This is from a House of Lords Library paper on The UK Economy in the 1970s that was published a couple of years ago:
Despite the macroeconomic turbulence of the 1970s, annual GDP growth still averaged 2.7% and living standards rose significantly. Growth in real household disposable income (RHDI) per head was either low or negative for much of the decade, but grew rapidly in 1972–73 and 1978–79, leaving RHDI per head almost 30% in 1979 than it was in 1970. This was a greater increase than was experienced in either the decade before (the 1960s) or the decade that followed (the 1980s).
This enhancement in living standards was underpinned by strong wage settlements, with 1976 and 1977 the only years in the decade where wage growth did not outstrip inflation.
If you have taken your view of the decade from Dominic Sandbrook's What My Housemaster Told Me About the Seventies, you may be surprised by these figures.
I lived through the seventies as a teenager and we as a country were struggling through this period. For a start we had a strongly socialist government from 1974-79 which handed lots of power to trade unions, as part of the "labour movement". We had endless strikes and inflation, high tax, high borrowing and an inefficient economy. Billions of pounds were lost in strikes and also high inflation. Union leaders such as Scanlon and Jones were telling the Labour Government what to do and this was under the aegis of the "social contract". We were paying ourselves more than the state could afford and the nationalised industries were very inefficient and bleeding the taxpayer dry. Not happy times and ending with the winter of discontent.
ReplyDeleteYet we achieved higher economic growth in the Seventies than we did under Thatcher or than we do now.
DeleteI believe Britain was also at its most equal during the early 70s.
DeleteI was also a teenager at this time. The power workers strikes (under Heath) had a greater impact on my family than the Winter of Discontent. My well-off parents and their Tory friends bemoaned how the country was going to the dogs. Plus ca change.
PS: Shirley Williams is who I chose to be pictured on my Lib Dem membership card.
DeleteYes, it was the most equal it has ever been. I too remember doing my homework by candlelight, and you're right that the strikes at the start of the Seventies under Ted Heath had more impact on most people than the Winter of Discontent.
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