State of Emergency/Dominic Sandbrook

This is an account of the years of Edward Heath as Prime Minister (1970-74).

It was a tawdry time of rock bottom industrial relations, high inflation, the ill-advised Barber “boom”, soccer hooliganism and extreme violence within the Province (“The Troubles”) and IRA outrages on the mainland.

Heath, a yachtsman, was at the helm of HMS England but unable to steer the ship through these troubled waters.

In an unresolved General Election in February 1974 the Tories were unable to form a government with the resurgent Liberals under Jeremy Thorpe but Harold Wilson could and did.

Dominic Sandbrook is generous to Heath.

He argues that his grammar school conservatism precursed Margaret Thatcher (he certainly cursed her) and that he was unlucky as he could not have predicted the inflation caused by rising oil prices by Opec. He also had an undiagnosed thyroid condition.

Nonetheless he was stubborn and rude.

Had he not been so inflexible in adhering to Stage 3 of his Incomes Policy a deal might have been done with Joe Gormley and his NUM and the infamous “3 day week” avoided.

Further the power sharing agreement in Ireland reached at Sunningdale was quite similar to that of Tony Blair a few years later.

Heath did succeed in negotiating Britain’s entry to the EU but this was castigated by the most celebrated politician of the era – Enoch Powell.

The main problem with this book, aside from its length, is that Sandbrook – born in 1974 – was not around.

His sources are diaries (those of Jim Lees-Milne and Kenneth Williams), articles and even popular TV shows like Doctor Who and Till Death Us Do Part.

My late father was arguably a more accurate observer. He felt that Heath, as a bachelor, never was accustomed to concede.

My conclusion after finishing this book was that it’s glib to say the wishy-washy Labour collation of 1974-9 ushered in the forthright Mrs Thatcher but the seeds of unrest were already apparent in 1970-74.