Contextualizing the film Billy Elliot

The 1984-85 miners strike in Britain

The UK miners' strike of 198485 was a major action affecting the British coal industry.
The strike was led by the National, established in 1888 as a syndicalism federation and
one of the largest labor unions in Britain. This places the setting and the backstory to
Billys brother and fathers issues, as these are the ordeals that he also has to face.
Iron Lady PM Margaret Thatcher and her economic policy
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher was the Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to
1990. She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and is the
only woman to have held the office. "Iron Lady", was a nickname that became associated
with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she
implemented policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism. Thatcherism claims
to promote low inflation, the small state, and free markets through tight control of the
money supply, privatization and constraints on the labor movement. Margaret Thatcher
provides the context behind the miners strike in Britain, which causes the tension that
builds among the Elliot Family.
Trade unions in Britain and the fight against privatization
Privatization is another form of capitalism. It is the process that concerns two steps, first
is the buying of all outstanding shares of a publicly company by a single entity, making
the company privately owned, the second is a demutualization of a mutual
organization or cooperative to form a joint-stock company. This builds further to why
Billys father and brother must leave every morning to protest against Thatcherism. Due
to this, the father and brother take their rage out on Billy, which becomes and ordeal to
him.
Social Classes in Britain
The different social classes that are seen in Billy Elliot are mainly the lower class and
upper class. The Social Class System is bases on royalty, occupation and wealth.
Depending on how much you have and what you do for living places you in a different
class. Billy, being from a family that works off the coal industry fits into the lower class.
He faces the issues with money from time to time but does overcome this. The context of
the Social classes comes to the idea of capitalism and privatization. This once again
relates back to Billys father and brothers occupational issues. Furthermore it is shown
in the film that within each social class there is a different norm for hobbies, one of
which is ballet which falls into the upper or high middle class. By billy, one of the lower
class begins to learn ballet; he begins to break away from the norm