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Kirsti (standing) with her five siblings in the hostel for homeless families, Blackpool, 1992Thatcher’s Children was born out of a series first made in 1992. Craig Easton says: ‘I met the Williams family – two parents and six children – in a hostel for homeless families in Blackpool. They were unable to get a home because they were unemployed, but unable to get work because they had no permanent address. They were trapped in a vicious cycle.’ Thatcher’s Children is published by GOST. Is Anybody Listening? is at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool until 26 February 2023, before touring the UK
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Mandy (mother) with Emma and Donna in the hostel for homeless families, Blackpool, 1992The project was made in response to a speech by Peter Lilley, then secretary of state for social security, in which he announced his determination to ‘close down the something-for-nothing society’. French newspaper Libération dispatched a journalist to northern England, and Easton was commissioned to take the accompanying photographs. His resulting monochrome images of the overcrowded two-bedroom council flat in Blackpool sparked a reaction by both the public and the press
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Katrina in the hostel for homeless families, Blackpool, 1992Mandy: ‘We’re the fifth richest country in the world and we’ve got foodbanks. It’s disgusting. Go back to the 70s when I was younger. What was the world like? It wasn’t perfect, but do you remember the free butter? Free milk at school? We’re our own worst enemy, as a country and as a people’
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Donnain the hostel for homeless families, Blackpool, 1992Mandy: ‘You’ve got to keep on trying. It’s a matter of dignity, isn’t it? I’ve told my kids it doesn’t matter: they don’t need to have gold, they don’t need to have money – as long as they keep their dignity, they’ve got everything. It’s a lot more than some politicians have got. I think every one of my kids has got dignity and as long as they pass that to their kids that’s the best you can give them’
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Mark (Mandy’s son) in the kitchen, Darwen, 2018Decades later Easton revisited the project and tried to find the family with the simple intention of sharing his original images and to fill in the intervening years. When he found them, their current situations carried echoes of the past
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Mark with his children and his sister Kirsti’s children at home in Darwen, Lancashire, 2018Easton: ‘For years I wondered what happened to those children. Then, in 2016, I reconnected with them and have been visiting, talking and photographing them and their families ever since’
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Kirsti in the supermarket with Krystal and Cody, Accrington, 2018Easton: ‘Photography, it seems to me, is great at shining a light on to immediate issues in society, but perhaps less good at taking the long view. This was an opportunity to look beyond the immediate and present social inequality and the the challenges faced by families like these directly in the context of the failed social policies of successive governments’
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Two of Kirsti’s children in the back alley behind Mark and Emma’s house, Darwen, 2018Easton: ‘The book is interspersed with family quotes and outtakes from political speeches that over generations have repeated the same mantra: work your way out of poverty. The problem is that it isn’t true. All of the family have worked, but have struggled to break free – insecure housing, low wages, zero hours contracts, those are now some of the issues creating the trap’
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Emma preparing food for her and Mark’s children, Darwen, 2018Both generations were impacted by housing insecurity and dependence on a labyrinthine welfare system which led to a precarious nature of existence. The vital difference is that in the 1990s it was unemployment that led to hardship, whereas now in the 2020s most of the family are in work and yet are still confronted by similar financial challenges
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Mark with Emma and new baby Marcus, Darwen, 2020Easton’s recent photographs, combined with the early images, create a portrait of deprivation in modern Britain and of the ongoing disconnect between policy makers and poorer citizens
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Mark and Kirsti’s children playing in the backyard in Darwen, 2018 Kirsti: ‘The only thing that puts a smile on your face is seeing your kids happy. When I was younger we didn’t even have 1 % of a chance to have a good life. And at times I worry that I can’t give my kids a chance either. You don’t want to put your worries on them. Later on they’ll learn’
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Katrina at her wedding reception, Aspatria, Cumbria, 2018Katrina: ‘My kids, when they grow up, I want them to have what I didn’t have. I want them to have fun, get a good education, get a good job and basically start to enjoy life. I’m not really sure what the key to getting a good job is, though, because otherwise I’d have one by now. I’m not really sure how I can make it different for my children.’ For more on this photo read The Big Picture
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Katrina’s son Leo in his bedroom, Aspatria, Cumbria, 2018Families like the Williams are often talked about but rarely listened to, and their words and experiences expose the contradictions and false promises by those in power. The ‘children’ of the book’s title refer not only to the family featured in the photographs, but also the politicians and wider society who are all influenced or impacted by empty aspirations of ‘social mobility’
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Emma (Mark’s partner) with their daughter Poppie, 2018Mark: ‘I feel trapped. I am trapped, because there’s no way out is there? This is it now. Is this it for the rest of my life? Yeah! Nothing’s going to change. It never will be sorted. Never has been. It never ends’
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Poppie, Darwen, 2018Craig Easton: ‘My job is to shine a light into dark corners. And I want to hold people to account for what I find there’
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Anthony and Elliot, Darwen, 2018The influence of the political thought and policy from the 1980s – exemplified by Thatcher’s slogan ‘there is no alternative’ – still pervades. Easton’s project challenges the acceptance of this
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