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

Badge of the week no.3 .......... celebrating Manchester Airport

The third in the series featuring badges from the collection with a bit of a story.

Now I have to be honest these two are not from the collection but were recently posted by Stephen Marland who like me revels in all things odd, interesting and different.

So here are two badges celebrating Manchester Airport which Stephen thinks date from the late 1960s.

And they offer up a host of supplementary questions from who made them to why were they created.

Of course there will be someone who recognises them and will have their detailed history ready to be told.

I hope so.

Location; Manchester











Picture; Manchester Airport, courtesy of Stephen Marland

Badge of the week no.2 .......... the Red Cross Worker ..... Glassgow

A second in the series featuring badges from the collection with a bit of a story.

Now so far I am struggling with a story.

But I know it was awarded to Alex Scott from Glasgow, so there are a few clues to begin the search for the story.

Location; Glasgow





Picture; Red Cross Badge, courtesy of David Harrop

Badge of the week no.1 .......... the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Brotherhood ..... Edinburgh

A new series featuring badges from the collection with a bit of a story.

This is the badge of the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Brotherhood.

It is an organisation I written about before.*

I had come across the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Brotherhood back in the 1970s in Ashton Under Lyne.

They were what they said they were an organization designed to provide a pleasant afternoon with a Christian slant on a Sunday.

The first seem to have sprung up in the mid 1870s and their first national conference was in London in 1906.

Now this is another of those areas I want to dig deep into.  There was a political dimension  There was a long standing relationship between political Liberalism and Nonconformity which brought active Liberals into the movement.

And in the early twentieth century key Labour and Trade Union leaders became actively involved in the PSA/Brotherhood Movement. Labour MPs Arthur Henderson and Will Crooks, and the Liberal MP Theodore C. Taylor were all present at the founding of the National Association of Brotherhoods, PSAs etc in London in 1906.

Keir Hardie, was also actively involved, he was a main speaker for a Brotherhood Crusade in Lille in 1910. Arthur Henderson MP was elected National President in 1914. The National Adult School Union’s ‘One and All’ journal reported 7 out 9 ‘adult school men’ who stood for parliament were successful in 1910.”**

Location; Edinburgh

Picture; PSA badge, Edinburgh, courtesy of David Harrop

*Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Brotherhood, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Pleasant%20Sunday%20Afternoon%20Brotherhood

** The Early Adult School and Brotherhood Movements in the West Midlands: Adult Education, Evangelism or Social Activism?, European Social Science History Conference, Glasgow, April 14 2012

Badge of the week number 4 ........ the Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Now the home made badge has a long and distinguished history and is one of those instant bits of advertising which makes the point cheaply and effectively.

A round bit of cardboard, some sticky tape and a safety pin and you have a badge.

Easier than that and just as effective is coloured ribbon, so loved of election rallies in the early 19th century, and the Suffragettes, and before ribbon there were bits of plant, flowers and bush, stretching back into the past, all of which were designed to mark out your political preference.

My first was “Lets Go with Labour” which I wore in 1966 but must have been a remnant from the ‘64 election.

It was a shinny plastic badge, with a plastic pin which fixed into the back, and I wore it throughout the campaign knocking on doors in Well Hall.  I was just 16 and such are the things you cut your political teeth on.

And now after a life time of carrying the badge of the week, announcing my opposition to health cuts, nasty dictators, and factory closures, I am all “badged out”.

But that won't stop Peter expecting me to wear the badge advertising our new book the Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

It hit the book shelves last week, and offers up the alternative history of Chorlton and bits of Stretford, Didsbury and Whalley Range.

And while I may be “badged out” he has also ordered up the T shirt, leaving me to wonder when the sandwich board arrives with the rota for my turn to walk up and down Barlow Moor Road announcing the new publication.

But there is one better because not content on producing a badge for the book he has produced three.
The first is for any one who wants to be associated with a] the book, b] thinks Chorlton is quirky, or c] aspires to being quirky.

That just leaves two badges.

One for any one who lives or works or is connected with a building in the book.

And finally one for those who are actually, themselves in the book.

But to find out who they are you will have to buy a copy.

The Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, by Andrew Simpson and Peter Topping can be ordered from http://www.pubbooks.co.uk/ or Chorlton Bookshop

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; The Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy Badge  Artwork © 2017 Peter Topping