The British economy in the 1970s: An overview

In both popular and scholarly memory there is almost unanimous agreement - the 1970s was a decade when the British economy was in serious trouble. After fairly satisfactory performance in the 1950s and 1960s, the 1970s witnessed a rise in both unemployment and inflation (Chapters 5 and 6), and a slow-down in the rate of economic growth (Chapter 4), all of which took place against the background of industrial unrest. These perceptions of the decade, moreover, seemed to have been shared by contemporaries. Table 1.1, for example, shows the sort of issues with which people were most concerned. Not surprisingly, at certain times, such as during the oil embargo in 1973, non-economic considerations assumed some importance. However, taking the decade as a whole economic problems were cited most frequently as a source of concern, with prices, followed by unemployment and industrial relations/strikes, being the most serious problems. Table 1.1 Perceptions of the most serious problem. Gallup opinion polls. (Monthly average, per cent of respondents.)