The seventies were great: don't believe the myth of Thatcherism

With living standards rapidly rising, late-Seventies Britain was a great place to live. Thatcher ruined it

FIRST POSTED MAY 1, 2009

Monday, May 4 marks the 30th anniversary of arguably the most significant event in post-war British politics: the coming to power of Margaret Thatcher.

The dominant narrative - accepted even by many who consider themselves to be on the left - is that Britain's economy in the 1970s was in such dire straits that our country urgently needed a change of direction.

Britain, in this account, was the 'Sick Man of Europe'. The unions and inflation were out of control. Our inefficient nationalised industries were an expensive disaster. The Labour governments of 1974-79 were complete flops. The post-war mixed economy model had failed. But this narrative is a myth.

It's true that inflation hit 27 per cent in 1975, but this was largely a consequence of the Yom Kippur War oil price shock, which saw oil prices quadruple, and not a sign that the mixed economy model had collapsed.

By 1978, the British economy was rapidly improving. Inflation was down to single figures and unemployment was falling too. Productivity was rising, including in the nationalised industries. North sea oil revenues were starting to transform the balance of payments, which showed a surplus of £109m in 1977. And in December 1978 Britain recorded a massive trade surplus of £246m.

Britain was a contented society that had a healthy work-life balance

During 1978, Britain's standard of living rose by 6.4 per cent to reach its highest ever level: so much for the 'Sick Man of Europe'.
"The outlook for Britain is better than at any time in the postwar years," was the verdict, not of a Labour party propagandist, but of Chase Manhattan bank's chief European economist, Geoffrey Maynard.

Bernard Nossiter, a Washington Post journalist, argued in his 1978 book Britain- the Future that Works, that Britain, unlike the US, had created a contented society that had managed to get the balance right between work, leisure and remuneration. Far from having had enough of Labour and the post-war consensus, opinion polls show that the party would have won a General Election, had Prime Minister James Callaghan called one, as expected, for October 1978.

The so-called 'Winter of Discontent' of 1979 - which ushered in Thatcherism - is also shrouded in myth. James Callaghan

Add to:

Comments

Hide comments

Right on and well said. Having lived through the whole period, as opposed to those who get their 'knowledge' of the sixties and seventies from books, I can vouch for life being easy then, and it's got progressively harder since. Thatcher sold off almost everything the country owned, ushered in her capitalist spiv friends to buy it up cheap and make a killing, and Blair and Brown have completed the trashing of Britain - Brown sold off our gold reserves when they were at their lowest, what would they be worth now? Thatcher ushered in greed and nastiness, destroyed the unions and national cohesiveness, and consigned the country to the whims of rich foreigners. The only way back would be mass nationalisation of all important services. But that won't happen.

Posted by Peter Simmons at 1:29pm on May 1, 2009

Yeah it was great, life was easier, i was on a 3 day week. The only problem was i couldnt pay the bills.

Posted by Gary O'Brien at 10:23pm on May 1, 2009

Callaghan claimed there was no crisis as he stepped from the jet of the Royal Flight, looking tanned and relaxed in short-sleeves, after an inter-government jamboree in the Caribbean. The Sun was right. I was schoolboy, and even I knew there was a crisis. True it was a wheeze being repeatedly sent home early because the electricity workers were on strike - which also meant there was no TV news, which every day was about the dire state of British Leyland, the National Coal Board, British Rail, Britsh Steel, etc. I was at an international school, and the other boys would make fun of us because of our collapsing economy. Depressing times.

Posted by James Waldron at 8:59am on May 2, 2009

Like Peter, I lived through the period. I also remember at fairly close hand the likes of "Red Robbo" and the other loony left idiots who set out to destroy industry (Yes, Robbo said it himself.) There may be some for whom it was easy then....the no good worthless lefty scroungers Maggie T. closed out. From 1978-1982 I worked in the US. Some things stood out to me; things worked (e.g. if you put money in a candy machine, the goods came out. It stands out in my mind because the machine I used on Euston station on a visit home just nicked my money; I was waiting around because of the rail strike.). Most US goods were of decent quality and still cheaper than in UK (I still wear a 7 dollar zip up jacket; seems as good as when I bought it 30 years ago.) If someone had a problem they sorted it out, instead of pathetically saying "they should do something about it" without ever saying who "they" were (though it seems fairly clear "they" meant anyone but themselves, most likely the government should tax others to pay for solving their problems; Nanny!). I was amazed at the reputation of British goods; having been brought up believing we were a competent nation ("British is Best", said the campaign) I was amazed to be made clearly aware we were at best a second class outfit. Anyone who can look back on the socialist years with fondness lived in a dream world; or was one of the scroungers. Britain was a stinking socialist mess. And people were dumb enough to vote for them again 20 yers later, just because fancy boy Blair told them it would be different. Now we are all stuck with consequences of economic failure. With luck, this really will be the end of the Loonies. If the Conservative candidate seems unlikely to win, why not vote Lib-Dem? The boy Clegg seems harmless enough. I might even support proportional represenatation, if votes were weighted by IQ. (That would finally kill off Labour and BNP, whose supporters are drawn from the same groups). Why do so many people seem to think if something seems good we should do it? (e.g. More paid time off for maternity leave, more pay for child care, more spending on possible Labour voters). Why can people not see "there are no free lunches"? Everything has a cost. But so many people take a "blinkered and myopic"** view; especially socialists. **Paraphrased from the original "Limits to Growth", Donella Meadows et al.

Posted by TomNightingale at 12:23pm on June 1, 2009

I think you need treatment,I was there with a young family.

Posted by ROBERT BOYD at 9:51pm on July 4, 2009