ABSTRACT

By selecting some of the basic indicators 1973 could, in retrospect, be regarded as a good year for Edward Heath’s Conservative government and for the people of this country. It was a time of virtually full employment, the seasonally adjusted unemployment figure (GB) for December 1973 being 2.1 per cent of the insured population, round about half a million. The gross domestic product in 1973 increased by 7.4 per cent, the highest increase for any year since recovery from World War II, the product of a deliberately expansionist budget in the spring of 1972 and of certain supporting measures that came later. The balance of payments on current account was only modestly in the red at minus £1113 million and the Retail Price Index, in spite of growing pressure on resources, remained in single figures (9.2 per cent). Perhaps the biggest governmental sigh of relief was over the fall in the number of days lost in strikes. In 1972 there had been the loss of 23 909 000 man days, an enormous figure, but in 1973, while the number of strikes – 2873 – was not much changed, the number of days lost was down to 7 197 000.