In 1973 Princess Anne’s big day had it all: crowds, pageantry, a radiant young couple, and a happy family. Dominic Sandbrook, The 70s II: Doomwatch 73-74
The oil crisis was the single decisive moment of the 1970s. It was the tipping point, the catalyst that changed everything. ibid.
The Middle East had erupted as Israel’s Arab neighbours launched a stunning surprise attack ... The Arab oil nations announced an eye-watering price rise of 70%. ibid.
For people on low incomes, inflation was a silent menace. ibid.
By 1973 the great plastic boom is on. ibid.
Britain was falling in love with mass consumerism. ibid.
Miners: it was a showdown that divided the nation ... The miners raised the stakes as their overtime ban became an all-out strike. ibid.
The ’70s sex comedy ... The Confessions of a Window Cleaner – the lowest point in British cinema history. ibid.
When Heath failed to do a deal with the Liberals, Labour’s Harold Wilson returned as a minority prime minister. ibid.
Nowhere in Britain was safe from the violence that had engulfed Northern Ireland. ibid.
The generation shaped by the sacrifice of the Second World War were looking on in horror as a new Britain erupted around them. Dominic Sandbrook, The 70s III: Goodbye Great Britain 75-77
The Wheeltappers was prime-time Saturday night TV. ’70s Britain was a man’s world. ibid.
The [Brentford] Trico women went out on strike ... After twenty-one weeks with production lines at a standstill Trico gave in. ibid.
It was in the mid-70s that the fight for equality really gained momentum. ibid.
Football: many young fans were carried away by a culture of casual violence. ibid.
Man Utd v Wolves: The Stratford-Enders went on the rampage ... Fourteen people were stabbed ... They even ransacked the Wolves club shop. ibid.
Football violence had become a brutal nationwide epidemic. ibid.
British motors weren’t always easy to love ... The Rover SD1 was a national project. ibid.
In Survivors: 95% of the population had been wiped out by a future pandemic – the Death. Survivors captured the pessimism and paranoia of mid-70s Britain. ibid.
The £ had fallen below $2 ... The IMF sent six international bankers to look at Britain’s books. ibid.
Punk: in the vanguard the Sex Pistols ... Punks were assaulting Britain’s most cherished icons ... For the originals punk was great fun. ibid.
We’d made a decisive break with the old post-war settlement. Dominic Sandbrook, The 70s IV: The Winner Takes It All 77-79
The top rate of income tax went up to 83%. ibid.
At the age of just twenty-three Richard Branson had made himself a millionaire. ibid.
So why did these new estates deteriorate so badly so quickly? ibid.
The effects of commonwealth immigration seemed uncomfortable, even alarming. ibid.
Margaret Thatcher was walking into Downing Street as Britain’s first woman prime minister. ibid.
The Day of Action was extended into weeks of action – dustmen, ambulance drivers, caretakers, bus drivers, road-gritters and many more began a series of rolling strikes that caused total chaos. ibid.
It’s easy to forget that for five of the last eight decades Britain was at war. It was a war that framed all our lives. Welcome to Cold War Britain. This was a war between us – the democratic capitalist West – and them - the communist totalitarian East. Dominic Sandbrook, Strange Days – Cold War Britain I: Red Dawn, BBC 2013
We lived every day in shadow of Armageddon. ibid.
The defections of Burgess and Maclean came as a terrible shock. ibid.
The British bomb was all about our national virility. It was a kind of atomic Viagra. ibid.
For almost fifty years Britain stood on the brink of Armageddon. Dominic Sandbrook, Strange Days – Cold War Britain II
And yet the world might end at the touch of a button. ibid.
The Russians used the explicit images to blackmail John Vassall ... Vassall went down for eighteen years. ibid.
The Soviet Union went to war: sending tanks and troops thundering into their southern neighbour Afghanistan. Dominic Sandbrook, Strange Days – Cold War Britain III
This fantastic poster: She promised to follow him to the end of the Earth; he promised to organise it. ibid.
So we won. But what did we do with our victory? We unleashed the power of turbo-capitalism. ibid.
... Who has the moral courage to expose and root out those who try to rot us from within and hold us to ransom by anarchy, blackmail and brute force.
The Communist Trojan Horse is in our midst with its fellow-travellers wriggling their maggoty way inside its belly. Only firm and dynamic leadership can deal with this; it requires high moral courage. The Daily Telegraph, letter from General Walter Walker
The tragic-comedy of Britain in the 1970s: it was a bad hair decade. Students were revolting. Militant unions were striking. Force was met with force. Asset-strippers were flourishing. As inflation and unemployment rocketed. The Lost World of the Seventies: A Report by Michael Cockerell, BBC 2012
A senior general – Sir Walter Walker – who was setting up his own private army to save the country from the catastrophe of a takeover by the Marxists. ibid.
Long Longford: self-appointed guardian of the country’s morals. ibid.
Sir Robert Mark who as London’s top policeman was on a mission to clean up Scotland Yard. ibid.
Sir Jimmy Goldsmith – the tycoon with a complex business and love life who believed the media were plotting to destroy capitalism. ibid.
General Walker had allowed the cameras to film how NATO prepared for war. ibid.
Lord Longford – the great moral crusader of the decade. He was a contradictory character. An hereditary earl who identified with the outcasts of society. He made headlines in the seventies by visiting notorious criminals in prison and for his campaign against pornography. ibid.
When the Longford Report was published it recommended much stricter laws on pornography. The government ignored it. ibid.
Goldsmith was fiercely protective of his business reputation ... Private Eye targeted Goldsmith; it depicted him as an asset-stripper. ibid.
Faced with evidence of widespread corruption, [Robert] Mark pledged to purge all bent detectives from the Force. ibid.
He found Scotland Yard a secretive Masonic place with its own in-bred culture. ibid.
Mark’s prime target for reform was the Flying Squad. ibid.
The CID alone would no longer investigate corruption charges against its own officers. A-10 was run by the uniformed branch. ibid.
The Commissioner took dramatic action: in a dawn raid Bill Moody was arrested – he’d been head of the dirty squad and worked for A10. Also arrested was Ken Drury, the Flying Squad chief who had been on a sunshine holiday with [James] Humphreys. The biggest fish of all was Commander Wally Virgo, who was in overall charge of both the Porn and Flying Squads. Humphreys claims he paid Virgo £2,000 in cash every month. ibid.
600 police officers who left Scotland Yard prematurely during Robert Marks’ five years at the top. ibid.
Modern Britain loves its heritage ... It’s taken a revolution to make us a nation that values our ancient buildings and monuments. Heritage! The Battle for Britain's Past I: From Old Bones to Precious Stones, BBC 2013
This is the story of how the heritage movement was ignited. ibid.
Ruskin spread his gospel through a string of books and packed lecture tours. ibid.
Morris founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. ibid.
In September 1918 Britain's most famous monument – Stonehenge – was given to the nation. Heritage! The Battle for Britain's Past II: The Men From the Ministry
The men from the ministry would command a massive rescue operation. ibid.
The cities of Britain were modernising and expanding haphazardly into the countryside. ibid.
In 1918 many great ruins were on the verge of collapse. ibid.
Office of Works v National Trust. ibid.