Those of us who lived in coastal communities had to put up with raw sewage in the sea, and those near rivers saw the survival of wildlife threatened with discharges of untreated toxic effluent.įirst EEC and then EU membership changed all that. Pollution was rife and buildings were blackened. The three-day week and power cuts meant homework by candlelight, cold baths and no telly (three channels in black and white) for the kids. There was industrial unrest as workers struggled to be treated with respect and even for their very livelihoods. Growing up working class was a struggle both parents would have to work just to keep a roof over the family’s head and put food on the table – although the range of work available to working mums was narrow, often poorly paid and menial. Ditto for members of ethnic minorities and the LGBT community. Equality was still a distant dream, with women actively discriminated against in the work place, earning far less than men doing equivalent jobs and barred access to basic rights, like taking out a mortgage on their own, in their own name. Terrorism on the island of Ireland spilled over to mainland UK, and would eventually “travel” as far as overseas territories like Gibraltar. The Commonwealth was a poor replacement for Empire as an engine of economic growth, the economy was struggling and the UK was known as “the sick man of Europe”. Average house prices, which had risen from £2000 in 1950 to £5000 in 1970, doubled in the three years from 1973 to 1976, and by the end of the decade inflation was rampant, pushing mortgage interest up to 16% – unaffordable for many.Īcross many measures, the 1970s were grim.
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This was only true in the early part of the decade, when the Bank of England eased credit restrictions and Conservative chancellor of the exchequer Tony Barber introduced his go-for-growth strategy. Some say we were better off in the 1970s because a man could buy a house with a mortgage of only three times his salary and still have change. Studying newspaper articles and political pamphlets of the time, it is clear that there was always an intention of “ever-closer union” on the part of pro-EEC British politicians, although whether the voting public understood this is an open question. When the UK joined the European Economic Community (EEC) on 1 January 1973, it was essentially a customs union -the Common Market.
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Now, it may be that over the years that prosperity was not distributed fairly, but that was one hundred per cent down to each (sovereign!) domestic government, as it was in their remit to decide how to share out the wealth through taxation, investment and benefit policies. Examining her attitude to the EU will help us understand Brexit since arguably her greatest legacy was the European single market, which brought both the UK and the other member states of the European Union (EU) greater prosperity.
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Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher was a divisive character, I know, but bear with me.