Winter of discontent and the collapse of the Callaghan govt, power-cuts, endless strikes, the 3-day week, and most of all the relentless greyness and misery of 70's Britain.
It was shit. The only reason people fondly remember the Silver Jubilee celebration was that it was an oasis of colour in some seriously drab times. Well that and the Punk explosion...
Shower of shit before Thatch, shower of even oilier shit after... from all parties.
I get that a lot when I criticize Reagan. "You don't know what it was like!1 Things got better! He did it!" which echos a lot of pro thatcher arguments as well now that I think about it.
Ah, so its true then. I know some right wing talking heads were making a big stink about it. The U.S. president snubbing the fuck out of the whole event.