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This blog has been contributed by Kieran Masterton.

"I blame Thatcher," says the middle-aged, chords and cardigan-wearing gentleman in front of me in line at Starbucks on the concourse of Paddington Station.  The middle-aged gentleman is queuing patiently in front of me, which, incidentally, is a favourite occupation of the British.  His finger draws my attention to his Guardian Newspaper of which the front cover depicts an "anarchist" throwing a plasma TV through the window of the Royal Bank Of Scotland's headquarters during the G20 riots of April 1st 2009.  "Too much time on their hands. Need to get themselves a job," he says.  I nod, smile and point out the irony of an anti-globalisation protester wearing a Nike baseball cap.  He orders his skinny cappuccino and I order my tall brewed coffee and we go our separate ways.

What struck me about the middle-aged gentleman's comment was that, in many ways, we are still living the legacy of Margaret Thatcher's Britain.  There is a social decease in Britain, there is a sickness that was born in a decade of greed and excess and has become an incurable plague amongst an underclass that has appeared beneath our working class.  Ever since Thatcher's Britain a culture of idleness has taken a choke hold on our country.  A sense of privilege, a sense that the world owes them something and in many ways this idiocy is a product of the mass unemployment, miners strikes, poll tax riots and intense racial hatred of the 1980's.

It is during the aforementioned madness of the 80's that the stunning This Is England (2006) sets its scene, setting up director Shane Meadows as a filmic voice for all those who grew up in 80's Britain.  His semi-autobiographical film follows twelve-year-old Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) who is drawn into a group of Skinheads on the estate where he lives.  Friendless and constantly verbally and physically picked on at school, Shaun finds a surrogate family in the group of teenagers - the girls shave his head and dress him in their uniform clothing style (skinny jeans, suspenders, Doc Martens) while the lads, especially Woody (Joe Gilgun), become his best mates.

However, trouble is just round the corner and takes the form of Woody's brother Combo (Stephen Graham), who instantly divides the group upon his arrival.  Combo has been in prison and returns a member of the National Front; his ultra-racists views poison the group of friends as he forces them to choose a side.  Playing on Shaun's feelings for his dead father, a casualty of the Falkland War, Combo encourages Shaun to join him and he eventually becomes something of a hideous father figure for the young, impressionable boy.

If you have been following our mini-series on kitchen sink realism and how contemporary British cinema still mirrors those values, you will know that this is the final installment.  You will also know that I have kept This Is England as the jewel in the contemporary kitchen sink crown.  There are many reasons for this strategic move, but the most important of those reasons is that the film is truly one of the best British films made in the last twenty years.  Meadows has captured a mood and moment in time, culturally, politically and socially while still telling a compelling story and that, in my estimation, is a massive accomplishment.

The Skinhead movement is a classic kitchen sink subject matter.  Skinhead subculture began as an expression of fashion and musical taste amongst British youths in the 1960s but by the 80's had become synonymous with the National Front. For those of you wondering, the British National Front is a far-right political group that is widely considered to have fascist views.  The whites-only party denies it is a Nazi party and claims it is democratic, yet it clearly promotes racial hatred.

The film takes these views of racial hatred and builds a complex social picture, which speaks of a divided Britain and demonstrates the fear and inadequacy felt by those committing the racially motivated crimes.  Again, angry young men are at the fore, men who feel cheated by a senseless war, men who feel inadequate and unable to provide in an economy that stacks the odds against them by, in their eyes, giving their jobs away to undeserving foreigners and racial minorities.  There are interesting parallels to be drawn between Iraq and the Falklands War and between the socio-economic situation we now find ourselves in and the poverty suffered by many in 80's Britain.

The defining moment of the film comes right at the end when Combo "befriends" Milky (Andrew Shim), an English-born black from Woody's group of Skinhead friends.  After a night of smoking weed, the two get into a discussion about their families and it soon becomes clear that Milky's upbringing and home life is what many would consider ideal.  As Milky tells his story Combo's face grows more and more uncomfortable, clearly expressing a boiling anger and inadequacy over his unspoken life.  This leads to him questioning Milky further, pushing him and pushing him until in a explosion of prejudice, hatred, jealousy and inadequacy, Combo beats Milky within an inch of his life.  There is no one other scene, which so clearly frames the connection between racism and the racists' feelings of inadequacy and fear

In reality, kitchen sink realism goes back further that the 50's and 60's, the roots of the movement were born during the industrial revolution.  In the "dark Satanic Mills" of William Blake's poem, "And did those feet in ancient time," the contrast between the "green and pleasant land" and the dirty, grime and hardship of the working classes was born.  If you take anything away from kitchen sink realism, it should be that England and, in a larger picture, Britain is a divided nation, a nation with beautiful green pastures and bleak industrial darkness; only half of which you'll ever find in a Richard Curtis movie.  Is it pretty?  Not really, but it's important.  It's important to help understand the development of society and how cinema can be utilized to bring a voice to the marginalized and the overlooked.

Kieran Masterton is a postgraduate research student who has taught Film and Media at the University of Gloucestershire, UK.  His research interests include screenwriting, neo-noir, genre theory and the slasher genre.

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