| The 1970s 08:54 - Feb 17 with 8253 views | ThisIsMyUsername |
I've seen a number of comments in various places over the last few months saying how the UK is a country that is going back to the 1970s.
As someone who wasn't alive in the 1970s, what does this mean exactly, and is it true? |  |
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| The 1970s on 10:16 - Feb 17 with 1392 views | giant_stow |
| The 1970s on 10:08 - Feb 17 by GlasgowBlue |
You must have been a very advanced baby if you have vague memories of power cuts. The cuts took place over the winter of 1973 going into 74. |
Oh! Maybe I'm thinking of the early 80s / miners strike then. |  |
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| The 1970s on 10:17 - Feb 17 with 1396 views | GlasgowBlue |
| The 1970s on 10:14 - Feb 17 by Sharkey |
Footballers all looked about 35. (Except for George Burley, obviously. ) |
Or in some cases, 65.
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| The 1970s on 10:17 - Feb 17 with 1394 views | mylittletown |
For some of the the reasons listed above it was a difficult decade.
However being an ITFC fan was great, there was a huge amount of fantastic music, and there was a real sense of community.
On a personal note I received a very good free state schooling and free university. At the end of university, most of my friends and I got several decent job offers without really having to try.
When I had a knee problem, I walked (limped) into the GP, who sent me off to the NHS hospital the next day, and I had an operation the following week, all in the NHS.
A lot of things were actually pretty good. The politics weren't. |  | | |
| The 1970s on 10:18 - Feb 17 with 1387 views | GlasgowBlue |
Everyone knows that the 80's was the best decade. | |
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| The 1970s on 10:22 - Feb 17 with 1359 views | Blueschev |
House prices 3 x the annual salary, an abundance of social housing, free higher education, great music, Bobby Robson's blue & white army, near full employment, affordable public transport.
Thank god Thatcher saved us. |  | | |
| The 1970s on 10:29 - Feb 17 with 1337 views | blueasfook |
| The 1970s on 10:22 - Feb 17 by Blueschev |
House prices 3 x the annual salary, an abundance of social housing, free higher education, great music, Bobby Robson's blue & white army, near full employment, affordable public transport.
Thank god Thatcher saved us. |
Indeed, the early - mid 80s were the worst. Miners Strikes, Thatcher using the police force as her personal army to beat the crap out of protestors, recession, 3 million unemployed, the pound worth sod all, Neil Kinnock, dodgy hairstyles, guys wearing make up, the Sinclair C5, Bucks Fizz....
So much bad stuff. [Post edited 17 Feb 2023 10:32]
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| The 1970s on 10:36 - Feb 17 with 1304 views | BasingstokeBlue |
| The 1970s on 10:03 - Feb 17 by Guthrum |
The idea that the past was better than now has existed throughout human history.
It's centered around a selective nostaligia for the good bits (or supposed good bits, which may not actually have existed quite like that), while editing out the nastiness. Also the idea from older people (who tend to oversee popular culture and the media) that the youth of today is not up to the exploits of their forbears.
Things were said in the 1920s and '30s about the young being too soft to face a world war like their parents had been through. But they did. |
Nostalgia's not what it used to be. |  |
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| The 1970s on 10:40 - Feb 17 with 1294 views | GlasgowBlue |
| The 1970s on 10:22 - Feb 17 by Blueschev |
House prices 3 x the annual salary, an abundance of social housing, free higher education, great music, Bobby Robson's blue & white army, near full employment, affordable public transport.
Thank god Thatcher saved us. |
Going to the IMF cap in hand, Healey inflicting harsher austerity in just one year than Osborne did in six, bodies left unburied, rubbish piling up on the streets, the winter of discontent, inflation at 30%, sick man of Europe.......... | |
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| The 1970s on 10:43 - Feb 17 with 1280 views | Pinewoodblue |
We have a long way to go to get back to 70’s, or even 80’s.
Financially it was a struggle but we coped with mortgage rates over both decades in double digits most of the time. |  |
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| The 1970s on 11:08 - Feb 17 with 1227 views | MattinLondon |
| The 1970s on 10:22 - Feb 17 by Blueschev |
House prices 3 x the annual salary, an abundance of social housing, free higher education, great music, Bobby Robson's blue & white army, near full employment, affordable public transport.
Thank god Thatcher saved us. |
And the people then who had the luxury of cheap house prices etc tend to be the ones who criticise the younger generation for not being able to save up a deposit for a home. |  | | |
| The 1970s on 11:09 - Feb 17 with 1225 views | DJR |
| The 1970s on 10:03 - Feb 17 by Guthrum |
The idea that the past was better than now has existed throughout human history.
It's centered around a selective nostaligia for the good bits (or supposed good bits, which may not actually have existed quite like that), while editing out the nastiness. Also the idea from older people (who tend to oversee popular culture and the media) that the youth of today is not up to the exploits of their forbears.
Things were said in the 1920s and '30s about the young being too soft to face a world war like their parents had been through. But they did. |
I would still maintain that the 60s and 70s were the best time to grow up in.
The post-war austerity had ended, public services worked, there was an innocence to life for young people that just doesn't exist now, and all the people I know from Ipswich ended up with very decent jobs whether they left school at 16 or 18 or went on to further education.
There were also company pensions (because employers valued employees) which means that all the people I know were able to retire earlier than the state pension age. [Post edited 17 Feb 2023 11:10]
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| The 1970s on 11:11 - Feb 17 with 1223 views | Blueschev |
| The 1970s on 11:08 - Feb 17 by MattinLondon |
And the people then who had the luxury of cheap house prices etc tend to be the ones who criticise the younger generation for not being able to save up a deposit for a home. |
To be fair, all those under 40 should just learn to build their own houses out of Costa Coffee cups and avocado stones. Problem solved. | | | |
| The 1970s on 11:17 - Feb 17 with 1212 views | baxterbasics |
There are some parallels between then and now. Inflation, mass strikes, the growing fear of impending ecological disaster, confrontations with the USSR and a general feeling that Britain was in decline which those in power at the time approached as an inevitability to be managed rather than solved. Until the ascent of Thatcher, who in my opinion did do what was necessary to reverse this, albeit with some painful medicine and some unintended consequences today.
As Guthrum mentioned above, there are various measures by which standards of living are better now and these aspects tend to be selectively airbrushed out of memory. This is true not just in Britain but through most of the world - less people dying of hunger and disease, better access to (basic) education and healthcare, less threat of war, higher life expectancy, more access to luxuries and modern comforts. Racial division and prejudice, whilst still present today, were substantially deeper and openly acceptable back then.
Some of our current societal/economic problems are a case of higher expectations, in terms of the comfortable lifestyle people expect. Lots of 'first world' problems. Some are obviously genuine concerns - housing cost being a biggy. When we've taken so many great leaps forward in the last 50 years, a few steps back again will feel painful. I don't see a 'Thatcher' waiting in the ranks, sadly, from either the left or the right. [Post edited 17 Feb 2023 11:20]
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| The 1970s on 11:30 - Feb 17 with 1177 views | ITFC_Forever |
| The 1970s on 09:58 - Feb 17 by giant_stow |
Re computers, my mum was reminiscing about having to get her books typed up, having written then by hand, until she splashed out on an early Amstrad. We'd laugh at it's little green screen now, but it was revolutionary at the time.
In a further outing of my elderly self, I also remember mocking my friend in the pub for being the first one with a mobile phone - must have been some years after uni, so either side of the millennium maybe? |
I was at uni in the mid-90s, and knew about two people with mobiles, they didn't become widespread until the late 90s (got my first one in 1998).
I can also remember the internet starting... used to be able to log on to the net using the university library computers and send e-mails to my brother.
Magazines like FHM used to publish website addresses with links to pretty girls.... but the addresses were generally a random bunch of letters after the www. bit. It wasn't until a few years later website addresses started to have logical names linked to the content of the website. |  |
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| The 1970s on 11:41 - Feb 17 with 1144 views | Ftnfwest |
| The 1970s on 10:22 - Feb 17 by Blueschev |
House prices 3 x the annual salary, an abundance of social housing, free higher education, great music, Bobby Robson's blue & white army, near full employment, affordable public transport.
Thank god Thatcher saved us. |
Plus people generally bought houses as a couple/families rather than expected to have their own place like they do now. |  | | |
| The 1970s on 11:53 - Feb 17 with 1116 views | BlueNomad |
We had proper Parliamentarians on both sides - not a shower who are only interested in themselves and their mates. |  | | |
| The 1970s on 12:05 - Feb 17 with 1087 views | Pinewoodblue |
| The 1970s on 11:53 - Feb 17 by BlueNomad |
We had proper Parliamentarians on both sides - not a shower who are only interested in themselves and their mates. |
Made mistakes in office and resigned. These days all they do is apologise for being found out. | |
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| The 1970s on 12:10 - Feb 17 with 1077 views | cooperd5 |
| The 1970s on 09:18 - Feb 17 by thebooks |
"The 70s" is right-wing, tabloid shorthand for the period that Margaret Thatcher "saved" us from. It *was* marked by a high level of strikes and some power cuts (I think, I don't remember as I was born in 1972) hence the reference to it these days.
It was also a time of cheap housing, nearly full, proper employment and free university education for all. Obviously, we're not returning to that. |
Its wierd how the '70s strikes and winter of discontent were all the (Labour) government's fault but now we have similar scenarios but with Conservative government, its' all the union's fault...
I remember the 70s, huddled round a candle (power cut) and a transistor radio listening to the pop charts every sunday... 3 channels on the telly that all switched off about 11pm....
Looking back, the 70s were not great other than the summer of 76 and the 78 FA Cup |  | | |
| The 1970s on 13:00 - Feb 17 with 1022 views | BlueandTruesince82 |
| The 1970s on 09:17 - Feb 17 by blueasfook |
Pink Floyd, the S-Club7/Coldplay of the 70s? I guess you preferred the more meaningful deep music of Slade or The Bay City Rollers? |
Don't knock Slade. Slade are one of the finest bands theis county ever produced.
Bay City Rollers fair enough, Our Kid would maybe be a better compassion to S club. |  |
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| The 1970s on 13:13 - Feb 17 with 1002 views | DJR |
| The 1970s on 11:41 - Feb 17 by Ftnfwest |
Plus people generally bought houses as a couple/families rather than expected to have their own place like they do now. |
There were also council housing, rent controls and security of tenure for those who couldn't afford to buy. | | | |
| The 1970s on 13:44 - Feb 17 with 969 views | Churchman |
| The 1970s on 09:14 - Feb 17 by BloomBlue |
Platform shoes and flare trousers - more ankle injuries than any other period in history.
Global warming... bar humbug.. the extreme hot summer and winters in the 70s was much worse than now.
Pink Floyd- the SClub7, Coldplay of the 70s, the most overrated band ever - hence 70s music was bad.
We also had the feckwit unions who couldn't organise a plss up in a brewery trying to run the country. Harold Wilson became PM in the middle and for some reason (probably too busy sh@gging his secretary) decided he didn't want to be PM and he let the unions run the country.
We had piles of rubbish building up in the street. We had constant power cuts - image that no WiFi or iFollow. We had a car company who were sending out death traps, although only when the workers actually completed a car and weren't striking - although as I worked at BL for a couple of years in the 70s I have to take some responsibility for those.
So basically, shlt clothes, shlt music, shlt weather and shlt on the streets.
But importantly 'the good old days', we had communities. People did actually care about their neighbours and community. |
The music of the 70s was the best period, end of. Debate over. The variety and creativity was different class. Off the scale. From cheesy rubbish at Christmas to having your brains pulled out through your nostrils heavy stuff. From the Carpenters to Clapton, Motown to disco, Punk to Prog Rock, Simon and Garfunkel to Status Quo - You name it.
You’d go to gigs in small tired old venues that’d leave your ears ringing for days... warm weak beer and decaying old cinemas.
Pink Floyd? Dark Side of the Moon will always be in my top three. |  | | |
| The 1970s on 14:42 - Feb 17 with 927 views | Beattie78 |
| The 1970s on 10:08 - Feb 17 by GlasgowBlue |
You must have been a very advanced baby if you have vague memories of power cuts. The cuts took place over the winter of 1973 going into 74. |
There were also power cuts during the 1st miners strike in 1972. During the strike floodlit games were out of the question. I was living in London at the time and remember going to watch Arsenal v Derby 4th round FA Cup replay with a 2pm midweek kick off. 63,000 turned up to watch a boring 0-0 after extra time. |  |
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| The 1970s on 16:28 - Feb 17 with 898 views | BloomBlue |
| The 1970s on 14:42 - Feb 17 by Beattie78 |
There were also power cuts during the 1st miners strike in 1972. During the strike floodlit games were out of the question. I was living in London at the time and remember going to watch Arsenal v Derby 4th round FA Cup replay with a 2pm midweek kick off. 63,000 turned up to watch a boring 0-0 after extra time. |
My sister was pregnant and about to give birth in hospital when a power strike started and the diesel generator failed, a nurse went and got candles and she gave birth in candle light. |  | | |
| The 1970s on 17:14 - Feb 17 with 858 views | ElephantintheRoom |
The 1970s were an entire decade. So you can pick and mix whatever you like. But generally we were the poor man of Europe at that time - and an exciting night out might be a prawn cocktail starter, burnt steak and black forest gateau at a beefeater.
I spent half my teens in the 70s and 5 years at uni - taking in Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Santana, The Who, Not to mention the mighty groundhog and many more. Festivals were cheap - perhaps even free Beer was 10p a pint and I remember being shocked when petrol cost 50p a gallon. My Morris minor cost £50.
1976 was bicentennial in the USA and I hitched coast to coast and from canada to Mexico without having to wait more than 5 Minutes for a lift - it was a good time and place to be a Brit |  |
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| The 1970s on 17:35 - Feb 17 with 829 views | factual_blue |
It means you'll have to ditch the internet, your mobile phone, all TV channels apart from BBC1, BBC2 and ITV, and probably your colour TV.
If you go right back to the start of the 70s, you'll have to revert to £sd.
But you'll get a student grant and free tuition. |  |
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