From the BBC TV show, “Time for Dinner”, in the 80’s, industry pushed convenience, the microwave and time saving to ensure that women were freed from the kitchen to go back to work. The protagonist family, despite their connections with the NUM, felt that the 80’s was a period of growing freedom, but for many it was a time of great economic insecurity and their first line of defence, the trade union movement was gutted. The decade started with the election of Thatcher and ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The show talks about the growing food counter culture and notices the effect of reforms to come about labelling; it was increasingly hard to eat healthily and the closing scenes the family have their first delivered take away.
I met and married Mrs. L. in the ’80s so it wasn’t all bad, but in the latter half of the decade, it was a growing time of great economic insecurity with no-one to watch your back.