To think the UK was really cool and exciting in the nineties and early noughties?

[Fuckthecostofliving]

Just thinking of all the music, films and general whole vibe. It was amazing! I visited London in 1997 as a teen for the first time and loved everything about it immediately.

I know part of this is to do with nostalgia for being young, but honestly there seemed to be such an exciting mixture of brilliant cultural stuff going on. And way less internet, no iphones, it was just a whole different atmosphere.

Anyone else nostalgic for the 90's?

No. Awful decade.

It's your youth you miss.

I am so sorry that was your experience.

I hope it is a little easier for you now. 🌹

No. It was just your youth. Every generation feels that way about the time they grew up in.

I started work in the city in 1996 .If we had a Christmas party with partners, a gay person would not take their actual partner as they would not know how that might be perceived. People were definitely much more guarded than they are now. It wasn't a given that it would go against you.

sorry- I meant that it wasn't a given that it wouldn't go against you, especially in client facing roles with a client base from more conservative cultures. It was probably more unconscious bias than overt bias, but it was definitely there.

Yes, good point.

I feel like corportae culture has changed very much since then. Before you only took your professional self to work. The personal was not welcome. (That did not help women with kids or caring responsibilities much).

Now it seems like corporate has to accomodate the personal - all sexual preferences acknowledged and welcomed.

Still does not help women much I notice!

Me too! I’d just started secondary school and although some of it is probably the optimism of youth, the U.K. felt like this exciting place to be. I don’t remember the public being so flat and depressed, and people actually had a sense of humour.

I agree. The mid 90s through to around 2007 were very good ones for Britain. Our economy was strong, our public services were being properly funded & competently run by the New Labour government, we were one of the leading nations of the EU and our popular culture led the world.
The contrast with today’s decline & chaos is painful. Britain is now a basket case and an international laughing stock.

And now you can be offered £5 an hour as standard, on apprenticeships, while houses have gone up by at least the same amount in most areas. £10 an hour at most, I suppose that would at least have been the equivalent of £2 then. Yay, what progress.

That said, the 90s were before house prices exploded. There was hope for women’s rights, and talk of everyone being able to work part time to share the wealth. It wasn’t a bad time.

Society has changed drastically plus technology has had a major impact on things, some good, some not so good

As a country, we seem to have lost our way 😔

But not from UK's own structural economic strength. It was trickle down from China going gangbusters and the City of London capitalising on the commodities and M&A booms. Part of UK's problem is its dependence on the financial sector which is (i) a massive brain drain and (ii) hugely leveraged to international trends.

CK1, leather waistcoat 💕💕

Yes they were fantastic times, as a non grad I was in 17kpa and could just about afford to buy a small home alone without having to go cap in hand to the state.

Women had it all then, I would say looking back - up to 2004 for the GRA introduction - 2007 financially, social media and extreme porn.

Re wages, the low point that I noticed was mid 90s. That was when loads of employers sacked their employees and rehired them on 0 hours contracts through agencies. I went from earning £4.50 an hour to £2.50 pretty much overnight. And £1 of that went to the agency. So actually earning £1.50 an hour. As an adult! When minimum wage came in the wages of a lot of those jobs went up around 250%.

London? Absolutely. The rest of the U.K. has never been cool.

I think you are right about the music - to was a good time culturally in the UK - but wrong about broader attitudes and progress. Things feel much more liberal to me now. It kind of sucked to be a girl in a way that I think has become better (but needs to get better still).

I suppose they were ok if you weren't around the 60s/70s nothing for me is sweeter than my memories of the IOW festival in 1969 seeing Bob Dylan live, or in 1970 when half the time you didn't need clothes watching Jimi Hendrix and the Doors. Happy happy days

I suppose we all recognise that our dcs will be looking back at this time with a wry smile and rose tinted glasses!

Derry Girls got that bang on - armed soldiers coming on the bus and them saying Derry is ace or some such. The enthusiasm and optimisim of youth!

Men weren't asking women as standard for anal or to strangel you in the bedroom, we were not exposed to dick picks.

If you look back at old films from the time they were diverse and none of it was forced, so those in the roles were skilled at their craft.

I mean, I guess this is the point. Everyone thinks the time of their youth was the best time, despite it having as many issues as any other time. I joked upthread about the 1990-3 recession. I was 15 and like “ whatever. Is the topshop sale on yet? Do you think x likes me, I mean like properly? ”. My parents were meanwhile probably bricking it about interest rates.

I loved it, it was my growing up time and as a wild latchkey kid it was all wide open to me and my friends. Downside is that growing up with no parents driving or pushing you ahead, there was no statutory anything to make sure you did well. We all left school with barely any GCSEs and immediately started working at the bottom of the ladder, pretty much. Music, football, even the telly, expansion of cable tv and more broad access to foreign films and TV shows excited me. By the millennium I was addicted to travel and culture. I’m the kind of person who always says yes to going out and having a laugh, concerts, trips, anything and I think my upbringing has fostered that. I feel like I grew up embracing fun and silliness, and music and dancing and just being out in the world was ingrained in me in the 90s.

Not so great things were: the constant shadow of the IRA. Poll tax riots. Diana’s death made me feel like the world had gone mad. The normalised objectification of women and obsession with celebrity (I think it was genuinely worse than now). I had gay friends and friends of different races, but it was definitely something that wasn’t hugely accepted or let’s say normalised for all people in my area. I remember my first job would have been maybe 97/98 and a nice gay guy I was friendly with having a whole thing about not being able to bring a date to the Christmas party and everyone (and me) just sort of shrugging and saying ‘oh yeah, right, of course you can’t’ that type of thing. It was expected and accepted that older people or certain people would not be accommodating. No way would I stand back and watch that unfold now. I’m not sure though if that’s me being more mature or the changing times. No way would I stand by and just passively allow bigotry to be directed at anyone today.

Oasis and Blur and football was life, though. In my mind the 90s was a bit of an endless summer in many ways. Punctuated with some shitty stuff, but mostly a sunshiney haze of fun for a teen.

Oasis ( Don’t look back in anger I think) Vs Blur ( Country House) battle for No.1. Listening to radio 1 while doing my homework and waiting for th no 1 announcement.

My whole teenage years were through the 90’s, it was an incredible time and when h start to think about it, my heart genuinely aches for it all. I honestly don’t think it’s just about being young then, there was a special something about the mid 90’s in particular. I wish I could go back so badly (and my life is pretty nice now)

*I start to think about it

It certainly was a great time to be young. Music was good, I remember being in a club and the whole place singing 'Don't look back in anger'. There seemed much more unity, now people seem more divided and at odds with one another.