My Name Is Leon Context 1981 PDF

My name is Leon context Unemployment/Strikes caused by economic recession: - Unemployment in 1981 passed 2,600,000 mark for the first time in nearly 50 year. - The UK Government welcomed plans by the Japanese car firm Nissan to build Datsun cars in Britain, replacing homegrown British car industr...

My name is Leon context Unemployment/Strikes caused by economic recession: - Unemployment in 1981 passed 2,600,000 mark for the first time in nearly 50 year. - The UK Government welcomed plans by the Japanese car firm Nissan to build Datsun cars in Britain, replacing homegrown British car industry. - Margaret Thatcher announces that the Government will sell half of its shares in British Aerospace. - In May 1981, more than 100,000 people from across Britain march to Trafalgar Square in London for the TUC's March For Jobs - Closure of the Talbot car plant in Linwood, Scotland, is announced. - The National Coal Board announces widespread pit closures. - 30,000 people march in an unemployment protest in Glasgow - Inflation hits 16.1%, causing massive unemployment. - The effects of the recession continue to claim jobs as Midland Red, the iconic Birmingham-based bus operator, closes down its headquarters in the city with the loss of some 170 jobs - Japanese carmaker Suzuki follows up the British success of its motorcycles by importing passenger cars to Britain for the first time - British Leyland workers (automotive workers) vote to accept a peace formula in the Longbridge plant strike. British Leyland ends production of the Austin Maxi, one of its longest-running cars, after 12 years. - In October, British Leyland announces the closure of three factories – a move which will cost nearly 3,000 people their jobs. - The Conservative Government's March budget is met with uproar due to further public spending cuts, which resulted in poorly funded social services. Government Racism and Racism of The National Front: - Enoch Powell, Conservative MP, warns of "racial civil war" in Britain due to migration. -- The British Nationality Act was passed. It set out who is a British citizen. Under that act, an individual who is born in the UK is a British citizen automatically from birth where one of their parents is British or settled here. - The New Cross House Fire happened in 1981. The blaze killed 13 young black people aged between 14 and 22. In the immediate aftermath of the fire, a New Cross Massacre Action Committee (NCMAC) was set up, which organised a "Black People's Day of Action" on 2 March 1981, when some 20,000 people marched over a period of eight hours through London, carrying placards that bore statements including: "13 Dead, Nothing Said". - Home Secretary William Whitelaw allows Wolverhampton council to place a 14 day ban on political marches in the West Midlands town, which has a growing problem of militant race riots and was faced with the threat of a National Front march in two days time. - The National Front, a white supremacist organisation, hold numerous anti-immigrant demonstrations across the UK. - Four members of an Asian Muslim family (three of them children) are killed by arson at their home in Walthamstow, London; the attack is believed to have been racially motivated. - More than 80 arrests are made during clashes between white power skinheads and black people in Coventry, where the National Front is planning a march later this month, on the same day as an anti- racist concert by the Two-Tone band The Specials. Irish Republicanism and IRA Hunger Strikes - Bobby Sands, an IRA member on hunger strike in the Maze prison, Northern Ireland, is elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone in a by election. The hunger strike is due to IRA prisoners demanding not to wear prison uniforms, as they considered themselves to be political prisoners. The 27-year-old republican then dies in Northern Ireland's Maze Prison after a 66-day hunger strike. - Hunger strikes at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland ends in October 1981 after seven months and 10 deaths of Irish Republican Hunger Strikers - Margaret Thatcher blames IRA leaders for the recent IRA hunger striker deaths Margaret Thatcher - In December, an opinion poll shows that Margaret Thatcher is now the most unpopular postwar British prime minister Post-colonial Events - In November, the Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda becomes independent of the United Kingdom. Riots caused by unemployment - In November, a report into the Brixton Riots, which scarred inner-city London earlier this year, points the finger of blame at the social and economic problems which have been plaguing Brixton and many other inner-city areas across England. - Margaret Thatcher announces that police will be able to use rubber bullets, water cannons and armoured vehicles against urban rioters. Labour leader Michael Foot blames the recent wave of rioting on the Conservative government's economic policies, which have seen unemployment rise by more than 70% in the last two years. - More than 300 people (most of them police officers) are injured and extensive damage is caused to property in the Brixton riot. Enoch Powell warns that Britain "has seen nothing yet" with regards to racial unrest. - More than 100 people are arrested and 15 police officers are injured in clashes with black youths in the Finsbury Park, Forest Green and Ealing areas of London. - In July, Rioting breaks out in London, Birmingham, Leeds, Leicester, Ellesmere Port, Luton, Sheffield, Portsmouth, Preston, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Derby, Southampton, Nottingham, High Wycombe, Bedford, Edinburgh, Wolverhampton, Stockport, Blackburn, Huddersfield, Reading, Chester and Aldershot. - Hundreds of Asians and National Front skinheads riot in Southall, London, following disturbances at the Hamborough Tavern public house, which is severely damaged by fire - Toxteth riots break out in Liverpool and first use is made of CS gas by British police. Riots also occur in the Handsworth district of Birmingham as well as Wolverhampton city centre, parts of Coventry, Leicester and Derby, and also in the Buckinghamshire town High Wycombe Royal Wedding - The wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer takes place at St Paul's Cathedral. More than 30 million viewers watch the wedding on television – the second highest television audience of all time in Britain General - Moira Stuart, 31, is appointed the BBC's first black newsreader