Britain just got Weller: meet the Jam Generation

16 February 2008

Anne McElvoy talks to the politicians reared on the 1980s music of the Jam: post-Cold War, disenchanted with state monopolies, and cagey about Class A drugs

What do David Cameron, David Miliband, Nick Clegg, Yvette Cooper, Michael Gove and (just about) George Osborne have in common? They are part of the Jam Generation: a powerful cross-party phenomenon laying the foundations of our political futures. The soundtrack to their formative years is Paul Weller’s tuneful, raucous songs of the 1980s: ‘The public gets what the public wants/ But I don’t get what this society wants/ I’m going underground . . .’

Now they are at, or near, the top of politics: two party leaders and the foreign secretary are sons of the Weller years. So are the fast risers in Gordon Brown’s latest Cabinet reshuffle. Some, like James Purnell and Andy Burnham, are really the little brothers of the Weller era and coming up fast behind.

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Michael Taylor

February 15th, 2008 4:26pm Report this comment

Sorry, I don't get it. So loads of politicians are about my age (41). So what? Cameron and Osborne were on the wrong side of Eton Rifles. I clearly remember Jam gigs from 1979 to 1982 and it was like being at a football match, I just can't imagine Ruth Kelly and Yvette Cooper being part of that. It was also very working class too and very non-political. Can't see the earnest Millibands and Nick Clegg there at all. Caroline Flint maybe, she sounds a bit Wellerish and is about the right age (46), and quite an unlikely looking politician. But as the great main once said: And as it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end That bullshit is bullshit, it just goes by different names

Richard Hare

March 5th, 2008 10:28am Report this comment

I grew up opposing state control in the 80s but now I can see that where a state is well run for the people, by the people high tax and spend can work for society as a whole. I was misled by inefficient Labour government and badly run unions into the belief that socialist ideas were de facto doomed to failure. Why have I changed my views? Because I have been living in Scandinavia for 7 years bringing up kids and making no use of private health or education. They say you become more of a realist the older you get, but unless you experience different realities you just become a reactionary. Please visit Scandinavia, there are many problems here, but there are solutions too.

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