Travels with a badge collection ……. three decades of silly and angry protest

Today I have been looking at my old badge collection which starts in 1966 and peters out in the late 1990s.

Upset Her, 1980

Sadly, there are only 70 or so left, having lost, discarded or given away a heap more.

Smirks Against Travolta, circa 1980

Some are campaign badges, some reflect contemporary issues and a few are just silly like my “Smirks against Travolta” badge.

And the equally silly "Dog Lovers Against the Bomb".

Thinking back to the campaign badges which cover about half of the collection the tally of successful against failures is about even.

One day I will explore each campaign but for now I am drawn to those directed against the Tory Governments from 1979 to 1997, and in particular those which featured Mrs. Thatcher.

She was Prime Minister from 1979 till 1990, and she divided opinion and for some of us still does.  

That said it is important I think to recognise that she was in a sense the figurehead for a series of political and economic ideas and a powerful section of the establishment.

Remember The Milk, 1971

Given the majorities the Conservatives commanded in Parliament those political and economic ideas were steadily advanced, and I guess that explains the large number of badges directed against Mrs. Thatcher.  

Some in the collection predate her time as Prime Minister and harp back to her time as Education Secretary in the early 1970s but most were produced in the 1980s.

And it is as well to remember just how the simple badge machine revolutionized the business of protest.

No longer did you have to rely on the expensive and old-fashioned process of producing enamelled metal badges, instead you could turn out hundreds in a  relatively short time at home changing the message and the issue as was needed.

Most of the finished products were unsophisticated and at times quite rudimentary but they did the business. Looking back at mine I marvel at just how many campaigns there were that I slid into.

But I suspect my involvement in many was just to buy the badge, and wearing it till the next issue burst forth.

Swamp Thatcher, 1984

Although with those directed against Mrs. Thatcher I was pretty persistent in showing them off on coats and jumpers.

With the passage of time, I do question the degree to which they personalized politics and while some were funny many more were vicious.

Not that such attacks are new, you only have to go back to the works of James Gillray and William Hogarth in the 18th century to appreciate that the caricatures of Mrs. Thatcher come from a long line of political satire.

And that is it.

Less a statement on today’s politics or my own opinions and more a reflection of what once was, which is just as it should be for a history blog.

PS The Milk Snatcher’s badge was being given away at “The Milk Snatcher’s Ball” held at UMIST sometime in 1971.  Equally notable on the night was the sight of me and my flat mate Jack wearing baby doll nighties which we had borrowed from the girls in the flat above. But that story is for another day.

Dog Lovers Against the Bomb, 1984

Location; some time between 1970 and 1988.

Pictures; Upset Her, 1980, Labour Party, Smirks Against Travolta, circa 1980, Remember the Milk Snatcher, 1971 unknown, Swamp Thatcher, the SWP circa 1984, Dog Lovers Against the Bomb, circa 1984, unknown, from the collection of Andrew Simpson