- 2 days ago
Category
ðº
TVTranscript
00:00What do you want to do now, then, Guff?
00:21Pub.
00:24Pub.
00:25Pub.
00:27Pub.
00:31In 1973, Britain was right up the creek. No wonder we spent so much time drowning our sorrows.
00:39Confrontations between the unions, led by the miners, and the government, had brought the country to its knees with a series of strikes.
00:48The government was forced to declare a state of emergency and a three-day working week to maintain essential power supplies.
00:55It felt like Britain was entering the Dark Ages.
00:58But who was switching off the lights? And why?
01:03We sat by our desks with these hurricane lamps glowing in the dark as we wrote our stories.
01:08I was a young father then, and I can remember coming home and my wife would be cooking a meal on a primer stove.
01:17You know, we'd have a little lamp. We'd have candles.
01:20Looking back, you think, how on earth did we put up with all that?
01:24But it was just part of what we were always having to put up with.
01:30I will confess to you, however, that I did make good use of the blackouts.
01:35It was a very purple patch in my love life.
01:38I love life.
01:47These cuts are getting worse, you know, man.
01:50Mr. Heat had better sart himself out.
01:51We are limiting the use of electricity by almost all factories, shops and offices to three days a week.
01:59What does switching off something really mean?
02:14Well, take one storage radiator.
02:17If you can do without it, the electricity it uses in a week could make 300 glass bottles or light a hospital operating theatre for 24 hours.
02:28So, you see, it really helps.
02:30SOS. Switch off something.
02:33Now.
02:34The three-day week was announced on the 17th of December 1973 and went on through the coldest weeks of the winter.
02:49Weeks of not knowing when it would ever end.
02:55When the power cut started, we all sort of stopped up with paraffin heaters and candles.
03:02In fact, the prevailing smell, I seem to remember in those days, was paraffin and candle grease.
03:08Well, I think it's evening time.
03:10You get a bit nervous, especially being that you're not very good at health, you know.
03:14And it gets dark and that, and you look outside and it's pitch dark.
03:18You've got no telly or nothing like that on, you know, because all the lot goes off together, you see.
03:24Do you feel the cold?
03:25I do.
03:26I don't, but he do.
03:27It's his illness, you see, that makes him feel the cold.
03:29Well, I've heard it, if I've been sitting in the chair and it goes off, I go to bed tonight.
03:34To keep on.
03:35I also remember going home at night and the huge traffic jams going from the centre of London out to the west because the traffic lights didn't work and every crossroads was jammed.
03:48So you really felt that you were at the centre, as a journalist just down from university, at the centre of a major national crisis.
03:57Nearly every factory and power station in the country needs either coal or oil to keep its production going, so the effects could be very serious.
04:05Many firms will have to make less, and some workers could lose their jobs.
04:10Power stations are using up coal twice as fast as it's being delivered to them.
04:14I remember on one occasion I discovered that public meetings and pensioners meetings were not exempt, they were subject to the power cuts, but bingo halls and strip clubs were free.
04:24I remember being in a tube train coming back from Heathrow with some Americans who had just arrived, and they looked out of the window, and one of them said, now what is that?
04:34And the other one said, oh, that's subsistence forming.
04:38And they were looking at allotments on the side of the tube line, and I just thought, well, you must have a very bad PR problem across the world.
04:47Dear old English allotments are being sort of looked at as if it's part of the Third World.
04:54Even that head case, President Idi Amin of Uganda said he'd send us aid.
04:58We have so many tons of bananas, we can give them, this is also economic aid, we can help them in terms of food, because British now is in chaos completely.
05:10I think you come from there, you know this is the truth.
05:17Oh, where is it then?
05:22What?
05:24My dinner!
05:27There ain't none.
05:29Eh?
05:32I'm on a three day week.
05:35What are you bloody talking about?
05:39Mr Heath said he wanted us to go on a three day week, so I started mine this morning.
05:45We were on the ropes, but no one knew who'd deal the knockout punch, the government or the unions.
05:53At the final count, only one would be left standing.
05:57But how do we get into this mess in the first place?
05:59One of the prime suspects for landing us in it was Edward Richard George Heath, alias the Prime Minister.
06:12Ted was a man on a mission.
06:14A mission to control prices and wages.
06:16Now this was guaranteed to rub the unions up the wrong way.
06:23And let's face it, it was bound to turn nasty.
06:26Because the unions had clout in those days, and many of them one way or the other, actually worked for the government.
06:33If that sounds a bit mad, well it was.
06:35The state was a very big employer by the time of the 1970s.
06:44Hundreds of thousands of miners, railway workers, the post office, British Airways.
06:53Even Thomas Cook, the travel agent.
06:58Pickford's, the removal men.
07:00These were all nationalised companies.
07:03And the temptation for a government to impose controls on wages when they had millions of employees one way or another was obvious.
07:15And it was taken.
07:16Actually, a lot of us then, a lot of the unions then, were up for a fight.
07:21You know, there was a desire to have that fight.
07:24There was a kind of belief that somehow or other we would lead on to a semi-socialist nirvana in which everybody would work less hard and get more money, somehow.
07:32Somehow.
07:34And why were the unions feeling so cocky?
07:37Well, they'd been giving the government's backside a kicking for months.
07:40The postman, the railway men, the builders, the power workers and, of course, the miners.
07:47They had major previous form.
07:48Back in 1972, they'd given out Edward a right roasting.
07:52Massed pickets had blocked power stations and violent clashes at Saltley had created widespread fuel shortages and blackouts.
08:00In pouring rain, Mr Arthur Scargill, a miners' union spokesman, explained.
08:04What will happen is that the drivers will obtain the appropriate documentation from the hospital or local authority,
08:11take it along to the trade union, have it counter-stamped by the Midlands area of the NUM,
08:16present the documentation to the picket line and go through. There will be no problem at all.
08:20You can ask the police and I'm quite sure they will confirm what I'm saying.
08:23There is no lulligan food here today.
08:25I'm not telling you any lies.
08:26No lies.
08:27At all.
08:28And I'm assure you, if you turn around on this picket line, the lads will respect you.
08:31Despite all the inconvenience, working-class solidarity had held firm.
08:37What if the price of coal went up, though, because you're concerned about the price of coal, aren't you?
08:41Yes, oh yes, oh yes, we must do without.
08:45You'd be prepared to do without so that the miners could get their wages?
08:48Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, yes.
08:51Yes.
08:53Because the miner doesn't know will he come up or not.
08:56It's better on the sea.
08:58Somebody can see you on the sea, but nobody can see you underground.
09:03The miners in this country had always had an almost mythic status.
09:10They weren't well paid. They had a horrible job.
09:12But because of, you know, DH Lawrence, the Bevin boys, all sorts of aspects of mining communities,
09:22were sentimentalised, both by the middle classes, the good old miners,
09:28and of course the working classes, because they were the sort of heroes of labour.
09:32In the end, Heath had been forced to back down.
09:36The Colliers got their 25% and the government's pay policy was in tatters.
09:41At least Ted seemed to have brought off the miners for the time being.
09:45Though if he was expecting a bit of peace and quiet, no such luck.
09:49But the straw that broke the camel's back in October 73 wasn't the miners.
10:01It was a bunch of oil rich Arabs in the Middle East.
10:04Israel's neighbouring states had launched a powerful surprise attack in the Yom Kippur War,
10:10but in just three weeks were forced to settle for yet another unsatisfactory peace.
10:14The Arab states then decided to make the West pay for backing Israel.
10:19They cut off fuel supplies to America and quadrupled the price of oil to the rest of us.
10:26For several years, not less than three decades, taking an output for a very nominal price.
10:36What we have sought until now is not yet even the right price for our product.
10:42The only time I think I got really quite scared was when we had these huge queues for petrol.
10:51My father was an oil man, and he'd said to me at least ten years earlier,
10:56you know, when the Arabs get their act together, they can use oil as a weapon and bring down Western industrial society.
11:05As a result of the Yom Kippur War, where OPEC got its act together and the prices went up,
11:10and I suddenly thought, huh, we underestimated the Arabs and we were too complacent and maybe this is the end of our industrial society.
11:21They'd got us by the tender regions. The oil price shot up and there were shortages everywhere.
11:29And did it bring out the best in the British? Did it hell.
11:32Don't you think it's people like you constantly topping up your tank like this that are creating this situation?
11:38Well, I think there are probably people who are more in error than I am.
11:43I mean, I hear stories of people who can't even get a whole gallon in who are topping up.
11:48So, in half a tank, I think it's fairly reasonable.
11:50You are a self-service garage and you're allowing people to have £1.50.
11:55Do you find people are trying to catch you unawares and go over the top without you knowing?
11:58Oh, yes. Yeah, oh, they are, yeah. Definitely.
12:00We're having to stop them inside.
12:02Yeah, a lot of them do stop, but a hell of a lot do try and go over.
12:05Some people have been putting, they can hardly squeeze it in, and it's been spilling over them, you know, shooting back,
12:11which means they're full, you know, and obviously they're full up and it's been spilling on the forecourt,
12:16where they're trying to squeeze in as much as they can.
12:20To stop the oil scarcity chaos, there were plans for petrol rationing.
12:25Of course, I had been able to buy a Ford Anglia. I thought I was doing quite well.
12:29And these were my coupons, just in case they actually brought in strict petrol rationing.
12:35And you were allowed to get it said in the document. I mean, they never introduced them.
12:40You had two units here, and it didn't say actually how many gallons you'd get, but this was one of the mementos.
12:48Just 18 months after they'd received their 25% pay increase, the miners came back for another 35%
12:56and imposed an overtime ban to get it. Were they having a laugh?
13:02No. This was enough to threaten Britain's power supply.
13:06And even miners in the moderate coalfields like Leicestershire backed it.
13:11It was game on.
13:15One couldn't call me a militant in one's wildest imaginations. I'm not a militant.
13:27I've never voted for strike action. I'm not a communist or anything like that.
13:32I'm a South Leicestershire coal miner, and I believe that we're making a valid point, and I feel very strongly on it.
13:41Ten years of overtime underground in order to start to get a home together.
13:47I got around a little bit and saw how they worked in the offices and in the factories, in the garages.
13:54And I realised that I was working underground in appalling conditions for 60 hours, and I was no better off than those people.
14:04Now the miners in the coal industry had a very strong case, not only as their work dangerous and difficult, but also if oil prices were rising, coal prices would rise.
14:16So you'd expect that they would benefit from it.
14:18The godfather of the miners was their communist vice president, Mick McGahee.
14:23You can spend more than one night out in London than a working miner takes home to keep a family.
14:30That's why this struggle is necessary. That's why we must have a massive vote for, vote for strike action.
14:40But Ted Heath, the governor, decided to stand firm. He felt the unions were holding him and the country to ransom.
14:47Just before Christmas 1973, Heath announced his fifth state of emergency in just four years.
14:54He imposed widespread restrictions on the use of power.
15:00As Prime Minister, I want to speak to you simply and plainly about the grave emergency now facing our country.
15:09In the House of Commons this afternoon, I announced more severe restrictions on the use of electricity.
15:16You may already have heard the details of these.
15:19We are asking you to cut down to the absolute minimum the use of electricity for heating and for other purposes in your homes.
15:29We are limiting the use of electricity by almost all factories, shops and offices to three days a week.
15:37While there's a real risk of blackouts, SOS, switch off something and save electricity.
15:44For example, this lounge is using 2,600 watts.
15:49Switch off this light and already you've saved 100 watts.
15:52Don't leave the TV on if nobody's watching and your score's down another 150.
15:58And switch off one bar if you possibly can.
16:01That makes a big difference.
16:03Switch off something now.
16:06Everyone was called on to help the national effort.
16:12Many factories were put on short time so the demand for power could be evened out.
16:17This was the famous three day week.
16:20Factories would be allocated three working days between Monday and Saturday with only the Sabbath off limits.
16:25There was a feeling that, hang on a minute, this is all getting worse.
16:32This is getting, this is getting a bit like a nightmare.
16:35There was a spirit of the blitz in terms of getting through day to day hardships.
16:40Typically British way of getting round the difficulties of a three day week.
16:44Even making jokes about it, you know, we have to shower together.
16:47Would you like to shower with me sort of thing.
16:49There was a stiff upper lip kind of phlegmatic British approach to things.
16:53But in the sense, did it bring us together as one nation?
16:56No, the exact opposite.
16:58The events that took place enhanced and exacerbated the class divisions that existed in Britain.
17:05In this season of peace and goodwill, Heath still did not make the miners an offer they couldn't refuse.
17:11And so we do a little, little decoration round it.
17:15Five gold rings.
17:20Four gold rings.
17:23Four gold rings.
17:25Four gold rings.
17:27Even in a posh store like Gammage's in Oxford Street, it was last minute shopping by lamplight.
17:33We were all dreaming of a black Christmas and a bleak New Year.
17:39There is no petrol, no electricity, no gas and no coal.
17:46The factory where Arnold works has closed down and his children are at home because their school is too cold.
17:52Mrs. Bolting now boils her weekly wash over a cauldron heated by a wood fire.
17:59As she stirs it, she moans about the appallingly high cost of food.
18:04The Bolting family are sunk in gloom.
18:08I do remember the blackouts.
18:12And again, I must say they were quite exciting.
18:15I think a lot of babies were born after those power cuts.
18:20Not to me.
18:22But I do remember, I think, that there was a lot more love in the air.
18:25Well, being in the dark is bad enough.
18:27But for old people, perhaps being cold is even worse.
18:30Now, some old ladies and gentlemen, when they're cold, just take to their beds and stay there.
18:33And even then, they're not very warm.
18:35We've got a useful hint that could help that, and that's to use newspaper.
18:38I'll show you what I mean.
18:39We've got a bed over here, and the best thing to do is to lay out sheets of newspaper fairly thickly between the blankets.
18:46And if you do that, the old folks will stay as warm as toast.
18:49Of course, something else you could do if you didn't want to use newspaper, and you happen to have a spare one handy, would be to lend them an extra blanket.
18:58Have you got the other blanket?
18:59Of course, with all this newspaper on there, I shouldn't read in bed with a candle, though.
19:07We talk about the nanny state today, but there was a very, very bossy-boot state in those days.
19:11Everywhere you went, there were notices telling you what you ought to do and what you ought not to do.
19:15There was a minister, Patrick Jenkin, who said that we ought to brush our teeth in the dark.
19:19This was thought utterly absurd.
19:21The whole nation would have gone to work on its three days a week with toothbrush stains all over their clothes.
19:27The three-day week disrupted the distribution of goods, and panic buying reared its head.
19:33We were up the creek without a bog roll.
19:36Well, generally, all major brand areas are short.
19:40Specifics at the moment, toilet rolls, paper goods, very short indeed.
19:45That is influenced by the three-day working week.
19:48We are on allocation from all major toilet roll manufacturers.
19:52There would be news, perhaps, that there was going to be a shortage of sugar, or salt, or bread, or whatever it was,
19:57because there was going to be another strike in the industry, and there would be panic buying.
20:02With these pictures beamed around the world, no wonder other nations started sending food parcels.
20:07They didn't. Did they?
20:10The time of the three-day week.
20:13I was working as the European photo correspondent for Playboy,
20:18and I used to get these very pompous telegrams entitled,
20:22From the Desk of Hugh Hefner.
20:24And because they were hearing the news about how miserable we all were,
20:30we were lighting our homes with candles,
20:32we were practically going through rubbish bins trying to find food, this sort of thing,
20:37they sent, from the desk of Hugh Hefner, two food parcels full of chocolate chip cookies and Boston hams,
20:44and of course, it was very sweet of them.
20:46But in fact, we weren't short of food.
20:48New Year's Day, 1974, and some loyal textile workers responded to their manager's call
20:54by coming in on the bank holiday.
20:56What do you feel about working on your bank holiday?
20:58Terrible. I do, really. I've never worked before in my life, since I started to work.
21:04But I mean, I know countries have to have their emergency, so we have to work, don't we?
21:09But for other workers, fresh back from the Christmas break, there was a much grimmer prospect.
21:15Three days is no good to me. I shouldn't think it's any good to anybody.
21:18When the potential's there to work six and seven days a week, you know, that's including overtime,
21:23well, it's just no good at all, is it? Can't manage, it's disgusting.
21:27Managers were under pressure to make every volt and amp count.
21:32With only 1,500 units left to play with today and every day, Mr Hesp goes down to the meter shed outside the works.
21:40With the threat of prosecution looming large, he carries the can.
21:43He knows the meter man could pounce at any time.
21:46Well, we're perilously close to the mark on the maximum demand, and at this stage of the day,
21:53four and a half hours after I last read the meter, we've already used a quarter of our electricity.
22:00So things are looking pretty bad?
22:01Well, not too good at the moment.
22:03What will happen to you if by Friday you've exceeded the limit?
22:06Well, I understand there's a three-month imprisonment or £400 fine, and as I'm the person responsible for this,
22:15I've got quite an active interest in it.
22:18With all this short time working, it wasn't long before workers were being laid off.
22:23Happy New Year!
22:25By Tuesday morning, the news was out.
22:27Twenty unskilled labourers and packers had notices to quit.
22:31They just told us they were sorry, but there's nothing they could do going to the power coach, you know,
22:35that we'd have to be laid off.
22:37How much of a shock was that for you?
22:39Why, it's a bit of a shock.
22:41How difficult will it be for you to try to get another job?
22:44Very difficult. I actually imagine so.
22:47And I'm only 32 at that, and I think it'll be very difficult.
22:51Who do you blame for all this?
22:54What I blame? The, er...
22:56Well, don't say the colliers altogether, but I do blame the colliers.
23:00Miners. Definitely.
23:03I mean, chance what the miners get lately, they're never satisfied, are they?
23:07They always want more, and I think that's what'll happen.
23:09If they give it to them now, you will still want more in a few months.
23:12And it should be a stock title.
23:14And what made it all much worse was that prices just went up and up
23:20and up.
23:21We were hung up on inflation because it made a difference.
23:24I mean, there was always a lag between what you were earning
23:26and what things were costing.
23:27And when inflation got up to 20 odd percent, it was pretty scary.
23:31You'd suddenly go in there and find that your weekly shop,
23:33instead of costing you 15 pounds, a lot of money in those days,
23:36and suddenly costing you 20 pounds, that was pretty scary for a lot of people.
23:40For families across Britain, the experience of the weekly shop
23:44was a constant battle to make ends meet.
23:47So that's what? That's about three pounds more than this time last year, isn't it?
23:52Yes, it's more or less the same shopping we got last year.
23:55It's gone up three pounds, yeah.
23:56How do you feel about that?
23:57Well, we're not happy, but it's a thing that we have to accept, you know.
24:01We have to get cheaper brands as food as well, you know.
24:04Union official George Kirby works in a food factory.
24:07His take-home pay is 39 pounds.
24:10He has four children, no car, and the weekly rent for his council house in Bletchley is 6 pounds 50.
24:16In the last two to three years, it's hit us very, very hard.
24:21You know, food prices, certainly food prices, clothing,
24:27particularly children's school clothing, tremendously.
24:32The prices are really fantastic, you know.
24:35Holidays, first time in ten years, never had an holiday this year.
24:40With the three-day week for many factories meaning Saturday working,
24:43Sunday was the only day all workers would have off.
24:46So for the first time in Britain, professional football matches began to be played on the Lord's Day of Rest.
24:52The game produced Cambridge's biggest crowd of the season.
24:56Promptly at 11.30, Cambridge kicked off.
25:00At one stage, they were two goals down, but equalised with just minutes to go.
25:04The result disappointed Cambridge Secretary Colin Benson, but he was delighted by the gate.
25:09The biggest gate of the season, 8,471.
25:14The previous best gate was 5,600 against Huddersfield in the league.
25:19You know, it must be a success.
25:21What made you decide to have it on Sunday in the first place?
25:24The three-day working week here is on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
25:28So the factories were at work yesterday and we thought it was best for industry and for ourselves
25:34if we held the game today when the public are free.
25:38The public were free today and the receipts could go a long way to making Sunday football a permanent feature in Britain.
25:47Writer Johnny Speight caught the mood of the moment until Deathless do part,
25:51with Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett and Tony Booth as his lefty son-in-law.
25:56Don't be facetious, look, mystery.
25:59What he's doing, see, for the first time, he's going to put the economy of the country right.
26:03That's what he's doing.
26:04Put it right!
26:05Yes, mate.
26:06Put it right!
26:07He brought it to a standstill!
26:08Not a standstill, a marking time and marching on a spot in order that he can create some unemployment.
26:15Oh, yeah.
26:16Well, he's doing that all right, isn't he?
26:17I thought Till Deathless Do Part was a masterpiece and I had very strong feelings about it.
26:25I liked Tony Booth, the Scouse Git, but I knew people like Alf Garnett.
26:32I knew that there were people in the working class like that.
26:35Alf Garnett was a Thatcherite before his time.
26:38He wasn't just a working class Tory.
26:40He was a Thatcherite before his time, so as a piece of writing, it was brilliant.
26:45If you told me then that Tony Booth would later be the Prime Minister's father-in-law,
26:50now that would have been surprising.
26:52Things was just as bad then as they are now.
26:55Only there was one big difference, son.
26:57It wasn't Mr Heath who was in power.
26:59Huh?
27:00No.
27:01It was Darling Harold, wasn't it?
27:02Darling bloody Harold, the worker's friend.
27:05Yeah.
27:06And there were still power cuts and still trouble with the coal miners and your train drivers.
27:10Yeah, get off. Not as bad as now, mate.
27:13I've been asked this question many times before, but, you know,
27:17there was a similarity between myself and the character I've dated in To Death Is Apart,
27:21and the answer is no, there wasn't any.
27:23He was far too right-wing for me.
27:25And far too mild.
27:29What are you bloody doing?
27:32I'm tearing the poor, Miss Penny.
27:34Oh, that's it, isn't it?
27:36That's mild.
27:37It's a power cut.
27:39Eh?
27:40Where's the candles?
27:42Oh, I don't know.
27:44Look, you bought candles, didn't you?
27:47You bought candles for the power cut.
27:50I know.
27:51Well, I said put them somewhere safe.
27:55Put them somewhere we can find them.
27:57Put them somewhere you can go straight to them.
27:59I did.
28:00Well, where are they then?
28:02I'm trying to think.
28:05One of the things that happened was you could see the stars again,
28:10which was a rare experience in London.
28:13But to see a city blacked out is a really rare experience.
28:20My husband and I had a small house which was very close to a teaching hospital.
28:26We kept waiting for the power cut.
28:29And we didn't get any.
28:30And that was because the hospital was, that area was kept going.
28:36And so we had the sort of benefit of it.
28:39But, of course, I used to feel rather shamed and embarrassed
28:41because I'd hear from my colleagues and friends,
28:44wasn't it terrible?
28:45Last night was so cold and, you know, the dark for ages.
28:49And, you know, have you tried heating baked beans on a paraffin stove?
28:55And that sort of thing.
28:56And we actually got away with it.
28:58I never confessed, though.
29:00In the three-day week, the thing I remember most,
29:03this was probably a criminal offence, so I'm confessing to it now.
29:06One of the things that the government had asked all public buildings to do
29:09was to switch off unnecessary lights and heating and so on.
29:12And I would go around in buildings connected to the town council at that time
29:18where I used to come and go.
29:20A college that I used to do night classes in.
29:24I went around switching on the power, determined to assist the miners
29:30and the power workers as much as I could.
29:33The big TV hit that winter was Colditz,
29:36where plucky Brits were imprisoned in a cold, dark place
29:39with no outside entertainment.
29:41Trapped.
29:42Exhausted.
29:43Demoralised.
29:44Verden Sie sicher auch mit dem Gedanken an Fluchtspielen.
29:53Not that some of you will think of escape.
29:59Yes.
30:01Think.
30:03What you will.
30:05But try nothing.
30:07An odd sort of escapism when you think of it.
30:12Colditz was a big hit and the camp commandant used to say,
30:15when you'll feel stronger you will want to escape.
30:18Which of course was a kind of allegory, if you like, for Britain in the 70s.
30:21So you've got to remember that we loved those stories about the war
30:24because that was the last time we'd been winners.
30:27We won that war.
30:28And if you were in Colditz you were a plucky British officer
30:30who was going to escape.
30:31And it didn't matter if you didn't because we were going to win anyway.
30:34So that was psychologically very important to us.
30:37But the three day week even rationed our escapism.
30:41TV closed down at 10.30 each night.
30:44In the three day week television was being shut down at 10.30 at night.
30:50Now can you imagine people coming home now
30:52and finding that there was nothing on the television
30:54because of the three day week.
30:55I mean it would just be unthinkable.
30:58It made no difference at all
30:59because of course we always have an overproduction of power
31:02at that time of night anyway.
31:03so it really didn't help in the slightest.
31:05They were all symbolic things
31:07designed to make us feel we were fighting together.
31:18Total deadlock on the miners' overtime battle
31:21after a meeting between Mr Whitelaw and the miners' executive.
31:25At the time NUM Vice President Mick McGahey
31:28was cast as the arch-villain of the piece.
31:30The man who in the name of the class struggle
31:32had challenged a democratically elected government.
31:35As well as the massive wage hike
31:37he wanted Heath to renegotiate on Europe,
31:40help pensioners and ramp up taxes on the rich.
31:44McGahey's political views may have been extreme
31:46but on this occasion he had the ability to take the miners with him
31:50in his call for full-on industrial action.
31:56And I want you to vote with your voice.
31:59And all those who agree with it say yes
32:01and let Ted Heath hear you in Blackpool.
32:03All in favour say yes.
32:05Yes!
32:08Is there any against?
32:12Carried unanimously.
32:13Thank you for your attendance into battle
32:15and a safe journey home for everyone.
32:18I've seen him do it.
32:21It wasn't just that.
32:22He would go all the...
32:23In this guttural Glaswegian accent
32:25he would go all those in favour
32:27and then he would look around after that
32:30and he would go anyone against?
32:33Not all those against.
32:35Anyone against?
32:36Would anyone dare be against?
32:38I think people forget the extent to which people on the left
32:42in terms of organised labour
32:44did feel the future was on their side
32:47and that they were within the grain of history
32:49and they looked of course to Russia
32:52they looked to other parts of the world
32:55and they saw a conflict going on
32:57which they thought they might win.
32:59And that's quite different from now.
33:01The feeling the left might win
33:03that there could be, if not a revolution in this country
33:05there could be a time when the workers
33:08in some senses took control.
33:10When the result of the miners' ballot finally came
33:13it was official.
33:15This was going to be a fight to the death.
33:18This total is divided.
33:20Voting yes, 188,393.
33:25Voting no, 44,222.
33:30The yes figure is within one hundredth
33:3381% of the total.
33:37There's some gone in and we're asking you to turn back, Bob.
33:40If you go in, you're scabbing on us.
33:42Right?
33:43And a scab's a scab, as far as we're concerned.
33:46And when you go back, Bob, when we get back there...
33:47You have your opinion.
33:48And I've got my opinion.
33:49You've got your opinion.
33:50Same as the rest.
33:51The official picket liners, you know,
33:52you're members of the TUC, Bob.
33:53And the TUC said
33:54they will not pass the picket liners.
33:56The Times had an article supporting the miners and the editor removed it from the next edition.
34:04Because he didn't want people to know how strong the miners' case was.
34:08And the three day week was totally unnecessary, plenty of oil, plenty of coal.
34:12It was trying to punish the public and get the public to blame the miners.
34:16On February 7th, just three days after the miners went on all-out strike, Heath called a surprise election.
34:24He asked the voters, who governs Britain?
34:27With an election only three weeks away, you wouldn't have to wait long to hear the answer.
34:34Now, I know a lot of people have been asking, what will an election prove?
34:38The answer is this. An election gives you, the people, the chance to say to the miners,
34:45and to everyone else who wields similar power in Britain.
34:49Times are hard. We are all in the same boat.
34:52And if you sink us now, we will all drown.
34:56But who was the guilty party?
34:58Who created the crisis?
35:00Was it the Marxist McGahee, or the moderate Mr Heath?
35:04Was the murder weapon industrial muscle, or blind stubbornness?
35:09Five hours after he called the election, Heath seemed to go into reverse gear.
35:14He conceded that the miners were a special case, and hinted that he was prepared to settle.
35:19This bizarre twist led Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe to ask the key question.
35:24Who was really to blame for the crisis?
35:27At eight o'clock tonight on the Hustings, you called Mr Heath a right-wing fanatic.
35:33I happen to believe that this is true.
35:35A right-wing fanatic?
35:36Well, I think that to choose, first of all, to announce the date of an election first,
35:43and then five hours later accept the Relativities Board report by setting it up,
35:49referring to the miners as a special case, agreeing that they should be backdated to March the 1st,
35:55saying that they must be urgently considered.
35:57Those were the act of a man who was acting in a perfectly proper conciliatory way.
36:00But it was five hours after he had announced the date of an election.
36:04By now, we were being asked to vote on who governs Britain,
36:08but were increasingly clueless as to whether it was the Prime Minister or the unions who were picking a fight.
36:13The great point about the 1974 February election was that Ted Heath asked the electorate in brave terms,
36:22who runs the country then?
36:24And that was meant to be a rhetorical point, because we were all meant to say,
36:27oh, well, if it comes to that question, then obviously it's the government, isn't it?
36:34But the joy of the election, and I do remember thinking how wonderful that was,
36:38was the electorate returned a completely different answer,
36:40well, it's not you, matey.
36:42If you cut and run every time something goes badly wrong,
36:46whether it's a terrorist attack or quintupling of oil prices or a damaging strike,
36:51then, frankly, what's the point of having you there in the first place?
36:54I think that must have been, to some extent, in the electorate's minds.
36:57I thought, OK, well, if you can't handle it, then we'll choose someone who can.
37:01On March 1st, the results showed no party had overall power,
37:05but Labour had four more seats than the Tories.
37:08Heath and his piano left number 10 for good.
37:14So, 30 years after the three-day week,
37:17and the blackest period of our recent history,
37:20it still is an open question as to whether Britain really had to switch off something,
37:25or whether it was a political manoeuvre,
37:28a desperate gamble to win an election,
37:31a gamble that failed.
37:33Heath was trying to use the unions to get another term of office.
37:37If it settled with the miners, who had an overwhelmingly strong case,
37:40and then said to people,
37:41now we've got to tackle inflation,
37:43people have understood it completely.
37:45He cut his own throat.
37:47There was no question that, for a time,
37:49we thought this country could be on the brink of even very serious problems,
37:55and wondered whether the democratic process was up to it.
37:58Now, I'm not saying that was there for a long while.
38:02It crossed our minds.
38:03Most of us thought, no, this country is not going to let that happen.
38:07But would you have ruled it out entirely?
38:09No. It was a dangerous, dangerous time for Britain.
38:13During the crisis of the three-day week,
38:16we were plagued with strikes, blackouts and union militancy.
38:20By the end of the decade, moves were afoot to purge Britain of this slow-wasting disease.
38:26And the person who would take on the job was Margaret Thatcher.
38:30Public enema number one.
38:34But that's another story.
38:44On BBC Sounds, Greg Janna dives into the BBC archives,
38:48stumbling across random dates,
38:50and listens to recordings to explore what they say about who we are now.
38:55Passed forward, a century of sounds.
38:57People are getting too well-bloody informed if you ask for it.
39:01Too much of that going on, that's what.
39:03Bloody BBC.
Recommended
59:13
|
Up next
38:35
59:08
6:15
47:19
11:42
52:19
43:37
1:10:31
0:28
0:31
0:30
1:04:05
1:16:14
Be the first to comment