This is when Tory minister Patrick Jenkin told people to brush their teeth in the dark to save power; the press sent a photographer to his house and found all the lights were on well after midnight!!
I was a 5 year old in '73. I remember during the power cuts that my dad had a Tilly lamp ready, and when the lights went out he would pump it up and the paraffin or turpentine he'd put in it would smell a bit until he lit it. We'd sit in the living room and play games; I also remember that my cousins, sister and such were there. It was exciting for a youngster when it went dark everywhere.
I am therefore two years younger than you, as I was just three and Play School age then. My first memory was walking down the hall at Granny's house in the dark and thinking it was fun!
From Monday 17th December 1973 until Sunday 23rd December 1973, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV ended their broadcasting day around 10.20 or 10.30pm. From Christmas Eve Monday 24th December 1973 until Sunday 6th January 1974 the early closedowns was lifted for the Christmas season. The early closedowns returned from Monday 7th January 1974 until Friday 8th February 1974.
Does anyone know when the term "billion" was first used?, as say "thousand million" seems very odd to me now in 2020. We are so used to hearing billion was the term.
It's more straightforward to say "a thousand million", as although in common parlance that's a billion strictly mathematically correctly it's a milliard. A billion is a million million.
Back then a billion was a million million, so Dimbleby is saying 12,000 million. Today the journalist would say 12 billion. In Britain, the government adopted the US billion in 1974, in so doing a billion was reduced to a thousand million.
The irony of the 3 day week was that whilst industry worked the 3 day week, the miners worked a 5 day week. (The government needed the coal). The electricity was turned off to the country by rotation in order to save on coal burn. At that time you would look in your 'Yorkshire Post' or equivalent where it would tell you what time your area would be switched off and for how long. However, the state made sure that everybody had electricity back on for 10pm in order to make sure everybody could see their propaganda organ, 'News at 10. The whole thing was a smoke screen to turn the public against the mineworkers for the hard times they were enduring, which in reality was due to successive government policies.
@@johnking5174 The ITV like ALL MSM promotes the status quo. There is never any overt evidence to suggest collaboration, but we all know they mix in the same circles at press meetings etc. Again, MSM is the mouthpiece of the state.
@@willduggan6170 Will, you have to remember in 1973, there was only three television channels. Two for the BBC and one commercial ITV. Calling MSM in 1973 really doesn't work, as media back then was more limited. You understand?
Tough times were ahead with The Three day week, it did effect TV in fact ITV had to Closedown by 10:30pm during the Power Crisis except over Christmas as The Three Day Week came into effect from 1st January 1974, Plus there were made Public Information Films about the Energy Crisis with conserving Electricity in the Home to try to avoid Power Cuts, The UK went back to a 5 day week in early March 1974
Interesting that radio was never told to close down early. BBC Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4 all continued their normal schedules, especially Radio 2 who were on the air each day from 5.00am, and would stay on until 2.00am the next morning. That 21 hours of broadcasting on radio transmitters, must have used a lot of power, but television was forced to close at 10.30pm. This was a token gesture, made by the government along with the agreement of the BBC and ITV, to force people to think they were in a terrible situation, and make them blame the miners for closing their television down early. Token gesture, which made no difference, as I say, radio continued on, using the same energy for transmitters as television.
Except transmitters are not the only issue re energy use. You also have to consider how much electrical power a TV studio uses. Power for TV Cameras is just one example. TV Camera Power consumption = A Lot, Radio Microphone Power consumption = A Little. An over simplified example perhaps, But I'm sure You take My point.
@@nonroadusr It was a pathetic gesture, but also a political one, as the government wanted the public to feel affected in EVERY way, including their television. That was a bit stupid by the government, and it didn't last long. Also I believe the early closedowns were alternated between BBC and ITV, so at least you had one channel which stayed open later on a given day.
14:43 However wrongly Thatcher, and maybe Wilson too, handled leaving mining communities rundown without a replacement economy, deep mining should never have existed and the mines' closures have been a progressive good.
Always amazes me about the power outages. I can understand power outage due to storms, but having a power outage by a strike is something unknown to me here in California.
I don't understand what they mean by "three day week". Do they mean you only get 72 hours electricity a week ? If it means only working 3 days a week then why is that a bad thing if they're paid for only 3 days?
For most, it did mean working & payment for only three days per week. It’s such an obvious problem that I fear that I must have misunderstood what you meant. GDP & tax receipts could fall by several tens of % & at the time, budget deficits were funded by sale of Govt bonds. The coupon for these loans would have had to be much higher than customary & this would have disrupted the debt stack, with long term, undesirable effects. Devaluing exchange rates would result in economic losses by the self-proclaimed “elites”, as well as by almost all others. Many people could not pay their rent or mortgage on 60% of their wages. Politically, it meant visibly ceding control of the nation’s business sector to heavy handed Soviets, for it was known that a the leaders of number of trades unions were agents of a foreign power. All this raises a fair question, known as “Who Governs Britain?”, as the slogan of the Tory Party read. The Prime Minister did call a snap election…and lost to Labour. Essentially I’m saying that we are watching one of numerous steps that led straight to todays evil.
Depends what you consider to be ‘good’. And for whom it is good. The 1970s were the period in which this country was most equal. The industrial militancy of the 1970s reflects a more balanced power ratio between workers and capital. Since Thatcher, we have the most unequal society in the western world. Social justice issues aside, the consequences of this are evident all around us - big capital is responsible for rapid climate change, financial crisis of 08-09, wars, leading to refugee crises, social and elderly care crisis, NHS crisis, Education crisis and Debt crisis. Austerity has failed comprehensively. A 3-day week sounds good to me (only thing Heath got right! - but for the wrong reasons). Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Robotisation should be commandeered in the interests of all of us - not for big capital to exploit labour further and increase the gap between 1% and 99%. Get Corbyn😀
It was a disaster successive governments both conservative and labour became part of what was known as the post war consensus which essentially believed everything should be state owned and run and the government should allocate you a place to live. We were basically North Korea without the hope. Then finally Margaret Thatcher had enough and decided to change the system to a wealth creating economy which was a painful thing, and should have been a one way journey, the results were clear, it worked. The problem is now we have a politician #Corbyn who wants to take us back to these policies, everything state owned, everyone staying in their state allocated box etc. They're failed policies and they will fail again if he should ever get into power. Ironically he also wants to bring back a 4 day week!
@@danh5637 it's an interesting one. And I'd like to discuss. Many countries have state intervention as official policy for a lot of things and it works out relatively well. Some have a free for all, and it's almost a mess, and others are notionally free, but the gov agencies are in cahoots with the big businesses and their lobbyists, and so it's hard to say. Germany's motor industry boomed, Britain's went to the dogs. Why? University is free in Finland. Medical care is easy in many northern European countries, and free at the time you need it. And yet, nowadays, I don't think we could collect enough tax to fund it in my country unless everything is card only and cash is banned.
Lol. Joining the eu didn't save uk. Leaving the eu didn't cause what's happening in 2023. If you doubt that go visit France. Or germany, or Greece, or Italy. Any of them really. The eu did not prevent the current situation. They didn't protect against it. They can't. When things go wrong we always need someone to blame. So who's to blame for 2023? Or the 2008 crash? Which the eu again DID NOT protect against. Spending money YOU DONT HAVE is what causes this. Having interest rates at zero for decades is what's caused this. Giving ppl "free money"during covid caused this. Closing down the world caused this. We'd only just recovered from 2008 then covid hit. It took over 15 years to recover. 1973 was just over 25 years since the nation had been BAKRUPTED by ww2 which was far worse than 2008 and covid.it also came on the heels on the depression in 1930s. In short globalism and global expansionist ideals is what caused this.all of it. The eu is PART of globalism. It IS THE PROBLEM. Just one part but still the problem. Green policy wanting to turn arable farmland into solar farms, destroying top soils so nothing can grow and creating piles of non recyclable waste is adding to this. Ppl who voted to leave the eu -like me, can barely remember this.i was 4 years old. And I was born in and grew up in a mining community. And just 7 years later the miners were on strike again. Then the pits were closed, several decades after Europe switched to gas. We hung on to the coal.why? Unions. And now compare Germany, rebuilt for free by usa after ww2, and helped enormously by eu to make them a powerhouse,isnow bankrupt Long with france.usa is the same. The only ones doing well are Russia and china.along with Saudi. Why? Bevause they DIDNT do the globalist thing.
@@tomfrench5189 nope. Winter of discontent began under Callahan. However there was the post war consensus. The conservatives had agreed that the state should run everything. It wasn’t until thatcher that idea was truly challenged. There were a couple of libertarians in the conservatives back then such as Keith Joseph. I don’t like either party so I have no horse in the race. But it’s true that this was the economic prospectus Corbyn wanted to go back to it’s outlined very definitely in John Mcdonnells book. It’s basically DDR style communism without the hope, or smart Germans running it. And even they couldn’t make it work.
@@boomerz2478 We’ve got Corbynomics under Johnson. He’s played straight from the New Economic Theory playbook to offset the costs of COVID-19. He’s a centraliser who’s concentrated rather than challenged executive power, who has appointed on loyalty rather than ability, who applies the same criteria to allocate regional expenditure, who uses the press to manufacture consent, who has stifled free trade by undermining open tender, and who has subverted the traditional independence of Britain’s civil infrastructure by making political appointments at every level of British society. He promised an end to the perceived democratic deficit of the EU, but has effectively ruled by decree, bypassing cabinet, government and Parliament, and has legislated to make governance even more secret. He’s even legislated to limit freedom of movement and assembly. He’s as Soviet as they come.
This is when Tory minister Patrick Jenkin told people to brush their teeth in the dark to save power; the press sent a photographer to his house and found all the lights were on well after midnight!!
A politican being fucking hypocrite? I can hardly believe it...
Had a party too?
Politician=hypocrite. Always was. Is and forever will be.
I was a 5 year old in '73. I remember during the power cuts that my dad had a Tilly lamp ready, and when the lights went out he would pump it up and the paraffin or turpentine he'd put in it would smell a bit until he lit it. We'd sit in the living room and play games; I also remember that my cousins, sister and such were there. It was exciting for a youngster when it went dark everywhere.
Sounds horrible to me
Now I know why we had lamps in the 80s. Probably in case that happened again. Power cuts were also common
I am therefore two years younger than you, as I was just three and Play School age then. My first memory was walking down the hall at Granny's house in the dark and thinking it was fun!
From Monday 17th December 1973 until Sunday 23rd December 1973, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV ended their broadcasting day around 10.20 or 10.30pm. From Christmas Eve Monday 24th December 1973 until Sunday 6th January 1974 the early closedowns was lifted for the Christmas season. The early closedowns returned from Monday 7th January 1974 until Friday 8th February 1974.
That businessman should have been Chancellor. Pure common sense.
Anyone watching this because of the current energy crisis and rising costs of life in general?
No.
remember the power cuts,dark days,we thought they were funny as small kids
I remember i thought it was great but i guess the parents didnt think so.
Yep! One good thing was I did not have to suffer Crossroads or Coronation street.
I certainly thought they were fun - aged three and Play School era back then. Too young to understand politics!
Does anyone know when the term "billion" was first used?, as say "thousand million" seems very odd to me now in 2020. We are so used to hearing billion was the term.
It's more straightforward to say "a thousand million", as although in common parlance that's a billion strictly mathematically correctly it's a milliard. A billion is a million million.
Back then a billion was a million million, so Dimbleby is saying 12,000 million. Today the journalist would say 12 billion. In Britain, the government adopted the US billion in 1974, in so doing a billion was reduced to a thousand million.
The irony of the 3 day week was that whilst industry worked the 3 day week, the miners worked a 5 day week. (The government needed the coal). The electricity was turned off to the country by rotation in order to save on coal burn. At that time you would look in your 'Yorkshire Post' or equivalent where it would tell you what time your area would be switched off and for how long. However, the state made sure that everybody had electricity back on for 10pm in order to make sure everybody could see their propaganda organ, 'News at 10. The whole thing was a smoke screen to turn the public against the mineworkers for the hard times they were enduring, which in reality was due to successive government policies.
News at Ten was on ITV, so are you saying the Conservative party used ITV to promote their message?
@@johnking5174
The ITV like ALL MSM promotes the status quo. There is never any overt evidence to suggest collaboration, but we all know they mix in the same circles at press meetings etc. Again, MSM is the mouthpiece of the state.
@@willduggan6170 Will, you have to remember in 1973, there was only three television channels. Two for the BBC and one commercial ITV. Calling MSM in 1973 really doesn't work, as media back then was more limited. You understand?
@@johnking5174 I include newspapers and radio in the MSM mix, which was'Considerable'.
Didn't it all go tits up anyway? They got labour in. Got a rise. Got another rise. Others threatened to strike. Cons come back stronger?
Tough times were ahead with The Three day week, it did effect TV in fact ITV had to Closedown by 10:30pm during the Power Crisis except over Christmas as The Three Day Week came into effect from 1st January 1974, Plus there were made Public Information Films about the Energy Crisis with conserving Electricity in the Home to try to avoid Power Cuts, The UK went back to a 5 day week in early March 1974
Interesting that radio was never told to close down early. BBC Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4 all continued their normal schedules, especially Radio 2 who were on the air each day from 5.00am, and would stay on until 2.00am the next morning. That 21 hours of broadcasting on radio transmitters, must have used a lot of power, but television was forced to close at 10.30pm. This was a token gesture, made by the government along with the agreement of the BBC and ITV, to force people to think they were in a terrible situation, and make them blame the miners for closing their television down early. Token gesture, which made no difference, as I say, radio continued on, using the same energy for transmitters as television.
Except transmitters are not the only issue re energy use.
You also have to consider how much electrical power a TV studio uses. Power for TV Cameras is just one example.
TV Camera Power consumption = A Lot, Radio Microphone Power consumption = A Little.
An over simplified example perhaps, But I'm sure You take My point.
@@nonroadusr It was a pathetic gesture, but also a political one, as the government wanted the public to feel affected in EVERY way, including their television. That was a bit stupid by the government, and it didn't last long. Also I believe the early closedowns were alternated between BBC and ITV, so at least you had one channel which stayed open later on a given day.
@@nonroadusr 9
14:43 However wrongly Thatcher, and maybe Wilson too, handled leaving mining communities rundown without a replacement economy, deep mining should never have existed and the mines' closures have been a progressive good.
Born in 73, my parents always said the 70s were dark and bleak....I have only vague memories...
Well, I hope you're enjoying us re-running them in the 2020s.
the leadup of whats going on with Lizz's "tory party" i wouldnt be surprised this gets brought up again
Lol that comment didn't age well did it? Lol
I say Old Chap.
I lived in Purley then. When it got dark, you could see foxes running about in streets lit by cars' headlights.
Always amazes me about the power outages. I can understand power outage due to storms, but having a power outage by a strike is something unknown to me here in California.
I don't understand what they mean by "three day week". Do they mean you only get 72 hours electricity a week ? If it means only working 3 days a week then why is that a bad thing if they're paid for only 3 days?
For most, it did mean working & payment for only three days per week.
It’s such an obvious problem that I fear that I must have misunderstood what you meant.
GDP & tax receipts could fall by several tens of % & at the time, budget deficits were funded by sale of Govt bonds. The coupon for these loans would have had to be much higher than customary & this would have disrupted the debt stack, with long term, undesirable effects.
Devaluing exchange rates would result in economic losses by the self-proclaimed “elites”, as well as by almost all others.
Many people could not pay their rent or mortgage on 60% of their wages.
Politically, it meant visibly ceding control of the nation’s business sector to heavy handed Soviets, for it was known that a the leaders of number of trades unions were agents of a foreign power.
All this raises a fair question, known as “Who Governs Britain?”, as the slogan of the Tory Party read.
The Prime Minister did call a snap election…and lost to Labour.
Essentially I’m saying that we are watching one of numerous steps that led straight to todays evil.
Boris Johnson, Teresa May??
And people think these were the good old days...
Depends what you consider to be ‘good’. And for whom it is good. The 1970s were the period in which this country was most equal. The industrial militancy of the 1970s reflects a more balanced power ratio between workers and capital. Since Thatcher, we have the most unequal society in the western world. Social justice issues aside, the consequences of this are evident all around us - big capital is responsible for rapid climate change, financial crisis of 08-09, wars, leading to refugee crises, social and elderly care crisis, NHS crisis, Education crisis and Debt crisis. Austerity has failed comprehensively. A 3-day week sounds good to me (only thing Heath got right! - but for the wrong reasons). Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Robotisation should be commandeered in the interests of all of us - not for big capital to exploit labour further and increase the gap between 1% and 99%. Get Corbyn😀
Jamie Conway corbyn and Labour Party 😂
Who here's after watching The Crown?
So how did it play out? My Grandparents, born pre-WW1, finally made it from Australia to see England in - guess when -19 beautiful 73!
It was a disaster successive governments both conservative and labour became part of what was known as the post war consensus which essentially believed everything should be state owned and run and the government should allocate you a place to live. We were basically North Korea without the hope. Then finally Margaret Thatcher had enough and decided to change the system to a wealth creating economy which was a painful thing, and should have been a one way journey, the results were clear, it worked. The problem is now we have a politician #Corbyn who wants to take us back to these policies, everything state owned, everyone staying in their state allocated box etc. They're failed policies and they will fail again if he should ever get into power. Ironically he also wants to bring back a 4 day week!
@@danh5637 it's an interesting one. And I'd like to discuss. Many countries have state intervention as official policy for a lot of things and it works out relatively well. Some have a free for all, and it's almost a mess, and others are notionally free, but the gov agencies are in cahoots with the big businesses and their lobbyists, and so it's hard to say. Germany's motor industry boomed, Britain's went to the dogs. Why? University is free in Finland. Medical care is easy in many northern European countries, and free at the time you need it. And yet, nowadays, I don't think we could collect enough tax to fund it in my country unless everything is card only and cash is banned.
@@danh5637 Rubbish
1973 ..... Good year that cos Sunderland won the FA Cup lol
A young Peter O'Hanrahahanrahan
Jonathan Dimbleby did have an air of him you are right
Maybe bring it back 2022.
2021/22 - get ready for the real Winter of Discontent.
Great demonstrations on how stupid and inefficient labor is
Dreadfully austere times. 1200 million cut. Be jesus. Wasn't till the mid/ late 80s till the economy recovered.
Love how the term "billion" seems to have been unheard of in 1973
@@johnking5174 I believe the treasury adopted the US definition of Billion in 1974.
Sounds like Covid 19 to me
50yrs later...i want my taxes back, you lot 🦆ing lied to me 🏴🏴🔥
the great 70s brexiters long about...
This was 1973 we joined the EEC in 1972.
At least you could smoke in the pub back then, happy days.
Moveitmag Cinezine more like the future COB wants for the country
@@iansteel1447 Yes I miss giving people second hand smoke lung cancer. Too PC now
Lol. Joining the eu didn't save uk. Leaving the eu didn't cause what's happening in 2023. If you doubt that go visit France. Or germany, or Greece, or Italy. Any of them really. The eu did not prevent the current situation. They didn't protect against it. They can't. When things go wrong we always need someone to blame. So who's to blame for 2023? Or the 2008 crash? Which the eu again DID NOT protect against.
Spending money YOU DONT HAVE is what causes this. Having interest rates at zero for decades is what's caused this. Giving ppl "free money"during covid caused this. Closing down the world caused this. We'd only just recovered from 2008 then covid hit. It took over 15 years to recover. 1973 was just over 25 years since the nation had been BAKRUPTED by ww2 which was far worse than 2008 and covid.it also came on the heels on the depression in 1930s.
In short globalism and global expansionist ideals is what caused this.all of it.
The eu is PART of globalism. It IS THE PROBLEM. Just one part but still the problem. Green policy wanting to turn arable farmland into solar farms, destroying top soils so nothing can grow and creating piles of non recyclable waste is adding to this.
Ppl who voted to leave the eu -like me, can barely remember this.i was 4 years old. And I was born in and grew up in a mining community. And just 7 years later the miners were on strike again. Then the pits were closed, several decades after Europe switched to gas. We hung on to the coal.why? Unions. And now compare Germany, rebuilt for free by usa after ww2, and helped enormously by eu to make them a powerhouse,isnow bankrupt Long with france.usa is the same. The only ones doing well are Russia and china.along with Saudi. Why? Bevause they DIDNT do the globalist thing.
And then you wonder why they closed the mines.
Look what the miners got to take with them when the pits closed down. Sink holes and lung disease, your welcome to them.
#Corbynomics
Under a Tory leader
@@tomfrench5189 nope. Winter of discontent began under Callahan. However there was the post war consensus. The conservatives had agreed that the state should run everything. It wasn’t until thatcher that idea was truly challenged. There were a couple of libertarians in the conservatives back then such as Keith Joseph. I don’t like either party so I have no horse in the race. But it’s true that this was the economic prospectus Corbyn wanted to go back to it’s outlined very definitely in John Mcdonnells book. It’s basically DDR style communism without the hope, or smart Germans running it. And even they couldn’t make it work.
@@boomerz2478 We’ve got Corbynomics under Johnson. He’s played straight from the New Economic Theory playbook to offset the costs of COVID-19. He’s a centraliser who’s concentrated rather than challenged executive power, who has appointed on loyalty rather than ability, who applies the same criteria to allocate regional expenditure, who uses the press to manufacture consent, who has stifled free trade by undermining open tender, and who has subverted the traditional independence of Britain’s civil infrastructure by making political appointments at every level of British society. He promised an end to the perceived democratic deficit of the EU, but has effectively ruled by decree, bypassing cabinet, government and Parliament, and has legislated to make governance even more secret. He’s even legislated to limit freedom of movement and assembly. He’s as Soviet as they come.
@@markofsaltburn you mean modern monetary theory?
@@boomerz2478 DDR style communism? I think you are confused. Communism is what eventually comes if Corbyns policies are not implemented.