1970-1979 Flashcards
Heath’s strengths
-Experienced in politics
-A “safe pair of hands”
-A competent leader
Heath’s weaknesses
-“Stiff and prickly”
-Poor with the media
-Seen as somewhat boring and uninteresting
Heath’s economics from 1970-1974
-Selsdon man and the lame-duck industries
-Stagflation
-The OPEC oil crisis
-The miner’s strikes
Selsdon man
-1971
-Heath was against supporting lame-duck industries, as stated in the Selsdon Park Conference in 1971
-However, in 1971, he went back on his word and nationalised the failing British company, Rolls Royce
-Heath then further went back on his initial claims, by granting the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders a £34 million subsidy to keep them afloat
-Portrayed Heath as an indecisive and spineless leader
The 1970 general election results
-Conservatives: 13,145,123 votes, 330 seats, 46.4% of votes
-Labour: 12,179,341 votes, 287 seats, 43.0% of votes
What is stagflation?
Persistent high inflation combined with high unemployment and stagnant demand in a country’s economy.
The OPEC oil crisis of 1973
-The Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973
-OPEC declared an oil embargo
-Oil prices soared to 4 times their usual levels
-Inflation in Britain soared as a result, up to 16%
-The balance of payments deficit rose to £1 billion
-Interest rates were raised to 15%
-Unemployment doubled to 1.44 million from 1974-1976
The Miner’s Strike of 1972
-The Industrial Relations Act of 1971 angered the unions and strained relations
-There were major strikes in 1972, by the minters, ambulance drivers, fire-fighters, civil servants, power workers, hospital staff and engine drivers.
-There was a total of 23,909,000 days lost to strikes in 1972, which was the highest number since the general strike of 1926
-In 1972, the NUM (led by Arthur Scargill) called a miner’s strike
-The strikers used flying pickets during the strike
-In 1972, the government called a state of emergency
-1.2 million workers were laid off
-A ‘three-day week’ was introduced in 1972
-The miner’s received a 21% pay rise
The Miner’s Strike of 1974
-The miners made another wage demand in 1974
-The government re-introduced the ‘three-day week’ again, in which fuel was rationed and a 50mph speed limit was imposed on all roads
-The miners refused to accept Heath’s pay offer
-In January 1974, the NUM called another strike
Britain and Europe from 1970-1979
-Heath managed to successfully enroll Britain into the EEC in 1973, as De Gaulle had been replaced by Pompidou
-Heath was pro-European, due to his involvement in World War 2
-Wilson called an election for Britain’s participation within the EEC in 1975
-Although the Labour government backed a ‘yes’ vote, Wilson tried to stay neutral in order to hold the party together
-The outcome of the election was 68.3% ‘yes’, and 32.5% no
-The Labour Party became increasingly anti-Europe during the 1970’s, but the EEC vote meant that the debate went away for a while
Heath’s domestic policies from 1970-1974
-The Local Government Act
The position of women from 1970-1979
-The 1970s saw the high point of second-wave feminism
-The first International Women’s Day was recognised by the United Nations in 1977
-Women’s Lib organised demonstrations in both London and Liverpool in March 1971 demanding equal pay for women and free 24-hour nurseries
-Radical feminists believed that women were oppressed by a patriarchal society, whereas socialist feminists identified a clearer class dimension to women’s equality
-The first rape crisis centre opened in London in 1976
-The contraceptive pill became available through the NHS in 1971
-‘Reclaim the Night’ marches were held in cities across Britain in response to the murders of the Yorkshire Ripper in 1977
-The Domestic Violence Act of 1976
-The Sex Discrimination Act of 1975
-The Equal Opportunities Commission was set up, but it only 10% of discrimination cases within the workplace were successful, and it only launched 9 investigations between 1976-1983
-Women’s wages went up from 59% of men’s wages in 1970, to 70% by 1977
-The TUC publicises charter, ‘Equality for Women within Trade Unions’, in 1979
-The Employment Protection Act of 1975
Race relations from 1970-1979
-The Immigration Act of 1971 limited the inflow of migrants into Britain
-By 1974, over 1 million new commonwealth immigrants had came to Britain
-In the 1974 London Borough council election, only 10 non-white councillors were elected. In 1978, there were 35 but this did not reflect the size of London’s immigrant population
-Brick Lane in London became known as ‘Banglatown’, due to its high population of immigrants from Bangladesh
-The Race Relations Act of 1976
-The National Front was formed in 1967. In February 1974 it put up 90 candidates in the general election, and by 1977 was described by some as Britain’s fourth largest political party.
-The anti-Nazi league was established in 1977
-Rock Against Racism Concert in 1976. A demonstration in Trafalgar Square in 1978 saw 100,000 people attend
-The death of Blair Peach in 1978
Environmentalism from 1970-1979
-Pictures taken from space in the late 1960s and early 1970s had a big impact on people’s views of the planet, as they highlighted the earth’s fragility
-The ‘Friends of the Earth’ pressure group expanded to Britain, France and Sweden in 1971
-Greenpeace was founded in 1971
-Animal rights protestors carried out violent attacks on pharmaceutical labs that tested on animal subjects in 1973
-The book, ‘Watership Down’, was published in 1972
Youth culture from 1970-1979
-In 1975-1976, the punk movement started
-British bands like The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned and the Buzzcocks played loud, simple guitar music where the words were often snarled or shouted over the music
-It is important not to over-emphasise the impact of punk, as most people still preferred non-offensive pop, such as Abba
-Skinheads were growing in numbers
-Football hooliganism was a growing problem in Britain during the 1970’s
