Britain just got Weller: meet the Jam Generation

13 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

There’s one huge area where the Glasnost just isn’t happening at all : namely in discussing the sins of their youth, where the Jam Generation is less likely to be open than their predecessors from the Haze of Dope era. The daring drug of the late Eighties was cocaine, rather than the cannabis which most of the Cabinet has now admitted trying. One very senior figure put it to me like this, ‘You’re going to ask me if I tried drugs and I could say, yes, I tried some cannabis in the sixth form. Then you’re going to say “And did you try anything else?” — and the answer would be yes. But I don’t want to give you that answer — so I am not going to give you any answer at all.’

Messrs Cameron and Osborne replied separately that candour about having using a Class A drug in the past didn’t seem to be doing Barack Obama much harm. They don’t seem to want to follow in Obama’s footsteps with candour of their own, though. Neither does Mr Clegg, who says crisply, ‘Mind your own business.’ At least he is more outspoken about the relationship of his generation to that before it: ‘The baby boomers who had an overcentralised approach have failed us.’

The implicit shared critique is that the post-war generation has left a mess which needs to be cleared up by energetic young brooms. How much time was wasted, from Jim Callaghan’s first warning that the comprehensive model in schools was going badly wrong to progressives doing something about the failures? It took Andrew Adonis (early Jam Generation) to force City Academies past a reluctant Labour party and education establishment.

How far did social breakdown have to go before the debate turned — still tentatively — to what we might have to do to address it and whether erratic family structures, not just poverty, might be part of the problem? How long did the Tories have to behave as an arrogant tribe before they saw the need to be likeable as well as right?

If the Jam Generation is dismissive of its political parents, you can understand why. What we don’t yet know is whether they have the bravery to speak out of turn when the situation demands it — or how those appealing soft contours will survive austerity or crisis. The Iraq war has taught them to be tentative about Britain’s place in the world. ‘Are you still a hawk?’ I ask Mr Osborne. ‘Hawkish,’ he replies.

We have grown up with rising prosperity and expectations as a fact of life: beneficiaries of low unemployment and an economy only now losing its shine. How on earth will the political children of the good times cope when it gets tough? We’d better get used to them though. The baby boomers are shuffling off the stage to spend more time with their 1968 memorabilia. ‘Let the boys all sing/ Let the boys all shout for tomorrow,’ as Mr Weller so rightly said.

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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.

David Watts

May 17th, 2011 5:55pm Report this comment

I find it hilarious that some of these MPs pretend to even know who the Jam were. I'm guessing most of them were Duran Duran types. Of course confessing to having been a Duran Duran fan wouldn't give you much politicl street cred. If any of the aforesaid MPs actually know any Jam songs it would only have been becasue the songs had knocked Duran Duran off the top of the hit parade. Or, equally likely, they have recently downloaded a few songs from itunes in the vain hope that they can drop some of Weller's lyrics/soundbites into conversation to give their musical upbringing some gravitas. MPs and music - never the twain should meet - we all remember that excruciatingly embarrassing clip of Blair with his Strat as he tried to promote "cool Britannia".

mark. chapman

May 29th, 2011 6:36am Report this comment

We don't need politicians - they should get a job that does something (like nursing) rather than theorising, wishfully thinking they are changing things. Weller has distanced himself from politics in recent years, as many in The Jam Generation has over time. That's because he does music. Politics is just hot air: working alongside people in their day-to-day lives would be better for politicians. Think they don't like that idea though because they lose their expense allowances and somewhat fat cat salaries - which is where their current corruption within 'The Establishment' comes in.

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