"3 Million at the start of MT's government, 1.6 million at the end."

The figures below are the ONS yearly average unemployment figures  for the 80's.
For 6 of those years the number out of work and claiming was about or above 3 million


It was often well under a million in the early 70's and even with the huge shock of oil price increases, it never went above 1.5 million
The average unemployment level between 55-79, was some like 3% where as between 80 and 95 it rose to about 3 times that



1980's number out of work and claiming

1,794.717   1980

2,733,800   1981

3,119. 019  1982

3,104,660   1983

3,159,821   1984

3,271,232   1985

3,292,867   1986

2,953, 379  1987

2,370,383   1988

1,798,713   1989




"The Sus Law (Vagrancy Act 1824) was repealed in 1981."


Most people have an idea what they mean by sus, and it's in the application, and not the Act or common name under which it hides

The Vagrancy Act was replaced by the Criminal Attempts Act at the same time
The Act abolished the offence of "loitering with intent" under the Vagrancy Act 1824
It  created criminal offences pertaining to attempting to commit crimes. It abolished the common law offence of attempt. It didn't address the  subjective grounds for stopping, which differed in application from force to force and  didn't   require recording.  


They  repealed the old Act because the allegation was that police used it in part to specifically target ethnic minorities in sometimes very weak cases

In 1983 a Home Office report identified the controversial nature of police powers to stop and search.
(note the date)

1984
PACE determined that there must be an objective basis for police suspicion to stop and search - such as reliable information received from a member of the public, or that the person stopped had been seen acting suspiciously.
It also stated that “personal factors”, such as mode of dress or skin colour, were not sufficient grounds to stop and search. Section 3 of PACE placed a duty on police officers carrying out a search to make a written record of the procedure and to inform the individual concerned of their right to obtain a copy. However, the Act placed no obligation on police to record circumstances where an individual was stopped but not searched.

In 1999, the Macpherson Inquiry report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence stated that all police stops should be recorded, a recommendation that was finally implemented in April 2005

I think there is an early 80's or thereabouts sketch with Griff Rhys Jones and Rowan Atkinson regarding something similar on this matter?