The 1970s are always portrayed as Britain’s dark decade. I’m as guilty of slamming the 70s as anybody else - just take a look at my column in today’s FT. The litany of gloom is familiar: strikes, power-cuts, riots, economic decline.

But the funny thing is that I grew up in 1970s Britain and it didn’t seem so bad. Or rather - the things that look terrible now were quite exciting at the time.

Take the "three-day-week" of early 1974. I was at primary school then and hugely enjoyed the drama every time the lights went out - and my parents started fumbling around for candles and matches. Even some adults enjoyed the situation. I recently met a British diplomat who said that he and his Foreign Office colleagues liked the power-cuts, because it meant that it was impossible to do any work - leaving them with no option but to go to the pub. (He did not explain how they drank pints in the dark.)

Even the occasional riots were fun.

I remember walking through Notting Hill Gate in 1976, after riots had broken out at the end of that year’s carnival. Shopkeepers were boarding up their windows, police vans were everywhere, "youths" were hanging around on street corners. It was great - you felt alive. Nowadays Notting Hill has been largely taken over by investment bankers and the biggest source of social tension is over planning permission.

You could even put a positive spin on the rise of the far right. Although the National Front were real nasties, the threat they posed was (in retrospect) much exaggerated. However, "mobilising" against the threat was a great pleasure. It provided the excuse for one of the best open air concerts I’ve ever been to - the "Rock against Racism" concert in Hackney in 1978.

In fact, once you get going, you can get nostalgic about the most peculiar things. I even quite miss football hooliganism. I hasten to add that I was never an active participant - I was far too puny and sensible for that. But the fear that crowd violence could break out at any time, added a frisson of interest to the dullest of games.

I supported Chelsea football club - and still do, after a fashion. But the contrast between the Chelsea of the 1970s and the team of today is startling. Back then, Chelsea were not very good and had famously violent fans, most of whom stood throughout the game in "the Shed". Nowadays, the team are highly successful and the plaything of a Russian billionaire. The fans are still none too savoury. But at least they have to sit down. And they are rich. At £50 or more for a ticket, they have to be.

I recently went to a Chelsea match with my father for the first time since the 1970s. (He lives overseas.) Looking around at the smart, new corporate Chelsea, he summed up the situation: "It’s not just a different ground, it’s a different country."

There is no doubt that Britain in 2007 is - in most respects - a better place than Britain in 1977. Like Chelsea football club it is richer, safer, more successful, more efficient - and much more international. And also a bit duller.

May 8th, 2007 in UK politics | Permalink