The Seventies

In many ways, the 1970s were the nadir of postwar British history, with economic collapse, industrial conflict between capital and labour, high oil prices, inflation and unemployment both rising (a combination that the dominant economic models had not foreseen), a reinvigorated I.R.A. resuming the "armed struggle" in Northern Ireland and beginning a bombing campaign in mainland British cities, and British standing in the international community at a very low ebb, thanks in part to the impossibility of meeting international commitments after the devaluation of the Pound Sterling in 1967. There were those in the civil service and the political establishment who saw their job simply as "managing Britain’s decline" as gracefully as possible. In 1964 British workers were more productive than those of any country in the European Community except Germany; by 1977, Italy was the only E.E.C. country less productive than Britain.

In Northern Ireland the shooting of civilian protesters in Derry by the First Parachute Regiment on 30 January 1972 (killing 13 people, fatally wounding 1 more, and injuring several others) implicated the British armed forces in the cycle of violence in a new way.

The oil crisis of 1973 was exacerbated for Britain by coal strikes, leading to crippling energy shortages and the institution of a three-day working week. This finished Edward Heath's Conservative government of 1970-1974.

A new youth subculture, punk, reflected the prevailing sense of disillusionment and despair. Before the breakthrough of punk to a mass audience, the same sense of despair was reflected in established genres of popular music, such as the 1976 folk/rock single "Hard Times of Old England".

Fringe political movements - Nationalists, Anarchists, Neo-Fascists, Trotskyists, Irish Republicans - gained higher public profiles and disrupted prevailing social discourses. The National Front was formed in 1967, and in the 1970s managed to muster respectable shares of the vote in a number of carefully selected by-elections and local elections in parts of the industrial Midlands and South London. The "Angry Brigade" was a homegrown left-wing terrorist organisation, far less destructive than those of Italy, Germany or the United States, but still a startling new development for Britain.

In 1968 the right-wing Conservative M.P., Enoch Powell, initiated a public debate about immigration and a multiracial society with his infamous "Rivers of Blood" speech, and the 1970s saw growing contention around issues of equal opportunities and integration. As the economy was squeezed, there was a marked tendency to scapegoat immigrants, especially Pakistanis. Skinheads, another youth subculture of the period, were particularly attracted to violence against Asians. Racist violence, and anti-racist activism, gained a new prominence in British life.

A further sterling crisis in 1976 necessitated a loan from the International Monetary Fund, which meant the humiliation of having the I.M.F. dictate government spending cuts. In 1977-1978 the Labour government lost its parliamentary majority and could survive only through a pact with the (tiny) Liberal Party - another worrying development for a country unused to coalition governments. Like the Conservative government that preceded them, the Labour governments of 1974-1979 were brought to an end by their inability to contain industrial disputes.