Britain Booklet 3
Foreign affairs
Society in the 70s
Labour Gov of Wilson and Callaghan
Heaths Government
Heath as a leader
Industrial relations and the miners strike
Political and economic policies
Experienced, having been leader of the party since 1965.
He was the first Conservative leader to have been chosen through a formal election process.
He came from a different background to previous Conservative leaders and had been educated at state schools.
He won the 1970 election with a clear programme of reform especially around industrial relations and economic modernisation.
He was a Europhile, was committed to Britain’s entry into the EEC, and was in a strong position to achieve this having been a key negotiator during the 1961 application.
From the beginning of Heath’s government there were industrial disputes - dockers, dustmen, postal workers, power workers.
The government’s response was the Industrial Relations Act, 1971:
It had some similarity with ‘In Place of Strife.’
It provided for strike ballots.
It introduced a ‘cooling off’ period before strikes could begin.
It was opposed by both the TUC and the CBI.
However there was still a miner’s strike in 1972 during a harsh winter. This led to the government declaring a state of emergency and introducing a 3 day week to save electricity.
Stagflation
U turn
Troubles in Northern Ireland
3 British soldiers killed - Provisional IRA thought to be responsible
4000 shipyard workers march to demand internment for IRA leaders
McGurk’s Bar - 15 killed by UVF bomb
Bloody Sunday - 13 killed by British army
Race and immigration
Youth
Progress of Women
The contraceptive pill became more acceptable and widespread and being made available on the NHS from 1971.
The Domestic Violence Act 1976 enabled women to take out a mortgage without a male
The Equal Pay Act that had been passed in 1970 came into force in 1975.
The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 made discrimination in employment and education illegal
The Employment Protection Act 1975 introduced paid maternity leave and outlawed dismissal on the grounds of pregnancy.
Women’s pay went up from 59% of men’s pay in 1970 to 70% in 1977.
Race and immigration became a bigger issue in the 1970s -
Events overseas often led to big influxes in immigrants, ie the expulsion of Asians from Uganda in the early 1970s and the breakaway of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1974.
By 1974 a million immigrants had come to Britain from the New Commonwealth.
New arrivals tended to live in the same areas as other immigrants from the same place.
Racism was visible at football matches where monkey noises were made up of black players.
In popular culture racist jokes were acceptable and white actors ‘blacked up’ in the Black and White Minstrel Show’ until 1978.
Punks
Started in 1975/6
Influenced by American bands such as the New York Dolls
Included the Sex Pistols and the Clash who played loud and fast guitar
Led to moral panic: clothes included bondage gear and ripped T shirt; concerts could be violent; the Sex Pistols swore on live TV
Skin heads
Developed from the Mod scene of the 1960s
Tended to be working class
Initially influenced by Jamaican culture and music
Became increasingly linked to the NF and football hooliganism in the later 1970s