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Comparison with the 70's. Split from old thread

big-all said:
no one has mentioned the sourest strike forget red robbo and scargil whilst both a bit important you forget the absolute worst catastrophe----- the sugar shortage off 74 ----- mind you it allowed me to wean off sugar in coffee in about 3 weeks

www.theguardian.com

From the archive, 9 July 1974: Rationing starts as sugar shortage looms

Originally published in the Guardian on 9 July 1974: Britain is facing a shortage of sugar because of the serious reduction in sugar cane imports from the Caribbean
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
:unsure:
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Good point I'd forgotten about the sugar shortages. When we cleared my grandmothers council house when she went into a home there were a dozen bags of rock hard sugar right at the back of the pantry that had been there for years. Like concrete. The Govt said 'don't panic but there's a shortage of sugar'.....so everyone panicked and hoarded sugar. A bit like the bog roll hoarding two years ago.
 
All this talk of the coal industry as it was has reminded me of the other nationalised industries. British Rail was a den of thieves. An example was the Carriage and Wagon Works and the Loco Works in Derby. Brand new aluminium sheeting would arrive at the works at 8 am and by midday it was down the scrapyard sold off. Everyone was in on it from managers downwards. Brand new socket sets were easily available in certain pubs that had been purloined from the railway order books. Almost anything you wanted.
 
Odds said:
You could go back even further...



'I'm alright, Jack' gives a very funny look at industrial relations in the 50s but holds true for the 60s-80s until Maggie finally broke the unions hold.
(Fred Kite is one of Peter Sellers finest characters - if you haven't seen the film, i highly recommend it.)
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Superb film.
 
Seafarer1966 said:
All this talk of the coal industry as it was has reminded me of the other nationalised industries. British Rail was a den of thieves. An example was the Carriage and Wagon Works and the Loco Works in Derby. Brand new aluminium sheeting would arrive at the works at 8 am and by midday it was down the scrapyard sold off. Everyone was in on it from managers downwards. Brand new socket sets were easily available in certain pubs that had been purloined from the railway order books. Almost anything you wanted.
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There's often advantages to being near very large companies where it would be impossible for management to control everything. Years ago I worked near Rolls Royce and BAE in Filton, Bristol. At the time I had an old Rover P4 100, and sometimes certain parts could be a bit of a struggle to get. No problem, there were plenty of people on the shop floor who would make or refurbish whatever you needed for a few quid or some cigarettes - all with aero grade materials. Friend got someone there to make some new seat frames for his old Landrover. Probably would have made you a new LR if you had enough Bensons. :giggle:
 
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One of my many agency jobs whilst a student on holidays I worked at a small engineering company in Melbourne, Derbyshire. Some really beautiful engineering going on. Skilled work. Parts for South African artillery pieces going via Tanzania (the back door to South Africa avoiding the sanctions at the time) etc. you name it. My step-dad had a crappy Morris Ital (a so-called redesigned Morris Marina) and needed new door hinge bolts. I took one of the old door bolts in and an old sweat made me several new ones out of high grade steel. Far better than the Leyland standard part. The price? Bring him a hot cuppa with four sugars in on the hour every hour for a week. Top bloke. Probably dead now bless him.
 
Notch7 said:
Wouldn’t surprise me.

Scargill didn’t care about miners, he only cared about power. Scargills only focus was on bringing the govt down.

What Thatcher did to the mining industry was appalling, but she outwitted Scargill. I suppose in a sense it brought an end to the Union bound industries holding back this country……rather gone the other way now, it won’t be long before we see school boys down mines, on zero hour contracts
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Quite true and a good point. I enjoyed listening to Radio Moscow on my shortwave radio in the 80's (more for laughing at the banal tripe they churned out) and lo and behold there was Scargill being interviewed about his revolutionary principles. This man of 'principles' had a brand new Jag delivered from the dealers every year, a posh flat in The Smoke and a huge bungalow somewhere in South Yorkshire. All paid for by the miners.
There was no way Thatcher was going to let Scargill win the miners strike. She'd seen how the miners strike in the early 70's (which they won) destroyed Ted Heath. He never got over it and loss the confidence of his ministers. She'd known him well since the 50's but they disliked each other intensely. When she got in power in 1979 she invited him to join her Cabinet. He declined and went back to his art collection and his yachts (not bad for the son of an army sergeant and a chambermaid).
 
Seafarer1966 said:
Quite true and a good point. I enjoyed listening to Radio Moscow on my shortwave radio in the 80's (more for laughing at the banal tripe they churned out) and lo and behold there was Scargill being interviewed about his revolutionary principles. This man of 'principles' had a brand new Jag delivered from the dealers every year, a posh flat in The Smoke and a huge bungalow somewhere in South Yorkshire. All paid for by the miners.
There was no way Thatcher was going to let Scargill win the miners strike. She'd seen how the miners strike in the early 70's (which they won) destroyed Ted Heath. He never got over it and loss the confidence of his ministers. She'd known him well since the 50's but they disliked each other intensely. When she got in power in 1979 she invited him to join her Cabinet. He declined and went back to his art collection and his yachts (not bad for the son of an army sergeant and a chambermaid).
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I thought Heaths dad was carpenter/builder
 
I'm 32 but I genuinely couldn't tell you what's in the charts! One thing I'm sure of though, is that the music wasn't much better then than it is now!

I became very aware of music as a child and have an incredibly wide-ranging taste. This comes from having Grandparents who imparted their love of Big Band/Classical/Jazz onto me, and my parents who grew up separately in both the '60s and '80s and who passed down their record collection. 'Golden eras' in my opinion are 1964-1970 (particularly the era around the 'Summer of Love') and 1979 to 1987 (from the height of funk/disco, to the rise of synth/New Wave, before Stock Aitken and Waterman).

When it comes to the '70s though, it just seems to me like it was either greasy blokes with long hair trudging out the same rock chords (I'm thinking Mud and Status Quo) or awful pop from bands like Middle of the Road. Of course there are exceptions (Floyd, Bowie, et al) but watching TOTP from that decade reveals to me that there was a lot of sh**e about!
 
cwhaley said:
I became very aware of music as a child and have an incredibly wide-ranging taste.
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Same as me, I like most things, even the popular classical, opera, even Wagner.
cwhaley said:
'Golden eras' in my opinion are 1964-1970 (particularly the era around the 'Summer of Love') and 1979 to 1987 (from the height of funk/disco, to the rise of synth/New Wave, before Stock Aitken and Waterman).
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I will have to say, there has been not been nearly has much quality produced over recent decades.
 
Seafarer1966 said:
All this talk of the coal industry as it was has reminded me of the other nationalised industries. British Rail was a den of thieves. An example was the Carriage and Wagon Works and the Loco Works in Derby. Brand new aluminium sheeting would arrive at the works at 8 am and by midday it was down the scrapyard sold off. Everyone was in on it from managers downwards. Brand new socket sets were easily available in certain pubs that had been purloined from the railway order books. Almost anything you wanted.
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A true sign of poor management
 
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