Can it actually be half a century for the reason that occasions of 1973 — a 12 months that instantly conjures up recollections of Slade, Spangles and House Hoppers, The Sting, The Exorcist and Dwell And Let Die?
Alas, there’s no denying it. Although it’s arduous for a few of us to confess it, the passage of time by no means slackens and it’s now 50 years for the reason that first collection of Are You Being Served? and Final Of The Summer time Wine appeared on Britain’s TV screens.
Fifty years for the reason that heyday of Wizzard, the Osmonds and David Cassidy; 50 years since Sunderland surprised Leeds within the FA Cup Ultimate, and a Polish goalkeeper despatched England crashing out of the World Cup at Wembley.
For some individuals, 1973 will all the time be the 12 months Britain joined the Widespread Market, a landmark greeted with an exhibition of European sweet-wrappers on the stylish Whitechapel Artwork Gallery. (Sure, severely.) That, as we now know, was the excessive level within the relationship.
May we actually be in the identical scenario as 1973? Ukrainian troopers shoot at Russian army positions with assist of howitzer battery in Ukraine
The photographs from the continued battle in Ukraine and the Yom Kippur Struggle (pictured) are strikingly related
However of all of the recollections of 1973, the one which resonates right this moment is the financial and vitality disaster that dominated the ultimate months of the 12 months. For though historical past by no means repeats itself precisely, it’s arduous to overlook the parallels between previous and current.
Then, as now, inflation had been creeping upwards for months earlier than the storm broke. A lot of the blame 50 years in the past lay with the Prime Minister, Edward Heath, and his browbeaten Chancellor, Anthony Barber, who had gambled on a large injection of cash into the economic system in an ill-fated sprint for progress.
Though unemployment started to fall, inflation began to surge. For 2 years in a row, the cash provide expanded by greater than 25 per cent, and by the summer time of 1973 costs had gone up by virtually 10 per cent in a 12 months. Heath’s reply, which most sane politicians would contemplate unthinkable right this moment, was to regulate wages and costs by diktat.
In early October 1973, he unveiled a fearsomely sophisticated new bundle of state controls, with a Value Fee to manage companies and a strict 7 per cent pay restrict for employees up and down the nation.
However only a week later, destiny — or moderately, world occasions — took a decisive hand.
The set off was a battle, not in Jap Europe, however within the Center East, the place Egyptian and Syrian troops launched a surprising shock assault on Israel on the Jewish vacation of Yom Kippur.
The set off was a battle, not in Jap Europe, however within the Center East, the place Egyptian and Syrian troops launched a surprising shock assault on Israel on the Jewish vacation of Yom Kippur
Pictured: A First Help Station arrange throughout the Yom Kippur Struggle in 1973
The battle brought on a brought on ruinous rise in vitality costs as Arab oil producers introduced a 70 per cent enhance within the posted value of oil
Outraged by Western army help for Israel, the Arab oil producers got here to a fateful determination. On October 16 they introduced a 70 per cent enhance within the posted value of oil, which quickly reached a document $11.65 a barrel, up from simply $2.40 a number of months earlier.
Worse was to observe. Because the Arab nations introduced large manufacturing cutbacks, punishing Britain and different Western international locations for his or her overseas coverage, costs on the pumps surged uncontrolled.
For Britain’s struggling economic system, the oil shock was a hammer blow. As one commentator remarked, it was as if anyone had turned a dial and, with a flourish, turned inflation up by one other 15 per cent.
However the affect wasn’t simply financial: it was political. For again within the autumn of 1973, simply as right this moment, some individuals noticed the vitality disaster as an opportunity to humiliate the Conservative authorities — chief amongst them the Left-wing leaders of Britain’s commerce unions.
Half a century in the past, the federal government’s most implacable foe was the highly effective Nationwide Union of Mineworkers, led by the rumpled Joe Gormley. And when the miners referred to as for a whopping 35 per cent pay enhance, Heath knew he was in for a battle.
On November 12, defying his determined entreaties, the miners introduced an extra time ban, step one in the direction of an all-out strike. By an awfully unfortunate coincidence, not solely have been the ability employees on strike, too, however the climate forecasters have been predicting a sudden chilly snap.
An Israeli soldier examines the wreckage of a missile whereas west of the Suez Canal throughout the Yom Kippur Struggle
That very night, the Electrical energy Board warned individuals to organize for snap two-hour energy cuts. The next day, the federal government introduced its fifth state of emergency in lower than 4 years. Electrical promoting was banned. Public buildings have been ordered to chop energy consumption.
And ration playing cards have been even despatched to Publish Workplaces, prepared for nationwide distribution.
On prime of all that, the economic system was heading for a catastrophic recession. That very same day, the Financial institution of England put lending charges as much as 13 per cent, whereas rates of interest on overdrafts soared to a spine-chilling 18 per cent — a degree that may in all probability ship thousands and thousands into penury if it have been repeated right this moment.
By the top of November, the headlines had turn out to be unremittingly miserable. In London, colleges despatched kids residence as a result of they couldn’t afford to warmth their lecture rooms.
In Sussex, some 10,000 avenue lights have been turned off to save lots of energy.
‘Gas and Energy Emergency: Go away Your Automotive at Residence This Weekend’ learn stark ads within the newspapers, begging drivers to chop out ‘weekend motoring’ and preserve beneath 50mph always.
‘The selection is stark,’ defined the deputy chairman of the Electrical energy Council. ‘Both the general public co-operates or full cities might lose their provide of electrical energy at a stroke.’
At the moment all this apocalyptic rhetoric sounds virtually quaint, as a result of we all know that Britain pulled by way of ultimately. However no one knew that on the time.
Troopers of the 59th brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces hearth grad missiles on Russian positions in Russia-occupied Donbas area on December 30, 2022
Then, as now, inflation had been creeping upwards for months earlier than the storm broke. A lot of the blame 50 years in the past lay with the Prime Minister, Edward Heath (L) (Pictured (R) Present Prime Minister Rishi Sunak)
Certainly, the Cupboard Workplace was even engaged on a worst-case state of affairs for an entire energy blackout and financial collapse, with plans for the Military to defend hospitals and forestall riots if the lights went out for good.
Eventually Heath roused himself from his torpor to make a dramatic new intervention. On the night time of December 12, the phrases ‘The Rt. Hon. Edward Heath, MP. The Prime Minister’ appeared on thousands and thousands of tv screens throughout the nation, beneath the puffy options of the person himself, his heavy options ashen with tiredness, his eyes narrowed.
‘As Prime Minister,’ he started merely, ‘I need to speak to you in regards to the grave emergency going through our nation.’
He defined the background: the oil disaster, the strikes, the horrible disaster on the energy stations. ‘We will have a more durable Christmas than now we have identified for the reason that battle,’ he stated gloomily.
Then he revealed his hand. The one answer was to maneuver to a three-day week, slicing demand for electrical energy by 20 per cent.
Companies should preserve their thermostats beneath 17c. Half of Britain’s avenue lights can be switched off. Floodlit sport was banned, and the BBC and ITV have been ordered to close down their TV stations at 10:30 on weeknights.
Whereas Slade’s Merry Xmas All people, the last word escapist hit, soared to the highest of the charts, many insiders couldn’t disguise their despair.
Drivers have been begged to chop out ‘weekend motoring’ and preserve beneath 50mph always throughout the gasoline disaster in 1973
Individuals queuing at a publish workplace for petrol ration books throughout the gasoline disaster in November, 1973
Assembly of vitality firm executives with British Commerce and Trade minister throughout 1973 oil disaster (L-R) Sir Eric Drake, chairman of BP, A.F. Hetherington of the Gasoline Council, Unidentified man, Dr A.W. Pearce, chairman of Esso and Tom Boardman, Minister of Commerce and Trade
The top of British Rail informed colleagues that the West confronted its best problem for the reason that Nineteen Thirties, whereas the Everlasting Secretary on the Treasury predicted ‘a siege economic system with rationing on the wartime mannequin’.
And the humiliations saved on coming.
On the finish of December, the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, previously a British Military officer, informed Heath that he had arrange a ‘Save Britain Fund’ and was planning to donate 10,000 Ugandan shillings from his private financial savings.
Not surprisingly, Heath ignored him. So, a number of weeks later, Amin wrote once more.
Rural Ugandans, he claimed, had donated a ‘lorry load of greens and wheat’ to assist their British buddies.
‘I’m now requesting you to ship an plane to gather this donation urgently earlier than it goes unhealthy.’ As soon as once more, nonetheless, Heath declined to answer.
The three-day week got here into impact on New 12 months’s Eve. Factories and companies have been restricted to only three days of electrical energy — both Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, or Thursday, Friday and Saturday — whereas retailers have been restricted to both mornings or afternoons.
By now life had a pronounced flavour of the final days of Pompeii, with lengthy queues for bread, candles, paraffin, rest room paper and soup.
An Essex vicar even informed his flock that the union militants might need to be shot in the event that they ‘persist in fomenting strikes’, a view that earned him a protracted interview on the BBC information. Someway I can’t think about the BBC airing an analogous opinion right this moment.
NUPE (Nationwide Union of Public Workers) strikers picketing Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton, in help of ancillary hospital employees throughout a interval of commercial motion in March, 1973
Much like 1973, strikes have been ongoing throughout the nation. Pictured – Nurses on the picket line on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead
But the three-day week turned out to be a lot much less apocalyptic than the doomsters had imagined. Many individuals responded with large ingenuity, wrapped in duvets by candlelight, working with battered previous screwdrivers and spanners when the ability was turned off.
In Sheffield, a snuff-making agency reverted to utilizing a water wheel that had final seen motion in 1737.
In West London, in the meantime, a furrier’s store displayed the signal: ‘Open Six Days a Week — By Candle Energy, Battery Energy and Will Energy.’
So though many corporations misplaced greater than a 3rd of their working hours, Britain’s companies nonetheless maintained manufacturing at virtually 80 per cent.
And there have been compensations.
The Mail’s columnist Jane Gaskell prompt that the vitality disaster may even be ‘good for us’, recommending re-reading an previous e-book or digging a backyard.
She even discovered a psychiatrist who thought, in very Nineteen Seventies model, that the three-day week was an opportunity for {couples} ‘to be extra spontaneous, to experiment extra of their intercourse lives whereas the kids are doing a five-day week in school’. Because it occurs, these phrases have been written virtually precisely 9 months earlier than I used to be born. I’ll depart you to attract your personal conclusions.
For Heath and his ministers, nonetheless, there was no joyful ending. Among the many normal public, irritation quickly became fury.
Motorists queue for petrol throughout the oil disaster sparked by the Yom Kippur Struggle
There have been related scenes of big queues for petrol and diesel after information of a gasoline provide scarcity lately (Pictured – A gasoline station in Peterborough in September 2021)
Very unfairly, nonetheless, many blamed the supposed stubbornness of the federal government moderately than the cynical opportunism of the union bosses.
(There’s a warning there, after all, for Rishi Sunak.)
So when Heath referred to as a snap Common Election on the finish of February 1974, asking ‘Who governs?’ the reply was not what he needed.
The Tory vote plummeted, the consequence was a hung parliament and Labour’s Harold Wilson took over on the head of a minority authorities.
Wilson’s reply to the vitality disaster was to throw cash at it, borrowing and spending as if the invoice would by no means come.
He started by handing the miners an enormous 32 per cent enhance, which merely invited even larger calls for from different unions.
As inflation soared, all people sought related offers. And Wilson merrily carried on signing the cheques: 31 per cent for the ability employees, 32 per cent for the civil servants, 30 per cent for the dockers, 35 per cent for the docs . . .
Older readers will bear in mind the consequence. Inflation peaked at a horrendous 26 per cent in the summertime of 1975.
Residing requirements fell two years in a row, and ultimately Wilson’s successor, Jim Callaghan, was pressured to beg the Worldwide Financial Fund for the largest bailout in historical past.
On prime of all that, rates of interest went up, and up, and up, peaking at a horrific 17 per cent on the finish of 1979.
A reasonably miserable story then. And as I say, historical past by no means repeats itself precisely.
Nonetheless, the parallels are uncanny: a buttoned-up Conservative Prime Minister in Downing Road, a distant battle triggering a worldwide vitality disaster, grim-faced union militants main their employees out on strike, an economic system hurtling into headlong recession . . .
So will 2023 be an motion replay of 1973? Will the lights keep on this time?
Or will it finish, but once more, with a weak Labour authorities handing out double-digit pay rises and plunging our funds ever deeper into the purple?
Let’s hope not. I like Slade as a lot as anyone, however as soon as was greater than sufficient. Time, certainly, to alter the document.
