Thanks Paul, what a sad indictment that despite most of the things we remember the 70s for (strikes, power cuts and general industrial strife), you remind us that in so many ways we were better off. We had cohesive local communities, we were actually happy and we had a lot less to worry about.
I suspect that back in the 70s Reform would have been described as Centre Right. Unfortunately now, such is the decay in our public services, they will need to be radical just to get back to some sort of equilibrium.
Spot on. I was a teenager in the 70s and my parents both worked hard. There was a sense that hard work reaped rewards be that at school or at work. Life was not perfect and sometimes economically challenging, but there was definitely a greater sense of security and fair play and trust in the police, the BBC and that governments would prioritise the interests of British citizens. I agree, the music was great too!
Reading this beautifully expressed article, I felt quite tearful for a past which in all its fundamental structures was stable and secure.
I was born in the 1940s, just after World War ll, and life went on without dramatic change in the underlying foundations of a stable society from that period until the early twenty-first century.
In this country, and it seems in most of Western Europe, tectonic plates do indeed appear to have shifted, leading to basic changes to our societies. We are subjected to disruptive forces which seek to undermine our stability by the promotion of ideas such as the fluidity of biological sex and the downgrading of the nuclear family. Ideologies which promote legalising abortion up to birth and assisted dying conflict with basic principles such as the sanctity of life.
Tolerance of religious difference is being severely tested when we witness the insidious growth of antisemitism, and people no longer trust the police or the legal system to be impartial.
Can we stop the rot and return to a more cohesive stable society? I think it would take a major world event to shake us back to our foundational principles.
Very thoughtful Paul, you wrote so well. I grew up on a large housing estate in the North East, there are five of us, four glorious brothers and me, except I’m the eldest 🙂My dad was a docker then, although he had been in the Air Force when he was drafted and my mam had part time work in shops, but mainly she had a full on job having five children with only six years between myself and my youngest brother 🤭 My mam died very recently, and our birth dates caused some lovely spontaneous giggles as the vicar read them out whilst telling my mam and dads story. Looking back I realise how good we had it then even with so little.
It’s good to look back and reflect, it makes a person realise how far we’ve come, even if we aren’t going in the right direction; I wish our politicians would do the same to steer our great UK ship on the right course. The previous and present government do not want us to be Britain in the same way anymore, so they will not steer the UK ship on a course that the majority of us would like, that is healthy happy and prosperous. As a country we’ve been in many political oubliettes, dark, damp stinking times, that seem impossible to get out of, but this time it’s different to any time before, because we are such a divided nation. In the 1970s we still felt like British people, and yes, dare I say it, a healthy majority white nation, and those that were not white didn’t think it strange either; just as I would not think it strange to move to India or Pakistan and realise that I was a minority, that’s the whole point! My point being, that as white Britons, thousands of years of our ancestors built this country, not just a generation or two. Sure, we’ve fallen out with each other many times between the English, Scottish, Welsh and Ireland north and south; but, in times of trouble as with WW1 and WW2 we stood together because of our common ties and Christian history. Our country is full to the gunnels with illegal and legal migrants, who do not share our history, heritage, bloodlines and Christian background in all its forms. Many would not stand for this country, they still long for the one they left, even though they tell us they are afraid there, in reality, most are not they want economic asylum, but still don’t believe in this country, they’d rather destroy this one and then leave, just as locusts do once they’ve devoured what they found. Only this radical shift that is predicted in the polls will save anything of the Britain that we should be, a Britain that is fair under the law, with a proper democracy, putting British people first, that welcomes the great and the good from around the world. I write this feeling like part of the forgotten majority, whose bloodline go back centuries, who very much likes the great and the good from other places, but who wishes to be considered first in the queue, because of a lifetime of hard work paying into the system as did my family generations before.
I remember when you were on a waiting list and you went to the council to see where you were and told you were third. Then you moved up and were housed.
Now with this new bidding system it's a farce. I'm 67 and have been bidding for a council house since 2012. The closest I got was 34th.
Edinburgh has a massive housing problem. It leaves you scunnered.
I was 18 in 1970 and I think you have summarised things very well.
It was a great decade to live through and, even when the problems appeared to be nearly insurmountable, we would be able to robustly discuss things with people of widely different views (sometimes by candlelight in the pub when we had power cuts!)
As you say Paul small authority figures like “parkies”, bus conductors, and Inspectors! Police officers actually walked a “beat” and talked to people! Minor crime was “not” tolerated (shoplifting) and if you were on the “dole” you were perceived as a “Scrounger”. A key feature was that you ONLY needed one wage to look after a family. It was a “choice” if both parents worked. Children clearly benefited from the stability of a basic family unit. GP’s & Dental treatment no problem. What do we have now through government policies. “open borders” , 10 Million more people on the back of globalisation, rampant knife crime and women and girls worried about their safety. Thanks to Uni party failure. Everyone knows we need to make hard and stark choices.
I was 25 in 1970 and remember the decade well. You offer a good summary. I’d add that the quality of political leadership was so much higher then. The Labour cabinet had Crosland, Benn, Shore (my leader) and Healey. the Tories were less intellectually heavyweight but figures like Carrington and Whitelaw were men of substance while Thatcher had strength of purpose. Part of the story is that Britain was still a world power, though less so than it had been when these folk started their careers after WW2 - I suspect the rapid decline since those days means that political careers and the Civil Service are less appealing to the most ambitious.
My husband and I were parents in our first decade of marriage raising two youngsters during the seventies. I remember it all very well, and it was pretty much as described here.
❝But those who can recall the decade would, I am sure, tell a similar story to my own.❞ I am 81 so I can remember. In 1979 I voted with anger for Margaret Thatcher because of overmighty trade unions, of Jack Jones and Hugh Scanlon and beer and sandwiches at Number 10 and "industrial muscle". She was in the end too divisive for me, but she fixed the problem.
Now feels much worse - it feels like Yeats poem "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned.". But hey, maybe 1919 in Ireland felt like 2025 does here and things will get fixed here as they were there. Eventually.
Thanks Paul, what a sad indictment that despite most of the things we remember the 70s for (strikes, power cuts and general industrial strife), you remind us that in so many ways we were better off. We had cohesive local communities, we were actually happy and we had a lot less to worry about.
The music... oh the music!!!!
Ha! You beat me to it. A decade of superstars and super bands too many to mention, making the best music ever produced.
Thanks Paul, thoughtful piece as always.
I disagree on one thing, I and several million others do not think the Reform party are radical.
On the contrary they stand up for the honest, hard working indigenous people of this country, a cohort that Labour used to represent back in the 70s.
I suspect that back in the 70s Reform would have been described as Centre Right. Unfortunately now, such is the decay in our public services, they will need to be radical just to get back to some sort of equilibrium.
Spot on. I was a teenager in the 70s and my parents both worked hard. There was a sense that hard work reaped rewards be that at school or at work. Life was not perfect and sometimes economically challenging, but there was definitely a greater sense of security and fair play and trust in the police, the BBC and that governments would prioritise the interests of British citizens. I agree, the music was great too!
Reading this beautifully expressed article, I felt quite tearful for a past which in all its fundamental structures was stable and secure.
I was born in the 1940s, just after World War ll, and life went on without dramatic change in the underlying foundations of a stable society from that period until the early twenty-first century.
In this country, and it seems in most of Western Europe, tectonic plates do indeed appear to have shifted, leading to basic changes to our societies. We are subjected to disruptive forces which seek to undermine our stability by the promotion of ideas such as the fluidity of biological sex and the downgrading of the nuclear family. Ideologies which promote legalising abortion up to birth and assisted dying conflict with basic principles such as the sanctity of life.
Tolerance of religious difference is being severely tested when we witness the insidious growth of antisemitism, and people no longer trust the police or the legal system to be impartial.
Can we stop the rot and return to a more cohesive stable society? I think it would take a major world event to shake us back to our foundational principles.
I was born in 1944 and I know exactly how you feel.
Very thoughtful Paul, you wrote so well. I grew up on a large housing estate in the North East, there are five of us, four glorious brothers and me, except I’m the eldest 🙂My dad was a docker then, although he had been in the Air Force when he was drafted and my mam had part time work in shops, but mainly she had a full on job having five children with only six years between myself and my youngest brother 🤭 My mam died very recently, and our birth dates caused some lovely spontaneous giggles as the vicar read them out whilst telling my mam and dads story. Looking back I realise how good we had it then even with so little.
It’s good to look back and reflect, it makes a person realise how far we’ve come, even if we aren’t going in the right direction; I wish our politicians would do the same to steer our great UK ship on the right course. The previous and present government do not want us to be Britain in the same way anymore, so they will not steer the UK ship on a course that the majority of us would like, that is healthy happy and prosperous. As a country we’ve been in many political oubliettes, dark, damp stinking times, that seem impossible to get out of, but this time it’s different to any time before, because we are such a divided nation. In the 1970s we still felt like British people, and yes, dare I say it, a healthy majority white nation, and those that were not white didn’t think it strange either; just as I would not think it strange to move to India or Pakistan and realise that I was a minority, that’s the whole point! My point being, that as white Britons, thousands of years of our ancestors built this country, not just a generation or two. Sure, we’ve fallen out with each other many times between the English, Scottish, Welsh and Ireland north and south; but, in times of trouble as with WW1 and WW2 we stood together because of our common ties and Christian history. Our country is full to the gunnels with illegal and legal migrants, who do not share our history, heritage, bloodlines and Christian background in all its forms. Many would not stand for this country, they still long for the one they left, even though they tell us they are afraid there, in reality, most are not they want economic asylum, but still don’t believe in this country, they’d rather destroy this one and then leave, just as locusts do once they’ve devoured what they found. Only this radical shift that is predicted in the polls will save anything of the Britain that we should be, a Britain that is fair under the law, with a proper democracy, putting British people first, that welcomes the great and the good from around the world. I write this feeling like part of the forgotten majority, whose bloodline go back centuries, who very much likes the great and the good from other places, but who wishes to be considered first in the queue, because of a lifetime of hard work paying into the system as did my family generations before.
Lovely seeing policemen with no arm tattoos in the photo, no diversity barriers and a red bus you can hop on and off 🙏🏻
I remember when you were on a waiting list and you went to the council to see where you were and told you were third. Then you moved up and were housed.
Now with this new bidding system it's a farce. I'm 67 and have been bidding for a council house since 2012. The closest I got was 34th.
Edinburgh has a massive housing problem. It leaves you scunnered.
Excellent article, Paul.
I was 18 in 1970 and I think you have summarised things very well.
It was a great decade to live through and, even when the problems appeared to be nearly insurmountable, we would be able to robustly discuss things with people of widely different views (sometimes by candlelight in the pub when we had power cuts!)
Is this a sign of the decline of civilisation, or just something specific to us here in refugee camp Britain.
Everything was brown, but it was good 👍
As you say Paul small authority figures like “parkies”, bus conductors, and Inspectors! Police officers actually walked a “beat” and talked to people! Minor crime was “not” tolerated (shoplifting) and if you were on the “dole” you were perceived as a “Scrounger”. A key feature was that you ONLY needed one wage to look after a family. It was a “choice” if both parents worked. Children clearly benefited from the stability of a basic family unit. GP’s & Dental treatment no problem. What do we have now through government policies. “open borders” , 10 Million more people on the back of globalisation, rampant knife crime and women and girls worried about their safety. Thanks to Uni party failure. Everyone knows we need to make hard and stark choices.
I was 25 in 1970 and remember the decade well. You offer a good summary. I’d add that the quality of political leadership was so much higher then. The Labour cabinet had Crosland, Benn, Shore (my leader) and Healey. the Tories were less intellectually heavyweight but figures like Carrington and Whitelaw were men of substance while Thatcher had strength of purpose. Part of the story is that Britain was still a world power, though less so than it had been when these folk started their careers after WW2 - I suspect the rapid decline since those days means that political careers and the Civil Service are less appealing to the most ambitious.
Buying a round and flashing your fags in the pub, because even on crap wages you could afford to.
My husband and I were parents in our first decade of marriage raising two youngsters during the seventies. I remember it all very well, and it was pretty much as described here.
❝But those who can recall the decade would, I am sure, tell a similar story to my own.❞ I am 81 so I can remember. In 1979 I voted with anger for Margaret Thatcher because of overmighty trade unions, of Jack Jones and Hugh Scanlon and beer and sandwiches at Number 10 and "industrial muscle". She was in the end too divisive for me, but she fixed the problem.
Now feels much worse - it feels like Yeats poem "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned.". But hey, maybe 1919 in Ireland felt like 2025 does here and things will get fixed here as they were there. Eventually.