10 March, 1980.

An angry outcry against a corrupt Tory government, I see nothing changes much in forty years then.

Written by Paul Weller this was basically a rant about Thatcherism, political corruption, voter apathy and government policies of spending more on nuclear weapons than on domestic policies for the benefit of the people…need I go on?

This was the first of three songs from The Jam that went straight into the UK charts at number one. The B-side was Dreams of Children but a mix up when it went to press meant the single was released as a double A-Side. Left to the DJs of the time to choose, this was the track that got all the air play.

The band weren’t expecting this to reach number one, otherwise they wouldn’t have been touring in the US at the time, and were shocked to hear the news. They immediately cancelled the rest of the tour, claiming to have come down with a virus, boarded a Concorde flight and made it back to the UK in time to record this for the following week’s edition of Top of the Pops.

The song spent a total of nine weeks on the UK chart, including three weeks at number one, and was voted umber two in NME’s Tracks of the Year for 1980.