The 1970's

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Has anyone here lived in the UK thru the 70's. I'd love to here stories of how you managed through all of the shortages etc.

[TayRivers 4]

Has anyone here lived in the UK thru the 70's. I'd love to here stories of how you managed through all of the shortages etc.

Yes I remember it well.. Electricity was rationed, every town and city had set times when they could have power and outwith those times there was no electricity, we had to cook on our coal fire and most people went to bed once it was dark. Sugar was rationed you were only allowed to buy a set number of bags each, if you could find a shop that had any. You had to queue for bread and most adults were only working 3 days a week. There were no street lights at night so it was very dark, that caused lots of accidents. Cars had to queue for hours to get petrol. Rubbish was left to pile up in the streets and the smell was disgusting..

Oh those 1970's The good old days!!!!

[Lioncub4 4]

I remember there were lots of strikes going on. The fire brigade went on strike and they brought in the green goddesses run by the army. They were a great sight. As a kid in the 70's was a big huge adventure. Getting things done while electricity was off was a laugh - would be a completely different story now I have grown up! The binmen on strike was the worst thing though - saw some rats in the street because of loads of full bin bags sitting on the roads.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Was this a steady situation or were there alot of ups and downs? Like did you have full power 24/7 for 5 months and then suddenly it was rationed again etc?

[Big Papa Zone 93]

Was this a steady situation or were there alot of ups and downs? Like did you have full power 24/7 for 5 months and then suddenly it was rationed again etc?

Lancer, TayRivers is taking the piss out of you (in a friendly, jocular manner): there was no rationing.

However, he's not far wrong with regard to the sh!t piling up in the street. Strikes were a part of every day life, as hard-line, far left unions wielded enormous power at the time. The refuse collectors (or "bin men" as we called them) were one of many groups to strike, and things came to a head in the infamous Winter of 1979. It was known as, "The Winter of Discontent" and the site of rancid waste piled high on street corners became one of the iconic images of the time. Chuck in the power outages (on pretty much a weekly basis) the 3 day week, and 33% income tax, and you can imagine what it must have been like. I was only a nipper, btw, but I remember these things.

However, every cloud has a silver lining, and after '79 the British electorate had had enough. Jim Callaghan's socialist Labour government was ousted in a Landlslide win for Margaret Thatcher's Conservative party, and she commenced a crusade against the unions, curbing their power and influence at every turn. By the time she' left power in 1990, income tax was down to 22%, and the days of mass strikes and power outages were nothing more than a distant memory. She will always be one of the people I admire the most.

I stand to be corrected on this, but I believe at around the same time you had a similar situation in the States, with "Reaganomics" repairing the damage done to the economy by the inept Carter administration. From an American perspective, I'd probably use that (the Carter years) to strike (no pun intended) a comparison.

Hope that helps.

Edited August 23, 2009 by Damian P

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Has anyone here lived in the UK thru the 70's. I'd love to here stories of how you managed through all of the shortages etc.

My husband recalls that his dad rigged up some lights that could be run off a car battery (not the one in the car, but another). So they had some cobbled together strings of small lights to help them get around in the darkness. They sometimes watched a small black and white TV off the battery power, too.