Back to the Time Of The Hippie calendar
Election time again and things had not been going well for the Conservatives and Mr Heath. The economy was not good and to tackle high inflation the government capped the pay for public sector workers and told the private sector they should do the same for their employees. The Trade Unions didn't like this as wages now grew slower than prices rose. One very powerful union was the National Union of Mineworkers and the coal their miners produced provided the majority of the country's fuel.
At their national conference in 1973 they asked for a 35% pay rise. The Union balloted its members for a strike but this was rejected but they did start an overtime ban which was aimed at cutting coal production in half. In order to save electricity the government introduced some really rather funny measures. As from 31 December 1973 businesses could only use electricity on 3 consecutive days each week. Hospitals, newspapers and supermarkets were not included in the cut. Television had to close at 10.30 pm each night.
We did our bit where I was working by everyone having electricity on a Monday and then one side of the office having it on Tuesday and Thursday and the other side Wednesday and Friday. Lights went off, remember this was winter, and electric machines were unplugged. I said it was quite funny because, where I worked, the photocopier was on one side of the office and so it could only be used on Tuesdays and Thursdays meaning those people on the other side had to wait until the following day to have things copied. You may be able to guess we had no such thing as a computer anywhere in the office.
In February the miners voted to strike and Heath called an election to prove who ruled the country. Sadly for him, it wasn't he who ruled, as he lost his majority. He couldn't agree support from the Liberal party or anyone else so Harold Wilson and Labour formed a new minority government. Straight away they gave the miners a 35% pay rise, the three-day week ended and we all waited for it all to happen again. Wilson called another election in October and this time ended up with a 3 seat majority.
