Exercise: Martin Parr. Hypocrisy and prejudice.
Martin's admission of hypocrisy and prejudice seems to be based on his claim to have turned his back on his middle class upbringing, and his criticism of Thatcherism. Leaving aside the issue of what Thatcherism did to, or for, society his choice of using holiday makers in New Brighton is not necessarily a good example of the alleged collapse of society by Thatcherism during this period. Liverpool at this time was under the control of a hard left local council led by the marxist Derek Hatton who cared more about his political beliefs and publicity machine that he did in efficiently governing Liverpool. Had Parr said the mess and collapse of the area was caused by Liverpool's own council I would have agreed with him, but the presence of a Conservative government had little to do with the mess that Liverpool got itself into.
The gift that Parr has of turning issues on their head is a clever one and lifts his images out from his contemporaries.
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