Not happy with an inflation-busting settlement, the coal miners were back, capitalising on the oil crisis, with higher demands in the 1974 mining strike.
Led by Joe Gormley the miners were in increasingly militant mood.
Miners Strike in 1972 | The Power of Militancy
Having been left behind in the pay stakes, Britain’s miners wanted a share of the good-life. The miners strike of 1972 made sure they got it.
Led by Arthur Scargill and aided by impending cold weather the miners strike croppled the country.
Mary Whitehouse | The Upholder of our Moral Values
Were the 1970s sexually liberated or morally depraved? Mary Whitehouse and the Festival of Light were convinced it was the latter.
The Festival of light campaigners battled on, urging the government to crack down on the plague of pornography. But by February 1974. Edward Heath was locked in a very different battle, in which his political survival was at stake.
Marc Bolan the Late Great T. Rex Frontman | New Sense of Masculinity
Marc Bolan and his peers brought razzle-dazzle to the seventies, and a whole new sense of masculine dress-sense and style.
Young male and female followers flocked to see T. Rex and their flamboyant singer.
Northern Ireland Troubles | Birmingham Bombings | Harold Wilson’s Solution
Harold Wilson was Prime Minister in the early 70s when the Northern Ireland troubles spilled over to the mainland with catastrophic consequences.
The outrage of the Birmingham pub bombings shocked the British public and life would never be the same again.
The Seventies - Dominic Sandbrook | A decade that started well, but quickly went to wrack and ruin
The seventies may be remembered as the time of the unions and huge political change, but it was also a time of great music, art and festivals.
Dominic Sandbrook may have fond memories of the seventies but, he is not alone. Many of us who are now advancing into retirement age grew up in the seventies.
Hyson Green | Alcatraz, The Jungle | City Planning Failure
Hyson Green was, in the 1970s, a striking example of how badly wrong the city planners got it. Alcatraz, the jungle failed and is now a supermarket.
But the failure of the high-rise housing experiment was hugely damaging in a deeper sense too. It helped to fuel a growing mistrust of Government planning and a loss of faith in their supposedly benign bureaucrats.
Buying Your First House | An Englishman’s home is his Castle
Buying your first house, the idea that an Englishman’s home is his castle, drove people to the new towns and created the property boom in inner-cities.
Harold Hill | Right to Buy | Council House | Margaret Thatcher
The Right to Buy your council house was seen as one of Margaret Thatcher’s radical new policies. Harold Hill in Essex exemplified the idea.
Grange Hill | Comprehensive Schools | Tucker Jenkins
Comprehensive Schools were a deeply contentious issue in the 70s. Highlighted by the indignation raised by children’s television series Grange Hill.
The education debate was just one symptom of a consensus cracking apart.
