by Andy Beckett
After we got on, Jay’s son went and sat on his own with his guitar case. He seemed quite content to end the history lesson.
Acknowledgements
First, I would like to thank everyone who agreed to be interviewed. I hope I have represented each of their versions of the seventies fairly. I would like to thank the people who helped make three of the most important interviews possible: Peter Walker, Dan Hillman and Rebecca Stone. I would like to thank the staff of the Science 2 reading room at the British Library, and Kathleen Dixon at the British Film Institute. I would like to thank the friends who listened to me going on about the seventies and gave me ideas: Adam Curtis, Andrew Bagley, Stuart Kerr, Conrad Leach, Charlotte Higgins, Alex Butterworth, Paul Laity, James Meek, Sarah Walsh and John Dugdale. For specific pieces of assistance, I would like to thank Larry Elliott, William Keegan, Michael White, Richard Holloway, Rebecca Carter, Mariam Yamin, Robin Christian and Mark Bygraves; and for tolerating my absences from the Guardian and giving me seventies-related commissions, Ian Katz, Katharine Viner, Claire Armitstead and Merope Mills. At Faber, I am grateful to Walter Donohue, Neil Belton, Anna Pallai, Stephen Page and Rachel Alexander for their constant enthusiasm and occasional reality checks. Jon Riley helped the book into being when it was only a vague idea; Ian Bahrami expertly improved the manuscript. I would also like to thank Sinead and Tim Marsh and Tina Muller for enabling me to write on Thursday afternoons, and Jean and Richard Holloway and Elizabeth Beckett and Robert Milnes for helping so much at other times. And, most importantly, I would like to thank Sara for being this book’s ideal reader, reviewer and editor; and Lorna and Gillen for distracting me so deliciously during the half-decade it has taken me to understand a whole one.
Chronology
1970
February: First National Women’s Liberation Conference held in Oxford
June: Edward Heath wins general election with majority of thirty
July: First issue of The Ecologist published in London
October: Gay Liberation Front founded in London
1971
January: First British soldier killed in Ulster for half a century
November: National Union of Mineworkers begins overtime ban
1972
January: Miners begin national strike. British soldiers kill fourteen unarmed people during Bloody Sunday in Derry
February: Thousands of miners and other pickets, led by Arthur Scargill, force closure of Saltley coke depot in Birmingham, despite the efforts of hundreds of police. Miners’ strike ends in total union victory
March: British government takes direct political control of Ulster
July: Abortive secret talks between British government and IRA leadership. First issue of Spare Rib published in London
1973
January: Britain admitted to EEC. Foundation of the PEOPLE Party, later the Green Party
October: Egypt invades Israeli-occupied Sinai Peninsula, sparking the oil crisis
November: Miners begin another overtime ban
1974
January: Three-day week to ration electricity consumption imposed by Heath government
February: Miners begin national strike. Heath calls early general election. Loses
March: Harold Wilson becomes prime minister without a majority. Ends three-day week
October: Wilson calls general election to win a majority. Wins majority of three. Scottish National Party (SNP) wins 30 per cent of Scottish vote
November: IRA kills twenty-one civilians in Birmingham pub bombings
1975
February: Margaret Thatcher defeats Heath in Conservative Party leadership contest
June: Referendum on whether Britain should remain in EEC. Pro-Europeans win by 67 per cent to 33 per cent
August: Watchfield free festival jointly staged by hippy anarchists and Wilson government. British inflation rate peaks at 26.9 per cent
November: Wilson and the Queen attend official opening of first British North Sea oil pipeline
1976
March: Wilson resigns as prime minister
April: Jim Callaghan wins Labour leadership contest and replaces Wilson as prime minister
August: Strike begins at Grunwick photo processing plant in London over employees’ wish to be represented by a union
September: Sterling plunges against the dollar on the currency markets. Chancellor Denis Healey, on his way to a meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), turns back from Heathrow. Callaghan tells Labour Party conference: ‘The cosy world is gone.’ Healey tells Labour conference Britain will ask the IMF for the biggest loan it has ever granted
November: IMF negotiators arrive in London demanding huge cuts in public spending in return for loan. Callaghan and Healey argue for smaller cuts. Majority of Callaghan’s Cabinet want no cuts at all
November–December: Callaghan and Healey persuade Cabinet and IMF to accept more moderate cuts in public spending. Britain obtains IMF loan
1977
March: Callaghan negotiates Lib–Lab pact to shore up government’s position in the Commons
June: First mass picket at Grunwick. Battles between pickets and police
June–July: Boycott of Grunwick mail by postal workers brings strikers to verge of victory
July: The National Association for Freedom, a radical right-wing group close to Thatcher, secretly collects and distributes the Grunwick mail. Possibility of strike victory recedes
1978
January: Inflation drops below 10 per cent for the first time since the oil crisis
March: Jack Jones, Callaghan’s most powerful union ally, retires
April: Rock Against Racism campaign holds mass rally and festival in London
July: Lib–Lab pact ends. Grunwick strikers concede defeat
August: Conservatives and Saatchi and Saatchi launch ‘Labour Isn’t Working’ poster campaign
Autumn: Labour overtakes Conservatives in opinion polls
September: Callaghan decides against calling widely expected autumn general election
November: Jack Jones’s union goes on strike for higher pay. Other unions do the same. The Winter of Discontent begins
1979
January: Callaghan travels to the Caribbean for international summit and holiday. Probed by reporters on his return. The Sun summarizes his response: ‘Crisis? What Crisis?’
January–February: Peak of the country-wide strike wave. Exceptionally cold weather
March: Winter of Discontent ends. Government’s devolution proposals for Scotland and Wales rejected in referendums. SNP stops supporting Labour in the Commons. Government loses vote of confidence in the Commons. Callaghan calls May general election
April: General-election campaign. Large Conservative opinion-poll lead steadily narrows
May: Thatcher wins general election with majority of forty-three. Liberal vote collapses. Labour vote increases slightly
Sources
This is a selection of the sources I have found most useful. Those with a broad relevance to my book I have listed beside the first chapter to which they contribute. The abbreviation PRO is for the Public Record Office; HMSO for Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.
INTRODUCTION: OUR WEIMAR?
Blair, Tony, Labour Party Conference speech, 27 September 2005
Cameron, David, ‘Modern Conservatism’, Demos, 30 January 2006
McIntosh, Ronald, Challenge to Democracy: Politics, Trade Union Power and Economic Failure in the 1970s, Politico’s, 2006
New Economics Foundation, Chasing Progress Beyond Measuring Economic Growth, 2004
New Musical Express, 23 December 1978
Time Out, 24 January 1970
1 CHAMPAGNE AND RUST
Benn, Tony, Office Without Power: Diaries 1968–72, Arrow, 1989
Brittan, Samuel, Steering the Economy: The Role of the Treasury, Secker & Warburg, 1969
Butler, David, The British General Election of 1970, Macmillan, 1971
&n
bsp; Campbell, John, Edward Heath: A Biography, Cape, 1993
Cobden, R., England, Ireland, and America by a Manchester Manufacturer, Ridgway & Sons, 1835
Coleman, Terry, Movers & Shakers: Conversations with Uncommon Men, Deutsch, 1987
Critchley, R. A., The British Household in the Seventies, International Publishing Corporation, 1975
Economist, The, 13 June 1970
Heath, Edward, The Course of My Life: My Autobiography, Hodder & Stoughton, 1998
Hurd, Douglas, An End to Promises: Sketch of a Government, 1970–1974, Collins, 1979
Koestler, Arthur, Suicide of a Nation?, Hutchinson, 1963
Middlemas, Keith, Politics in Industrial Society: The Experience of the British System since 1911, Deutsch, 1979
Middlemas, Keith, Power, Competition, and the State, Vol. 1, Britain in Search of Balance 1940–61, Hoover Press, 1986
Pimlott, Ben, Harold Wilson, HarperCollins, 1992
Prior, James, A Balance of Power, Hamilton, 1986
Shanks, Michael, The Stagnant Society: A Warning, Penguin, 1961
Stewart, Michael, The Jekyll and Hyde Years: Politics and Economic Policy since 1964, Dent, 1977
Thatcher, Margaret, The Path to Power, HarperCollins, 1995
2 THE GREAT WHITE GHOST
Alan Clark’s History of the Tory Party, ‘From Estate Owners to Estate Agents’ (Part 3), BBC2, 28 September 1997
Heath, Edward, author interview, 27 July 2004
Heath, Edward, Travels: People and Places in My Life, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1977
Macmillan, Harold, The Middle Way: A Study of the Problem of Economic and Social Progress in a Free and Democratic Society, Macmillan, 1938
Sampson, Anthony, The New Anatomy of Britain, Hodder & Stoughton, 1971
Sewill, Brendon, author interview, 8 December 2004
Walker, Peter, author interview, 1 June 2004
Walker, Peter, Staying Power: An Autobiography, Bloomsbury, 1991
York, Peter, author interview, 7 February 2006
3 HEATHOGRAD
Arnold, P., ‘The Maplin Sands’, Essex County Archive (Southend), February 1970
Ball, Stuart, and Anthony Seldon (eds), The Heath Government 1970–1974: A Reappraisal, Longman, 1996
BBC News, BBC1, 13 November 1969
Bromhead, Peter, The Great White Elephant of Maplin Sands: The Neglect of Comprehensive Transport Planning in Government Decision-Making, Elek, 1973
Buchanan, Colin, ‘Note of Dissent by Colin Buchanan in the Report of the Commission on the Third London Airport’, HMSO, 1971
Cashinella, Brian, and Keith Thompson, Permission to Land: The Battle for London’s Third Airport and How the Whitehall Planners were Beaten to their Stripe-Trousered Knees, Arlington Books, 1971
Crick, Michael, Michael Heseltine: A Biography, Penguin, 1997
Defenders of Essex Association, Accounts and Newsletters, Essex County Archive (Southend), 1969–1990
Department of the Environment, ‘Maplin Population Projections’, PRO CM 33/14, 1973
Department of the Environment, ‘Maplin: Preliminary Design of Sea Wall’, PRO CM 33/13, 1973
Department of the Environment, ‘The Maplin Project: Designation Area for the New Town’, PRO AT 25/175 1973
Department of the Environment, ‘Public Consultation on Motorway and High Speed Rail Link Routes’, HMSO, 1973
Department of Trade, ‘Maplin: Review of Airport Project’, HMSO, 1974
Dobson, John S., ‘Fowlness’: The Mystery Isle, 1914–1939, Baron, 1996
Fenton, James, ‘The Last Chance for Foulness’, New Statesman, 2 February 1973
Hansard (Commons), 4 March 1971, 9 August 1972, 8 February 1973, 13 June 1973, 23 October 1973, 16 January 1974; (Lords) 22 February 1971
Heseltine, Michael, Life in the Jungle: My Autobiography, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000
Hunt, Donald, The Tunnel: The Story of the Channel Tunnel 1802–1994, Images, 1994
‘Maplin Development Act’, HMSO, 1973
‘Maplin Development Authority (Dissolution) Act’, HMSO, 1976
Maplin Development Authority, ‘Maplin Trial Bank Report’, PRO CM 33/40, 1974
‘Maplin Development: Plan and Section and Plan of Location of Runways’, HMSO, 1972
Maplin Movement, Accounts, Essex County Archive (Southend), 1973
McKie, David, A Sadly Mismanaged Affair: A Political History of the Third London Airport, Croom Helm, 1973
Roskill, Eustace Wentworth, ‘Report of the Commission on the Third London Airport’, HMSO, 1971
Tebbit, Norman, Upwardly Mobile, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988
Thames Estuary Development Corporation, ‘Maplin (Foulness): The British Air Gateway of the Future for Western Europe, with Deep-Water Docks, Oil and Industrial Facilities’, Essex County Archive (Southend), 1971
Town Committee on Maplin, Minutes of Meeting of 27 March 1973, Essex County Archive (Southend)
Walker, Peter, The Ascent of Britain, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1977
Walters, Alan, Maplin: The End?, Bow Publications, 1974
Wentworth-Day, James, ‘The Headland of Birds’, Sunday Times magazine, 17 December 1972
4 CLOSE THE GATES!
A Force to Reckon With, Yorkshire Television, February 1983
Allen, V. L., The Militancy of British Miners, Moor, 1981
Ashworth, William, The History of the British Coal Industry. Vol. 5, 1946–1982: The Nationalized Industry, Clarendon, 1986
Barratt, J., ‘Coal Stocks Memorandum’, PRO, 7 January 1972
Barratt, J., ‘Situation Report at the End of Week Five’, PRO, 11 February 1972
BBC News, BBC1, 8 February 1972, 10 February 1972
Beckett, Francis, Enemy Within: The Rise and Fall of the British Communist Party, John Murray, 1995
Bellingham, Richard, author interview, 24 August 2004
Birmingham Evening Mail, 10 January 1972–11 February 1972
Birmingham Post, 8–11 February 1972
Birmingham Sunday Mercury, 9 January–13 February 1972
Blue Peter, BBC1, 21 February 1972
Cabinet Minutes, 6 January 1972, PRO CAB 130/533
Cabinet Minutes, 10 February 1972, PRO CAB 128/50/7
Carrington, Peter, Reflect on Things Past: The Memoirs of Lord Carrington, Collins, 1988
Clutterbuck, Richard, Britain in Agony: The Growth of Political Violence, Faber, 1978
Crick, Michael, Scargill and the Miners, Penguin, 1985
Department of Employment and Productivity, ‘In Place of Strife: A Policy for Industrial Relations’, HMSO, 1969
Ffoulkes, F. L., ‘The “Saltley” Incident: A Report’, British Gas, 1985
Geary, Roger, Policing Industrial Disputes: 1893 to 1985, Cambridge University Press, 1985
Gormley, Joe, Battered Cherub: The Autobiography of Joe Gormley, Hamilton, 1982
Hansard (Commons), 18 January 1972, 3 February 1972, 11 February 1972, 14 February 1972
Harper, Roger, author interview, 27 September 2004
Howe, Geoffrey, A Giant’s Strength, Inns of Court Society, 1958
Industrial Relations Act, HMSO, 1971
Jeffery, Keith, and Peter Hennessy, States of Emergency: British
Governments and Strikebreaking since 1919, Routledge, 1983
Ledger, Frank, and Howard Sallis, Crisis Management in the Power Industry, Routledge, 1995
Maudling, Reginald, Memoirs, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1978
McLaren, Charlie, author interview, 1 September 2005
Memorandum on ‘Police Views’, PRO FV 38/119, 16 February 1972
Milligan, Stephen, The New Barons: Union Power in the 1970s, Temple Smith, 1976
Miner, The, October/November 1971, December 1971/January 1972
Miners’ Last Stand, The, Thames Television, 20 January 1972
Morning Star, 10 February 1982
Robens, Alfred, Ten Year Stint, Cassell, 1972
Routledge, Paul, Scargill: The Unauthoriz
ed Biography, HarperCollins, 1993
Samuel, Raphael, ‘The Lost World of British Communism’, New Left Review, September/October 1987
Scargill, Arthur, author interview, 17 September 2006
Scargill, Arthur, and Robin Blackburn, ‘The New Unionism’, New Left Review, August 1975
Taylor, Robert, The Fifth Estate: Britain’s Unions in the Seventies, Routledge, 1978
Times, The, 10–21 February 1972
True Spies: Subversive My Arse, BBC1, 27 October 2002
Watters, Frank, Being Frank: The Memoirs of Frank Watters, Monkspring, 1992
Webb, Richard, author interview, 27 September 2004
Who Likes Arthur Scargill?, Yorkshire Television, 21 November 1974
Wilberforce, Richard, ‘Report on the Miners’ Wage Claim’, PRO COAL 26/1110, 18 February 1972
Yorkshire Matters, Yorkshire Television, 10 June 1970
5 QUESTIONS OF SOVEREIGNTY
Adams, Gerry, Before the Dawn: An Autobiography, Heinemann, 1996
Army in Ulster – Men in the Middle, The, Thames Television, 18 September 1969
Asher, Michael, Shoot to Kill: A Soldier’s Journey through Violence, Viking, 1990
Bardon, Jonathan, A History of Ulster, Blackstaff Press, 2001
Bardon, Jonathan, A Shorter Illustrated History of Ulster, Blackstaff Press, 1996
Barzilay, David, The British Army in Ulster Vol. 1, Century, 1973
Bew, Paul, and Henry Patterson, The British State and the Ulster Crisis: From Wilson to Thatcher, Verso, 1985
Brenton, Howard, The Paradise Run, Thames Television, 6 April 1976
