Editing Generation X (section)

====== Political environment ======
The United Kingdom's [[Economic and Social Research Council]] described Generation X as "Thatcher's children" because the cohort grew up while [[Margaret Thatcher]] was Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990, "a time of social flux and transformation". Those born in the late 1960s and early 1970s grew up in a period of social unrest. While unemployment was low in the early 1970s, industrial and social unrest escalated. Strike action culminated in the "[[Winter of Discontent]]" in 1978–79, and [[the Troubles]] began to unfold in [[Northern Ireland]]. The turn to neoliberal policies introduced and maintained by consecutive conservative governments from 1979 to 1997 marked the end of the [[post-war consensus]].<ref name=":0" />