CNB George Cobuc.

Grade 12 The Making of Modern Britain, 1970-2018

British Society in the 1970s

During the 1970s Britain was considered to be the sick man of Europe a country characterised by
weak government, sluggish economic growth, high inflation and seemingly endless industrial
conflict. These political and economic problems also played out in the social sphere, in terms of
second-wave feminism, race relations, youth subcultures and the emergence of environmentalism.

Feminism
Second-wave feminism had emerged in the 1960s, but many of its successes were not achieved until
the 1970s. Womens liberation organisations often mocked by the popular press and comedians as
womens lib attacked the sexual objectification of women, for example, by disrupting the 1970
Miss World Contest by throwing flour and smoke bombs. But they also focused on womens more
immediate concerns, such as the demand for equal pay and free nursey provisions. Feminists,
though, had different ideological positions: radical feminists argued that women were oppressed by
patriarchal society and campaigned for womens reproductive rights; socialist feminists put more
emphasis on womens financial financial independence; while liberal feminists stressed the need for
equal rights, thus allowing women, as individuals, the same choices as men.

Some progress had already been made on womens rights during the 1960s, for example with regard
to the contraceptive pill and abortion. The pill became available in the UK in 1961, but initially only
for married women, and predominantly for those who already had children the authorities did not
want to make the pill available for single women as they did not wish to encourage promiscuity or
free love. By 1967 family planning clinics were authorised to give contraceptive device to people
irrespective of marital status; and in 1974 the contraceptive pill was made somewhat
controversially available to all women on the National Health Service (NHS). As to abortion, this
was legalised in Great Britain (but not in Northern Ireland, where abortion is still illegal) by the
Abortion Act (1967), which allowed terminations up to 28 weeks if two doctors agreed that the
procedure was in the best mental and physical interests of the woman.

During the 1970s Labour governments passed various pieces of legislation that sought to improve
the legal position of women. Probably the most significant new law was the Sex Discrimination Act
(1975), which made discrimination on the basis of sex or marital status illegal. Other legislation
followed: the Equal Pay Act (1970 though not implemented until 1975) required that women were
paid the same as men for the same or comparable work; the Social Security Pensions Act (1975)
reformed the State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme (Serps) to make it more generous to those
women whose employment had been disrupted by caring responsibilities; while the Employment
Protection Act (1975) introduced paid maternity leave and made it illegal to dismiss women because
they were pregnant. Attempts were also made to tackle the problem of domestic violence. The first
rape crisis centre was opened in 1975 and a year later Parliament passed the Domestic Violence Act
(1976), which gave a woman the ability to take out a restraining order against a violent partner.

While these various reforms can be viewed as achievements, it would be nave to suggest that they
led to equality. For example, in 1970 womens wages were only 59 per cent of mens; by 1977 this
had increased to 70 per cent an improvement for sure, but still a significant difference. Moreover,
many trade unionists remained suspicious of women workers, especially married women, believing
CNB George Cobuc. Grade 12 The Making of Modern Britain, 1970-2018

that they undercut mens wages. It was not until 1979 that the Trade Union Congress (TUC) came
out unequivocally in favour of equality for women.

Immigration and Race Relations

Starting in the 1950s the UK had seen considerable immigration from the New Commonwealth, in
particular from the Caribbean (often referred to as the West Indies) and the Indian subcontinent
(India, West Pakistan and East Pakistan the latter known as Bangladesh since its independence in
1971) to help fill gaps in the labour market. Gradually, however, immigration restrictions were
introduced, for example in 1962 and 1968. In 1971 Heaths government passed the Immigration Act,
which tightened the rules even further Commonwealth citizens lost their automatic right to remain
in the UK; only those who lived and worked in the UK for five years were allowed the right to remain.
Those with a close association to the UK, usually with one British grandparent, were exempted from
the Act a provision that applied primarily to those from Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The
Act was suspended, though, when Idi Amin, the President of Uganda, expelled his countrys Asian
citizens in in 1972. Nearly 28,000 Ugandan Asians most of whom were actually British subjects
were resettled in the UK, the majority ending up in Leicester.

By 1974 over one million New Commonwealth immigrants had moved to the UK 325,000 from the
Caribbean, 425,000 from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and 150,000 from Africa. These immigrants
started to change the demography of many towns and cities. For example, by the late 1970s the
Asian population of Bradford in West Yorkshire was more than 50,000.

Immigration threw up the question of race relations. Racial tensions were explored in contemporary
sicoms (situation comedies) such as Till Death Us Do Part (1965-75) and Love Thy Neighbour (1972-
76). The former revolved around Alf Garnett, a reactionary white working-class man who frequently
expressed racist views to the horror of his daughter and son-in-law; the latter saw a black family
move in next door to a white family, with the white working-class husband, Eddie Booth, presented
as a racist bigot. The problem of racism led the Labour government to pass the Race Relations Act
(1976), which created the Commission for Racial Equality an organisation empowered to
investigate racial discrimination.

Not everyone was happy with the level of immigration. This led to the rise of the National Front (NF),
a far-right party opposed to non-white immigration and an advocate of the compulsory repatriation
of New Commonwealth immigrants. By 1976 the NF had an estimated 20,000 members. Although
the NF failed to win any seats in either the February or October 1974 general elections, its
participation in parliamentary by-elections and local elections, as well as its use of street
demonstrations, kept immigration in the public eye. By the late 1970s, the Conservative Party
responded to these pressures by proposing even tougher immigration laws to reduce the number of
immigrants entering the country. For some, the Conservatives were doing little more than pandering
to racism; for others, good race relations required controlled immigration.

Anti-immigrant rhetoric divided the country and sometimes spilt over into violence. For example,
skinheads assaulted people from ethnic minority backgrounds, so-called Paki-bashing. But others
actively opposed racism Rock Against Racism was started in 1976 and the Anti-Nazi League was
established in 1977. Those opposed to racism were not concerned simply with the NF. They also
CNB George Cobuc. Grade 12 The Making of Modern Britain, 1970-2018

drew attention to the relationship between the police and ethnic minorities. By 1976 there were
only 70 black or ethnic minority police officers in the Metropolitan Police (which polices London) out
of a total of 22,000 officers. Many young black people felt and not without just cause that they
were being harassed by the police. In 1976 and subsequent years these tensions led to riots at the
Notting Hill Carnival an event with a distinctly Caribbean flabour between black youths and the
police.

The shift towards a more racially tolerant society was slow. By the late 1970s there was an
increasing number of black footballers yet they had to face racial abuse from the terraces,
including having bananas thrown at them and monkey chants. At the same time, the BBC broadcast
The Black and White Minstrel Show, a light entertainment programme of traditional American
minstrel, country and music hall songs performed in blackface. Yet things were changing. In 1978 Viv
Anderson, a defender with Nottingham Forest, became the first black player to represent England.
Also in 1978, the BBC stopped broadcasting The Black and White Minstrel Show. Moreover, with
raggae and ska influencing popular music, a shift towards a multicultural society started to become
discernible.

Youth
The 1970s was characterised by a number of youth subcultures that were viewed as a threat to
established authority and therefore gave rise to moral panic, above all in the popular press. Chief
among these were punks, skinheads and football hooligans.

Punks reflected a broader feeling of social alienation, not least in adopting a nihilistic attitude. They
dressed to shock; concerts were characterised by spitting and violence; and television appearances
often involved swearing (at a time was swearing was still largely taboo). Probably the most
controversial punk band was The Sex Pistols their 1977 single God Save the Queen (God save
the queeen / The fascist regime) was released during Elizabeth IIs Silver Jubilee and caused
particular outrage, eventually being banned by the BBC.

Skinheads were predominantly working-class youth who were initially influenced by Jamaican music
and culture; but by the end of the 1970s many skinheads were attracted by the racism of the
National Front and/or the violence of football hooliganism. Football-related violence was far from
unknown in Britain but by the 1970s it had become commonplace. Organised hooligan firms
engaged in violence outside grounds; fighting and pitch invasions took place inside grounds; coins
and bottles were thrown at away supporters; and racist chants (and worse) were directed at black
footballers. At the forefront of this violence were working-class youths. Football clubs responded by
segregating home and away supporters and by installing fences to separate spectators from players.

Environmentalism
The British liked and like to think of their country as a green and pleasant land. However, this
was far from the reality given Britains industrialisation and urbanisation in the nineteenth century
industrial towns and cities were usually dirty and polluted places. Environmental concerns, such as
protecting the countrys natural heritage and allowing public access to the countryside had already
led to the establishment of the National Trust in 1895 and the creation of national parks in 1949. But
the idea of enviromentalism as a movement gained considerable traction in the 1970s, for example,
CNB George Cobuc. Grade 12 The Making of Modern Britain, 1970-2018

Friends of the Earth established a UK presence in 1971, followed by Greenpeace UK in 1977. Animal
rights protestors also became more active attacks on laboratories carrying out animal experiments
started in 1973; and extremists even sent letter bombs to politicians and researchers.

Environmental issues were also reflected in popular culture. Richard Adams Watership Down, an
adventure novel about a group of rabbits forced to find a new home as a consequence of a road
development, was published in 1972 and quickly became a bestseller. In 1978 it was made into an
animated film. On television, the BBC aired The Good Life between 1975 and 1978, a sitcom about a
middle-class professional couple Tom and Barbara Good who abandon the rat race and seek to
become self-sufficient in suburban London, much to the horror of their neighbours, especially the
conservative and socially aspirational Margo Leadbetter.

The 1970s also saw the first stirrings of environmentalism as a distinctively political movement. The
PEOPLE Party was established in 1973 a party informed by ecological concerns. The PEOPLE Party
barely registered in the 1974 general elections and therefore changed its name in 1975 to the
Ecology Party in an attempt to raise its profile. By 1979 the Ecology Party was able to field enough
candidates in the general election to entitle them to election broadcasts on television and radio
and this coverage helped boost its membership from a mere 500 to more than 5,000.

Questions
1. Feminism did not have much impact on womens lives in the 1970s. Explain why you agree or
disagree with this view.
2. Is there any evidence to suggest that race relations improved during the 1970s?
3. Do you think that Britains political and economic problems in the 1970s contributed to the rise of
environmentalism?