Heatwave and political parallels
This summer, Britain is experiencing a heatwave reminiscent of 1976, when children rode Chopper bikes across dried-up rivers and adults queued at standpipes. The political climate is also drawing comparisons to the 1970s, as Andy Burnham moves closer to Downing Street. Doom-mongering Thatcherites warn that Burnham plans to drag the country back to the 'Satanic Seventies' with three-day weeks and unburied corpses.
Criticism from business figures
Wetherspoons boss Tim Martin compared Burnham's imminent arrival to 'the dreary socialist concoction that brought us to our knees when Labour was in power in the 1970s.' This comes from a leading advocate for Brexit, which has left the economy struggling. Sir Rocco Forte expressed concern that Burnham's elevation would mean 'we'll be back to the days of the closed shop and strikes in no time.' Forte, a sterling patriot, changed residence to Italy after complaining that fewer tax breaks for non-doms made Britain less attractive.
Tony Blair's criticism
Tony Blair criticised Burnham's analysis that Britain has been on a destructive neo-liberal path for 40 years, warning him not to take the country back to the dire 1970s. This from someone who took Britain into the Iraq war and wanted to back Donald Trump in his neo-liberal killing crusade in Iran.
Burnham's moderate approach
Despite the rhetoric, Burnham has made ex-Blairite minister and big-tech lobbyist James Purnell his chief of staff, and is unsure about making Ed Miliband his chancellor in case it upsets business. This suggests he won't be smashing the capitalist system any time soon. However, he may want to bring back some of the things lost from the 1970s after Thatcher turned Britain into a divided bear pit where only the strong and selfish survived.
What the 1970s offered
The 1970s had stronger community values, a dependable NHS, affordable homes for first-time buyers, more council houses, better workers' rights, more decent jobs outside London, and a nation not split between the written-off North and the prosperous South. According to the New Economics Foundation, 1976 was the year when incomes in Britain were at their most equal.
The real reason for fear
The real reason the rich and right-wing hate 1976 is that it represents the peak of income equality. No politician will be able to take Britain back to those levels, but if Burnham succeeds in making ordinary people feel better about their lives, he may stop the advance of populist frauds promising a return to an all-white, all-Christian, crime-free 1950s paradise that never existed.
