trading. What could possibly go wrong by relying on the financial markets as the main stay of your economy. A crash!

[@coderider3022]

It was a raging success overall but did destroy a generation in areas which never moved with the times. Shipbuilding and coal related.

[@neilhilton35]

@@coderider3022 It was not a raging success at all. It has left the UK the laughing stock of the world. EDF own our nuclear and sell electricity to us at double the price. The 100% mark up is used to subsidise energy prices to the French themselves. The financial collapse in 2007/8. Food banks. Wake up!

[@apoch2001]

Those places are just as miserable today as then but Sky, sports betting and easy loans has helped to placate the masses.

[@adrianhallchannel]

A lot of music, film and television these days shows the 80s in a glamorous light - but this is what it was really like. Grim and depressing.

[@Stringbean421]

No more grim and depressing than it is nowadays with high unemployment, lack of both private and social housing, can't get to see a doctor, appalling NHS waiting lists and a general degradation of our infrastructure due to mass uncontrolled immigration. At least back in the 70s and 80s you weren't sanctioned by the benefits office like you can be nowadays. Being unemployed nowadays is more brutal than it was back then.

[@MARAK709]

@@Stringbean421 Thanks to the Tories.

[@solidstateresistor2485]

@@MARAK709 Really? Our town was Labour controlled for over 30 years and it was and still is a sh@t hole. Do you know any tory supporting solicitors who are aiding economic migrants to stay here and claim benefits?

[@housinauthority5258]

​@@Stringbean421High unemployment? Where? Employment remains high

[@Stringbean421]

@@housinauthority5258 Best do your research Son otherwise you end up looking like a fool. Google is your best friend. The UK unemployment rate was 4.0%, and 1.37 million people aged 16+ were unemployed. Unemployment levels have risen in the last quarter and over the last year.

[@genuine_legend]

I was born in 1984 and my Dad lost his full time job about 6 weeks after i was born. My Mum was working part time as she was already looking after my 2 year old sister and they had a mortgage over their heads in Croxteth wondering how on earth would they make it work. I still speak about those times to my parents now, about how desolate the situation was in Liverpool and how on earth they managed. Sometimes we forget about fortunate we are.

[@charlietwotimes]

I grew up on the other side of the world; a descendant of the Irish diaspora + Northern immigrants. This is how I remember the North being not the candy-coated nonsense of nostalgia. Thatcher was almost universally loathed, both over there and around the world. I certainly have very different memories of the Falklands war also. Wasn't the "cakewalk" young ones think it was. Was a bloody terrible decade and it's heartbreaking to see the UK sliding back toward this right now. Tories have got the working class fighting each other again.. But that won't last. A reckoning is coming.

[@gmc9451]

I left school in 1983 and got on a YTS as an apprentice electrician. £27.88 for a forty hour week. I also worked at Boots the Chemist's as a 'Saturday lad' and earnt about enough to buy an LP.

[@MrCheswickMusic]

Luxury...I used to work 5 jobs and have to get up an hour before I went to bed

[@atilllathehun1212]

I left school in 1980 and was in and out of work throughout the 80s, made redundant a number of times. It was tough, not until the early 90s did I find a steady job.

[@lawrencevincent1]

The early 1990s saw a terrible recession. You did well.

[@Candolad]

Similar to my story. I left school, had three jobs in 9 months which I left because I hated them. I went down South to work at a Butlins Holiday Camp. Then I went to France grape picking. After that I went to college, became a hairdresser and moved to London to stay rent-free with my sister. Then I went to Israel on an archaeological dig for two months. I got a job in hairdressing on just £46 a week before tax I then became unemployed and returned to college for a year to A levels. Then I got social housing. In 1993 I got a job in an FE college and it was my first secure job with holidays, salary and security, but low pay. I took redundancy in 1997 then in 1998. Now I own my own business.

[@atilllathehun1212]

Your own business, that's good to hear.@@Candolad

[@MePeterNicholls]

6:56 scrapping ships was dangerous work. The chemicals and materials weren’t very well regulated.

[@Scouser89Liverpool22]

True, all that has happened is due to regulations, ship scrapping has move to countries like turkey

[@MePeterNicholls]

@@Scouser89Liverpool22 and people don’t die of lung diseases so much either. ….

[@robdegoyim4023]

The one thing that’s changed in areas like this is that each household has about 3 cars and “live laugh love” on the walls

[@clarencequimberlakeiii4238]

lmao

[@charliehazelmere]

😂 I can’t stand those tacky phrases written on walls, why do people do that?

[@clarencequimberlakeiii4238]

@@charliehazelmere Why do you care? Just "Live your Life and Love your Dream" dude.

[@riseandshine75]

🤣🤣🤣@@clarencequimberlakeiii4238

[@EgoShredder]

@@charliehazelmere New Age psyop coupled with Christianity lead to this kind of (lack of critical) thinking. NPC normies are then like sponges with phrases like this, absorbing and repeating like the robots they are.

[@seabassmcgee3367]

Suddenly my electricity bill just shot up....I don't understand why....what's that smell coming from the loft??

[@MrCheswickMusic]

And the sunbed ha ha

[@brianmorecombe2726]

I remember this so well.My formative years wrecked by unemployment.Even with todays crisis,back then in the 80s there was just nothing,no work and no hope.For years.Auf Wedersien Pet and Boys from the Blackstuff depicted the whole sorry decade.

[@malthusXIII-fo3ep]

Spoof entertainment written by far-left activist writers.

[@southsudani983]

Classism in uk also starts in school , my parents moved to uk decades ago, it was always drilled into me to get an education or be focused in something with longevity .. I seen this same attitude with Asians too .. as it’s so easy to be thrown into the line of poverty or be stuck to make someone richer .. imagine ppl bk then struggling to get jobs , now we have bots and machines tdkin ppls jobs .. working class regardless of how ambitious and driven they are will aways be messed with .. look at the retirement age .. the system is by design

[@bangtwister]

This reminds me of the film 'Made in Britain'. They were depressing times......

[@shoot_the_glass5654]

Are you referring to the one with a Tim Roth playing the skinhead?

[@bangtwister]

@@shoot_the_glass5654 yes

[@stephendavies925]

No they were no more depressing than 60s 70s 80,s 90s and now its just the same, that some people in these times were and are depressing people, and film companies used target these people to paint a dark political picture, I loved the eighties I was young and full of life and lots of people I knew were also the same

[@monacophotographyevents2384]

I suppose it depended where one lived. I found the 80's in London great, lots of fun and financially, very rewarding.

[@markc2570]

After completing a YTS, working a few dead end jobs, I joined the army, there just wasn't anything else to do. For a majority of people, the 1980's were bleak.

[@Happytruth]

I remember being 17 in 1983 in the east of England and it was lay off after lay off and the start in life was bleak. I wonder what they’re all doing now would be interesting to know. Love the guy on the ladder straight up onto the roof slippery fashion shoes on, no health and safety in those days!

[@TonyM540]

I remember walking the streets in Birmingham from factory to factory looking for work. Everyone was on a 2 or 3 day week if they had a job. One guy just laughed when I asked if there were any jobs going. People today haven’t witnessed a recession………yet.

[@amacca2085]

What are you on about we had recession in 2008 loads of people lossy savings and jobs homes etc

[@simonshotter8960]

@@amacca2085there was Nearly double the amount of people unemployed in the 80’s compared to the 08 crash. 08 only added about 200,000 unemployed to the 2007 pre recession unemployment figure of circa 1.6M. In the 80’s, over 3M were unemployed. The 08 crash didn’t affect British jobs anywhere near as much as earlier recessions.

[@glostergloster6945]

@@simonshotter8960 True, although the knock on effect was cutting wages instead. So they didnt lay as many people off but over 14 years later and wages still have not grown. Swings and roundabouts.

[@simonshotter8960]

@@glostergloster6945 yeah I see that…

[@neilkendall5499]

What year was that?

[@derin111]

Thank you for posting this as a counter-balance to all the fools who look back on the past in the UK with rose-tinted glasses. I was born in the early sixties, in working class London. and so had my youth in the 1970s and 80s. Britain was shit! Fortunately, I studied hard during this period, became a Doctor and so never had to face the unemployment that all my friends from home suffered.

[@Will21st]

I was born in Scotland to a single mother in 1975. Never knew my dad. In 1980 my mum met a German guy who became my stepdad. We moved there a year later and I got a German education which I am very grateful for.

[@martinnorth2680]

That's some age....😂 did you stay in Germany?

[@Will21st]

@@martinnorth2680 lol, corrected. No, moved to South East England.

[@kevinbaird7277]

Ich stelle mir vor, dass eine deutsche Ausbildung den meisten Schulangeboten im Vereinigten Königreich, insbesondere in den 70er Jahren, überlegen wäre, gut gemacht.

[@Will21st]

@@kevinbaird7277 keine Frage, profitiere heute noch davon.

[@feraljim]

I can order two large melons in German so I think my education is pretty good innit

[@rainbowwarrior2635]

Stefan Molyneux was talking about growing up in England in the 70's and 80's. He said the 80's was nice but it's hard to understand the level of poverty he was talking about in the 70's. HE said there was shortages of everything, like even water, and he said everyone was on welfare just going nowhere in the 70's.

[@realest-12]

How much was a house back then? £6k? 15% interest on a £6k loan is way better than a 6% interest on a £250k loan. We are heading for even more hardship

[@HectorHughMunro]

No, it was actually worse. Those houses were cheap because they didn’t have the money to pay the mortgage payments on £6k.

[@nickcollier-webb3327]

im out guys cya in france

[@MrDontclickthislink]

Just going to avoid mentioning pay? Average house was 19k in 1980. Average wage was 6k. So payments on a 19k house would be £247. So a bit more than double an average weekly wage. Average salary in the UK is £33,000 with an average house price of 247,000. Average mortgage payments in the UK is £733 which is a little over the average weekly income.

[@amacca2085]

@@nickcollier-webb3327France what rioting by immigrant all the time

[@roasthunter]

@@nickcollier-webb3327 Why would you want to go to france? All good here in the UK.

[@bruirn]

Would love to know how Tees Street is these days and whether the same families live there or have been moved on. A quick look on Google Maps Street View shows it has had some improvement work done.

[@pauldonnelly3179]

It was demolished years ago, was derelict for 20 years but now they’ve built a new estate

[@davidkmatthews]

Looking on Flickr, it seems as though Tees Street and surrounding roads have since been demolished right out of existence and the land redeveloped as a car park for the Birkenhead North train station.

[@olicoates1827]

Was looking for the street on google, wondered where it went. A lot of streets in Birkenhead look like that, but very run down, some of it was obviously a very wealthy area once, sad to see how its gone since these days

[@Tom-sm8fw]

⁠@@olicoates1827how do you mean it was obviously a very wealthy area? They look like typical council houses

[@Tom-sm8fw]

How do you mean it was obviously a very wealthy area once? They look like typical council houses. Or did I misinterpret and you meant other parts of Birkenhead?

[@olicoates1827]

​@Tom-sm8fw didn't mean this street in particular, but other parts of Birkenhead, probably should have made that more clear

[@richardallport1577]

There houses are built around Bidston Hill, the higher up the hill you live the wealthier you are. Tees Street was at the bottom of the hill. To this day its still the same, within a mile distance you have 3 bed semi for 60k at the bottom and multi million pound mansions at the top.

[@K-a-n-d-i-s]

Oh wow half my family come from n lived here in the 80s. Not even much has changed in UK so sad.

[@jamescpalmer]

Lmao the fuck r u on about.

[@Scouser89Liverpool22]

“There are 10,000 unemployed chasing 600 jobs in birkenhead” there will always be unemployed people, there is not enough jobs to go around, this statement in the video clearly states it.

[@TheVintageApplianceEmporium]

Bollocks. As of June 2023 there were 1.03 MILLION job vacancies in the UK. "There is not enough jobs to go around" - ha! Quick Google search is all it takes to find the facts

[@joelc9439]

Too many illegals...

[@aclark903]

#Tebbit was certainly demonized for his attempt to bring American style worker mobility to Britain.

[@minixtvbox]

No work in Tory Britain

[@Pierrick2009]

There is not enough jobs *locally*, the problem is that people aren’t prepared to move.

[@brighterrecorder1645]

You have no choice but to get up and leave. I can't live in my hometown because of no work and had to live in shared accomodation for years until I could earn enough for my own place. Some of my friends are in their 30s and live with their mum back home. No way could I do that

[@RecoveringHermit]

Even in 2006 I had to move for work. In fact I relocated three times, each time for a promotion. But I also understand why people don't want to, it can be hard to leave everything behind.

[@merlin5476]

I grew up in the 70's & me & my brother & 3 sisters generally went hungry & didnt have much at all. The good thing about that is you now appreciate most things nowadays & personally i only purchase things i need to & i love to up cycle most things. Generation today just get anything they want, dont care about debts and dont appreciate items.

[@Charlie-ly9kp]

And that’s what older people said about your generation in the 70s 😂 break the cycle and use your brain 👍

[@rainbowwarrior2635]

What's this documentary does not deal was why was England so damn poor in the 70's and 80's. You should listen to Stefan Molyneux talk about the 70's in England. He said there was shortages of everything, like even in school there were shortages of water. What was going on in the 70 and 80's that caused this because everybody here says it got much better in the 90's, around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

[@daveneil2893]

The dockers messed it up themselves. Always on strike. Handing clock cards to security staff to clock them in and out when they were in the pub

[@gemmajessie-rayhardiman6967]

I remember my dad being on the dole from 89’ for a few years , it was bloody hard

[@italianstallion9170]

it's the blind leading the jobless!

[@glpilpi6209]

Grime times , closedown after closedown. Hundreds if not thousands of people were losing work in established industries every week . I gave up trying to count all the firm's that went bust across the UK after 79-80.

[@unwaw]

Forever neglected and bullied english working class people, most neglected in society, unfair

[@ajs41]

Bullied by who?

[@unwaw]

@@ajs41 by the bunch who has control

[@joelc9439]

English and Scottish and Irish..

[@whatamalike]

​@@ajs41the ruling class. The ones who don't give a shit about the mass population unless they beat the drum of capitalism

[@thatsterroristsbro7855]

The people in this short film constitute the 'underclass'. They're below the working class.....

[@gregprocter765]

back when having a job meant financial prosperity

[@davehendry8056]

i remember it well YTS finish then start 6 months later long time ago i got a degree now am a teacher in Asia i left the UK 12 yrs ago best move ever

[@robdegoyim4023]

Solution : create loads of non jobs in the civil service by putting call centres and other guff in depressed areas. They actually did this… see Liverpool, Glasgow, Teesside, Belfast…

[@Uthedudeful]

They're not good jobs though. Minimum wages, no unions, depressing work, no sense of contributing to society or building something up. It's dystopian. I'm from another one of these areas, lots of town like this dotted about Nottinghamshire / Derbyshire. An Amazon warehouse is no replacement for a good job. We need to be providing jobs for people that contribute to our communities and give people a real sense of purpose and ownership over their society.

[@robdegoyim4023]

@@Uthedudeful they do have unions but they’re more concerned with things like boycotting google than working conditions

[@Uthedudeful]

@@robdegoyim4023 What's the boycotting google thing? I've not heard about that. But yeah, I guess that's sort of my point, that workplaces today are either ununionised or have ineffective unions that are too weak to do anything.

[@jackdubz4247]

Most of the non-jobs you are talking about are the ones in Westminster. Especially in the Tory government. None of them are doing anything productive.

[@Uthedudeful]

@@jackdubz4247 Not that Labour would do any better... They're as bad as each other.

[@paulfrancis8764]

History repeating itself. No coincidence who’s in power!

[@nelliedownsouth2316]

You can't blame Brexit back in the 1980's..but we both know you would have, had we left back then.. Another EU subservient 🤡

[@roasthunter]

How so? loads of work if you want it and willing to do it. My son goes to college and has two jobs, he's not even 18 yet.

[@FM-ks1cs]

Mate, have you seen the demographics and the requirements for certain jobs, what does your son study at "college" not university yet... come on you're talking shite, how old are too? why does he need 2 jobs?... wtf is this@@roasthunter

[@FM-ks1cs]

I bet he will have a lovely house in a lovely area with a lovely mortgage at lovely interest rates, huh, you sound like a boomer but you can not be as your son is 18 around about. @@roasthunter

[@MBO_Bama]

There's thousands of jobs available, just some people can't be arsed and want to blame the Tories for their lack of motivation.

[@olifromsolly6007]

10:53 "Fight Tory Cuts" says the sign on the bus. Nothing has changed.

[@stephendavies925]

I went on that enterprise scheme in the 80s it was money for nothing everyone pretended to start a business but just sat at home happy with the extra money 😂

[@jamescpalmer]

Lmao I thought so

[@rjhtrucking5429]

😂😂😂😂

[@jonsimmons4150]

Started a small band rehearsal studio on enterprise allowence in town center, dahn sarth, bricked up the windows, painted it all black, used it to rehearse with our rock band and party... And crash pad.. Chicks galore.. Such good times.. Belting out hard rock from 6pm- 11 pm. Even miked up the drumkit to keep up with the marshall stacks! 😂 Mental daze them were.

[@MrCheswickMusic]

Ahhh yes the ET scheme, or the extra tenner ha ha

[@stephendavies925]

@@MrCheswickMusic To be fair I done pretty well out of the enterprise scheme, I won't say how on here 😜 but it sort of set me up for my future

[@strangemagic5502]

This was the early 1980's and things did improve dramatically later. People think they are hard done to these days but they obviously don't realise how bad it was during the 1970's and early 1980's. I left school in 1979 and no job prospects. Interest rates were astronomically high at about 14% with many people losing their homes. Quit your moaning and realise how good we've got it now.

[@robc86]

Grew up in London in the mid 80s so i missed a lot of this reality. This was interesting for me historically, but also as a guide to the future with AI replacing a lot of jobs and ideas like UBI. Hopefully Fremantle go back to the street and update their own documentary for modern times!

[@Buddhavibez]

key policy for Labour in the 1997 election and a key piece of legislation in 1998, the national minimum wage finally came into force on 1st April 1999. Back then, it was just £3.60 per hour for adult workers over the age of 22 and £3.00 for those aged 18-22.1. There was no minimum wage back then either

[@kriskalpa]

the tv aerial guy didn't really want to work.

[@michaelwalls4346]

The Thatcherite and Tebbit dystopia! The "entrepreneurial society", and other neoliberal ideology in action.

[@malthusXIII-fo3ep]

King Norman got it bang on...his father got on his bike to look for work. Just like 3 million plus Poles who paid cheap bus fares and travelled up to a thousand miles to get here. Whilst 2 MILLION idle Brits sat on their welfare arses and laughed....''I couldn't possibly take that job, it'll affect me benefits''. And all thanks to New Labour uncosted and unfunded welfare dependency culture.

[@samt7351]

@@malthusXIII-fo3epyou what 😂 new labours fault about unemployment in the 1980s ?

[@malthusXIII-fo3ep]

@@samt7351 No that was after 1997 when Blair pledged to tackle ''poverty and social exclusion''...by 2004, 2M were unemployed but refusing to work..so that's when he got the Poles in...and soon they were claiming billions in unfunded and uncosted benefits and credits. By 2010, all the money had run out. Cheers to Labour for that shitshow.

[@randyborstol2491]

Boys from the Blackstuff came out in 1978. She did not become the PM until 1979!

[@richie4830]

Wrong, Boys from the Blackstuff came out in October 1982, you keep stating this in comments and you are wrong, obviously you are just a Tory stooge@@randyborstol2491

[@carolinehoward180]

Living in poverty is the most depressing thing ever, but if there’s one breed of people that battle it with humour and backbone it’s those from Merseyside. As a scouser I own this lot 💕

[@raybrown4845]

As a lorry driver, I've delivered all over this country, and met many people. Liverpudlians are the friendliest I've ever met, they'll always have a chat and a smile.

[@jamiecameron7465]

Lol scousers are so up their own a**e. The whole country functions like how you've just explained, we just don't pat ourselves on the back thinking we're unique

[@MrDontclickthislink]

@@raybrown4845 I hope you're always met with a smile and a pint, chief.

[@raybrown4845]

@@MrDontclickthislink 🤣😂Sadly no pint yet mate, but at least they're always easy to talk to.

[@MrCheswickMusic]

@@raybrown4845 Someone will buy you a pint lid

[@insomecc]

Liverpool is STILL like this, you watch a show like this then walk around Liverpool of today. Nothing has really changed.

[@kwhall]

Of course. It's just the story of Britain in general. The only thing unique about Liverpool is the bullying received from elsewhere in the country. And then people act confused when the national anthem gets booed.

[@sadakamber5843]

Oh, and don't forget how heroine took a grip of Birkenhead (Smack City). Everyone new someone that was hooked, either family, friends or neighbours. Such a zombie suicide drug, so destructive to the communities of Merseyside. Where I lived, it was lawless, roughest sh💩t hole you could imagine. So many lives lost, so sad.

[@Anntony]

I was there, many suicides, more despair, much depression, rot in he'll Thatcher.

[@nelliedownsouth2316]

But Brexit hadn't happened, i thought it was to blame for all the UKs depravity?

[@edmiliband2806]

​​@@nelliedownsouth2316Who the fuck are you talking to? You might have dementia lol

[@museonfilm8919]

Jeez, that guy climbing on the roof wearing shades, casuals and hard-soled BOOTS!

[@markrounding2731]

I lived near Bradford, we were pits and textiles, which were there one day, and all gone the next. Me, my brother and a mate used to go up onto the moor and 'collect' sheep, if you throw a towel over their eyes they do not struggle, and become compliant. That was our only source of meat.

[@MrCheswickMusic]

Luxury, what we wouldn't of give for towels

[@ANomadOverseas]

Reminds me quite a lot of The Boys from the Black Stuff, Dublin was the same, no work, everyone on the dole and all the young people getting out as fast as they could as just no work available.

[@robinwitting2023]

We were hammered in the 80'S. Melvyn Bragg called it the wasting of the north. Signing on felt like capitulation. Yes, people forget. Robin Witting

[@j45393]

So sad to see. I work in banking in London and some of my older colleagues say how good it was in 80s. Good pay in all departments, not as much work and pressure as there is now, they went to the pub at lunch time and never went back to work

[@formxshape]

Nothing has changed for the better in this country. The north south divide is still there. The south, the elite in Westminster first took the jobs from the Northerners, and now they flood them with illegal migrants… the very migrants Enoch Powell tried to warn us about. Go watch some documentaries on him, the same protests you see today about keeping migrants out, were being held in the 60s. Literally nothing has changed for the better, the problems of the common white northerner remains as it did from the 1960s, 1980s… makes you wonder what they are doing down in Westminster. Decades go by and the same problems remain….

[@formxshape]

Go to Hull, to Bishop Auckland, to Scarborough etc, see the reality of the blight of Westminsters love affair with London and the South.

[@bushwhackeddos.2703]

Our people went through a lot, then the final betrayal.

[@wattbenj]

Britain’s never really recovered. The 80’s did the damage in terms of the widening of the wealth gap & the stagnant 2010’s after the crash of 2008 fixed everything almost permanently in place. If you’re not out of the slurry pit by now, or come from some sort of wealth, you won’t be from here on out until perhaps World War 3 resets the pieces and we can get some social mobility in the aftermath. That’s my most optimistic assessment of the UK. It also explains Brexit. Life here has never been as good as we’re told by the media. People are not stupid & don’t want to compete with 600 million people for what are already very low wages.

[@takochiba9151]

The problem with leaving the EU is we have a small domestic market for goods. It is not like the USA where they take a protectionist attitude to trade but can sell internally to 330 million people. So any company, particularly good jobs like in engineering, needs to sell products abroad otherwise will go out of business. We have given the finger to our trading partners and it's unfortunate as it will cause real hardship here.

[@wattbenj]

@@takochiba9151 We were fine for centuries, though I do get the point. I just think it’s a chance to form something new. We did have the opportunity to stay in the Customs Union but unfortunately the public didn’t get a vote. Theresa May’s Parliament took us out of that by 3 or 4 votes if I recall. I think the point was the freedom of movement. The working class (which at this point is tens of millions strong) just don’t want to have to compete for the scraps.

[@JACKPOTTT777]

Life is what u make it

[@ousarlxsfjsbvbg8588]

@@wattbenj it is a fact that the European Union did far more harm than good for the U.K. and, by the way, the vacancies Brexit created when all the EU workers went back to the continent have still not been filled. There is an ongoing labour shortage because Brits do not want to drive HGVs or pick fruit in the fields.

[@wattbenj]

@@ousarlxsfjsbvbg8588 That is nonsense. Where fair wages are paid, jobs are always filled.

[@Consistentlycrazy]

Tees Street has been demolished now

[@Robert-vw3od]

It suited governments of the day, strangely them houses have been knocked down, and not been replaced with social housing

[@peternagy-im4be]

GIVE US A JOB

[@kevinmcmahon7182]

Yosser Yates

[@kevinmcmahon7182]

Sorry it’s Yosser Hughes

[@malthusXIII-fo3ep]

That thick scouser was a thicko....totally unemployable.

[@mrp5169]

Heroin ripped through these communities like wild fires in the 80’ , horrendous!

[@leeboy2k1]

Who do you think mastered it's dispensation? why the very British East India company, (city of London) that hires every paid shill to stand in Parliament. "The world is a college of corporations, and it's been that way since man climbed out the primordial slime" Movie: Network:1976

[@emmaearnshaw3282]

Why does it say 'Fremantle' in big letters on the screen?

[@rokn9591]

Probably too busy blaming Baroness Thatcher. They should have gotten on their bike like Tebbit told them to

[@nelliedownsouth2316]

UK 1980's unemployment and deprived areas..really? I thought all things were rosey back in the glorious EEC/EU days?

[@MBO_Bama]

Very good point.

[@MrCheswickMusic]

It wasn't, but at least we had Frankie goes to Dollywood

[@debbiemaguire]

The usual unemployed + too many kids, still going on now

[@timhorrocks3515]

Too many kids 😮 doesn't unemployment affect people who don't have too many kids?

[@sjamescharlton]

Does anyone know why there is a North Korean submarine in the Fremantle shipyard?? 6:38

[@davechristian7543]

My dad took erly retirement from the steel works in 84 bc it was a nasty place to work n my baby brother was born not to mention he worked there for 20 years ...he was only 42

[@coderider3022]

Need to retrain or move. They went in to professions which were finished even in the 80s, can’t blame Tory party for that mistake. However, gov should have regenerated area and rewarded companies to move up north. Got to meet in the middle here, public and gov.

[@trampsvest6657]

Moved to Cambridge at 16.

[@gordonbradley3241]

Thatchers paradise ! The Tories have been coining it in ever since !

[@xMandalorex]

Crazy watching this again... Tee street now? is a fucking carpark lool

[@sonountaleban]

Apart the weather, it looks like living in any Southern European country, where millions of people are struggling to survive and get a job...

[@zielonysnajper2105]

Glad Ive seen this video. Didn't know You Brits struggled in the 80s

[@Guitar6ty]

Its worse now than its ever been except for BS.

[@michaeljohnson5365]

Binmen then had to lift the bins up and required a lot of muscles

[@paulhank7967]

Back Injuries and long term suffering from such injuries too.

[@HectorHughMunro]

And no bin bags or recycling.

[@davidfreesefan23]

So - did any of the people on that street ever eventually find work?

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

I was at Exmouth St Fire station during the 80s, happy memories for me.

[@pmacc3557]

We're yis on good cash?

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

@@pmacc3557 My first month's wages in 1985 was about £700. not bad for a 19 year old back then. White watch at W1 was legendary.... one thing's for sure there was no such thing as "safe spaces" back then 😂😂😂

[@pmacc3557]

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 that seems a lot of dish! You must have been Lord of the Manor!

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

@@pmacc3557 It was a good step up from the £25 a week I'd been on on the YTS before.

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

@@pmacc3557 Mind you... I had to pay me mum £10 a week keep. I tried to force £15 on her but she wouldn't have it 😁

[@foofoo1899]

Too many of the people featured have too many kids. Family planning would have helped alleviate their financial problems. No sympathy for the papal masses.

[@Charlie-ly9kp]

How basic, goes to show you really don’t understand

[@foofoo1899]

I understand only too well. I grew up in this era and my family endured the same hardships for nearly a decade. Thankfully my parents chose not to breed like rabbits because they knew they couldn't afford many mouths to feed. "Cut your cloth accordingly" was appropriate and responsible for that era.

[@Charlie-ly9kp]

@@foofoo1899 No. Having a large family shouldn’t predispose you to poverty - that isn’t a failure of the parent it’s a failure of the state. I’m sorry you can’t see it that way. Why should the children suffer because in your logic the parents made a mistake?

[@neilkendall5499]

How can the blind guy have a job in the job centre if he's blind?

[@MrCheswickMusic]

So we all got a few extra £ in our jigger ha ha

[@XORTION]

Proper depression, I can see something similar happening now.. so many people find it easy to get money through credit, c cards, clubs, BNPL schemes. World runs so much on leverage it’s unreal to a point we have to print unbelievable amounts of money to keep the system running.. however I am not sure if we will see this level of depression due to internet and AI integration with society. interesting times..

[@harvenat0r2]

When people think of the 80’s they don’t think of this hardship!

[@Guitar6ty]

The 50s and 60s were worse but in 2024 you aint seen nothing that is coming down the line in a train wreck country.

[@mrlotusmic]

Wonder if that boy clambering on that roof off that ladder to that ariel is still alive? Or his luck eventually ran out.

[@randyborstol2491]

he was in Strangeways

[@kevinsutton6927]

I don't think jobs ever came back after the 1980's. It's just that joblessness is covered up now. Back in the 80's you could go into a job centre and see jobs advertised on cards. Now job seekers just have to search online, which leads to constant dead ends and brick walls and IT glitches. I think just more people are actually jobless now, or else are in low paid jobs working long hours, or are on zero hours contracts. Children now leave school/college later, which reduces the youth unemployment figures and about 9 Million People are on disability or sickness benefits. (That's 3x the official unemployment figures given at the height of the 80's recession.) Higher education was made more available to more people, but adequate jobs were not created for those leaving education. I won't even mention all the people who are now unable to claim unemployment benefits or are on long term sanctions. God only knows how many of those there are. The overall quality of life ifor the vast majority s definitely much worse now than it was in the 1980's.

[@Guitar6ty]

Totally agree 100%

[@coolbreez773]

No cars on the streets?

[@macsmiffy2197]

Yet, visiting family in Surrey for Christmas in the 80s, we saw Rolls Royce’s in driveways wrapped as Christmas presents. “Loads o’ money” days for some. 🤬

[@randyborstol2491]

@@macsmiffy2197 In Southport soccer players lived in nice houses with nice cars and were getting 2 grand a week for kicking a ball around.

[@edwardburnsenhicks7772]

Still same today.

[@adamkarimian7137]

Love the dogs

[@Dr.KurtAffair]

And nothing has changed.

[@jonwita]

11:40 great person 👍🌞

[@scousebadger0077]

I am so made up that we went through managed decline it made us strong it made us come together. Now the country is in managed decline and a Liverpool is the safest city in the country. Good luck UK your gonna need with corrupt government and no local culture the enemies are circling and will pick you off one at a time. We came through this period without a penny from the UK and media biases and hatred for us. Who’s laughing now with mad Islamic marches, grooming gangs, terrorist attacks, and foreign criminals who run your streets. Remember the women’s hospital where the scouser saved the women and babies by foiling the terrorist attack.

[@BsktImp]

World In Action, This Week, TV Eye.

[@marcj3682]

And, to a lesser extent, the Cook Report.

[@BsktImp]

@@marcj3682Used to wonder how many times he'd get clobbered after doorstepping some spiv.

[@neilkendall5499]

Is tees street still there? What's life like there in 2023?

[@Charlie-ly9kp]

Probably worse. Have you noticed the state of the country? 😂

[@MrCheswickMusic]

Shite

[@mus139]

Depressing.

[@andrewkitchenuk]

Like the way he said that no one had a regular job but didn't mention all the jobs on the black getting paid cash in hand. 😂

[@MrCheswickMusic]

How else we gonna buy our weed, beer & go the footy lar?

[@robertcaffrey6097]

I wonder what became of the people in the street.....

[@Kiinell]

Nick Warren the solicitor is a local hero.

[@geemailMossman]

The sad thing is there was work in the south.

[@Myndir]

And housing too, provided you were willing to e.g. share a room. But people were too lazy to move, unfortunately.

[@Guitar6ty]

Explain how to move when you have zero income no savings and can just about have enough food to eat. The wages were never good in Liverpool even for skilled trades people.

[@jennytaylor3324]

Maggie's Millions! Anyone remember the YTS scheme?

[@Frank75288]

3:19 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@garymcmillan4177]

So basically, nothing has changed

[@anthonyboyle877]

Glasgow people in the 80s were cueing up for any job .security cleansing department job was a luxury the poorest time in my life when Maggie Thatcher was in power .you went hungry most the time .their was no food banks or anything.

[@Guitar6ty]

100% agree and its probably 10 times worse now.

[@karlmann9608]

80s looks like today it a sad world