‘A Harder Christmas than we have known since the war’ (Tory PM Heath,1973)
Christmas 2020 is one of crisis for many, albeit a crisis engineered mainly by the Tory Government and in particular 44 day Truss
There is a cost of living crisis, an energy crisis and a climate crisis and a Tory Government intent on waging class war against ordinary working people striking to try and maintain some kind of standard of living in the face of 10% inflation
Is it then the worst Christmas ever? Here it must be remembered that the media has very little or no historical memory and it is getting worse. Nearly all journalists including those who are meant to be ‘serious’ are now more interested in clickbait stories of the moment rather than context.
Let’s think back to Christmas 1973, still very much in living memory.
Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody was No.1 in the charts (No.2 was by someone we don’t mention anymore).
Yet there was a huge crisis.
The miners (the UK still relied heavily on coal for power) had begun an overtime ban and Tory Prime Minister Heath had announced a 3 Day working week starting in the New Year. This actually happened. The power went off with little specific warning for lengthy periods and that was that until it came back.
Meanwhile the price of oil had doubled in a matter of weeks.
Tory industry minister and ex-industrialist John Davies told his family, ‘We must enjoy this Christmas for it may be our last one.’
In his diary, Tony Benn noted:
‘Dinner with Wilfred Brown, head of Glacier Metals, who believes we are headed for a slump and food riots and that there must be a National Government… At the Commons I saw John Biffen who told me Enoch Powell is waiting for the call.’
Heath addressed the nation and said ‘we shall have a harder Christmas than we have known since the war,
Let’s hope it is the last Christmas for this particular Tory Government
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