The Seventies!

I have been watching a series on TV all about the Seventies. I have found it interesting, confusing and downright infuriating. In equal measure. 

The show concentrates on the fortunes of the UK during the period of 1970 - 79. I was 3 and a half when the 70's started. I guess that gives me a rose tinted view of the 70's. I had a very good childhood. My Parents never new unemployment in that time and as both parents were in education in one form or other we were largely exempt from the vagaries of the economy as laid out by this show. I suppose we even gained. 

I didn't grow up in a traditional heavy industrial area either. We weren't dependant on the industries that the Conservative governments swept aside in the eighties. The South of England largely did well from this time. I grew up in an expanding Market town. At the beginning of the Seventies I used to visit the market with my Mum and see all the livestock up for sale. I clearly remember a large shed lined with corrugated metal that had a sort of viewing gallery along it's side where the potential buyers (and interested kids) could view the livestock lots. By the end of the seventies we had a large indoor shopping mall which to a lad of my age the very height of sophistication. 

Most of the sources I have read state that although national finances struggled from time to time the general standard of living in the UK rose during this period. My empirical evidence (memory) would concur. 

So what has irked me about the TV show? I always get irked about the punk rock era. There was nothing good about Punk rock. It was rubbish. everything about it was rubbish. Especially the music. The key aspect of Punk rock was that it was a form of back to basics. A lot of people suddenly found that they could do things that were previously beyond their reach. A lack of talent was not to be a barrier. As a result a lot of people got up and stated doing their thing and also as a result a lot of it was s**t. Don't get me started on Malcolm Maclaren and Vivienne Westwood. So called Queen of Punk. I had never heard of her until I listened into an episode of BBC Radio 4's show Desert Island Discs some 20 years later. The format is basically a famous person talks about some bits of music that are particularly interesting of meaningful for the guest as if they were to be stranded on a desert island with nothing but an old gramophone player. 

Punk rock was the discovery of self promotion and spin. It was all rubbish. 

Souxie Sioux who fronted Souxie and the Banshees (I did like them but she could sing!) once said that Punk rock was a middle class movement with working class actors. My proof for that is that just about everyone I know who gets misty eyed over the Punk movement now shops in Waitrose and holidays in Umbria. Middle class to the core.

The trade union movement was a major loser in the Seventies. Although the power of the unions was widely touted as the scourge of the time, resulting in nothing short of a purge during Thatchers years, the real problem from my eyes was nationalization of industry. The problem was twofold:

1. Politicians were put in charge
2. It allowed industrial action to be a direct method of attacking government policy. 

In short it politicized Industry. Instead of being in the business of making things or producing services for profit the whole shooting match was run through with compromise. The whole business ethos was often lost. 

But the second point meant that the whole trade union movement was tarnished in the nation's eyes.

When I was 17 my sixth form college held a "commerce" day. We had a few lectures, we played a few role playing "Commerce" games. But what really struck me was a talk given by a local union representative. He was talking to a brick wall as almost all of us felt unions were a "bad thing" because they only wanted to prevent workers from carrying out any actual work. I felt sorry for him. I was sympathetic to his cause. He wasn't a fire and brimstone speaker spouting communism etc etc but genuinely explaining how a union could be a force for good (for the employee). I was lucky to meet this Gentleman some 10 years later. I reminded him of the day (he didn't remember it) but my point was that although at the time I was sympathetic to the trade union cause I wouldn't have joined one. However after 10 years in the workforce, I explained, I wouldn't set foot in a workplace without my union card. I have seen too many instances of employers having to have their legal responsibilities reminded to them! 

As a cheer up here is Basil Fawlty doing what many owners of British Leyland cars have done over the years. Fawlty Towers  - the seventies at their best! 

Beware there is foul language