The February 1974 UK General Election

In this episode I discuss the first of two elections held in 1974, which produced the first hung parliament the UK had seen since 1929. Heath called the election during a time of crisis, asking the country to decide 'Who Governs Britain?' and they responded by removing him from Downing Street for the final time. What exactly happened and why? I attempt to answer these questions in this video, which would be ideal revision for an A-Level Politics student or for anyone with an interest in UK politics and history.

[@channdler]

Fantastic series, maybe you can keep it going for a while! Mr Beat has a short video on every election, you go into better and more detail and UK history is much longer. thank you so much for this

[@patrickel94]

Yes! Thank you for continuing this series, your research and efforts are much appreciated :)

[@politicoteacher]

I think going backwards is going to be constrained by the availability of TV footage and my skill as a video editor, but I'm going to at least go back as far as the election of the first Wilson government.

[@leomagnusson5254]

@@politicoteacher There is some in the 1945 election so I think that is probably as far as you can go

[@ineedmoreflavour1955]

A cracking video as always. These are super informative and interesting to look at, even if you have a decent knowledge of the subject.
I would be interested in you making an elections prediction video at some point for the GE that is likely coming later this year.

[@politicoteacher]

I'm in the middle of that now.

[@Flow86767]

Your videos are amazing to someone not from the UK and wanting to learn more about the political history of the United Kingdom. Thanks!

[@199019852007]

Brilliant loved the video always good to see what things were like before I was born . I see PR was an issue even back then

[@christopherbentley7289]

I'm so glad that I've just happened to have stumbled across this video as the General Election of February 1974 was the first of my life with my age measured in double digits, so it's the first one I can really clearly recall, although much of the details covered in this video must have passed clean over my head at the time. That's an interesting parallel with 2010 and makes one wonder how differently British history might have panned out had those coalition negotiations been successful. It might even have made my own teenage years rather different, as I put my sympathies at that time with the Far Right down, in large part, to the trauma of going through two General Elections in one year, even thinking that a dictatorship might be preferable to this national chaos. I confess that I carry a long shadow of guilt from a set-to I had in that era with my Godmother's husband who was a survivor of Auschwitz, where I was desperately arguing that Adolf Hitler was right, although I at least never, ever considered the Holocaust as anything other than actual historical fact. That's what General Elections can do, at times.
The ultimate irony of all this is that I became a huge fan of the female Pop music of the satellite nations of the former Soviet Bloc around the middle of the 2010s, to the extent that I just had to start blogging about it at 'Girls Of The Golden East', that aforementioned irony being (a) that I've been tremendously impressed with the 'Blackness' of the artists' voices, showing that I've probably never really been much of a racist and (b) the Valérie Čižmárová for whom I run the Fan Blog, 'Hotlips On The Horse Tram' and who commenced recording the one and only studio album of her recording career in February 1974, is buried at the Nový židovský hřbitov (New Jewish Cemetery) in Prague, that I visited in January 2017. Indeed yesterday (18th April 2024) was the twentieth anniversary of the passing of her mother, who had become Jewish by marriage, such that those individuals with Catholic backgrounds were buried in a Jewish grave on the basis that it was Valérie's desire to be buried with her mother, so that occasion was marked with a post at 'Hotlips On The Horse Tram', the 18th April also being the 'Name Day' of Valerie and variants thereof.

[@politicoteacher]

Thank you for engaging with the video. It's interesting to hear your back story.

[@christopherbentley7289]

@@politicoteacher You're welcome. I once read an article on 1973 possibly being the most important year in the history of the UK in view of the long-term socio-economic effects it had. Considering these two General Elections in one year 1974 at least runs 1973 a very close second.

[@SpitfireMLG]

These are great. How far do you intend to go back?

[@politicoteacher]

I'm definitely going to go back a bit further, but archive footage is becoming an issue.

[@SpitfireMLG]

@@politicoteacher I can imagine. Might be worth adding some still shots like a slide show of photos if footage is scarce. Also, maybe generic footage of the country if nothing politically related is available. For example, 1974 election, just some B roll footage of Britain around that time.
Would love some episodes on the early 20th century! Interested in the Khaki election and the elections where the Liberal party is slowly replaced by Labour. Just my humble request!

[@neilmurray7330]

In the video you say that the SNP got their first MP in the 1970 GE but they actually gained their first MP in a by election in 1945 in Motherwell but they lost the seat to Labour in the subsequent general election two months later. There was also the Hamilton by election in 1967 won by Winnie Ewing but again she lost the seat to Labour in 1970.

[@politicoteacher]

Thanks. I was only looking at general election wins when I said that. I welcome the correction.

[@neilmurray7330]

@@politicoteacher No problem. At the time of the Feb election they actually had two MPs having won the Glasgow Govan by election in 1973 but again they lost that seat at the GE. I’ve only discovered your channel today and look forward to watching more of your videos, keep up the good work.

[@DonPedroTheDude]

1945 here we come!

[@HenryMyth]

Are you going to do the October election as well?

[@politicoteacher]

I don't actually know. There is far less written about October, so it's more of a challenge.

[@MJJR321]

Please can you go back to the 1708 election 😂

[@guillemedina7908]

FIRST!
Reminds me of the two elections Israelis had in 2019, one in April and the other in September. This is one of the most visible problems of the parliamentary system.

[@ThomasBoyd-tx1yt]

First. Awesome thanks. That first general election in England London Britain Thomas. Yes Britain had everything Mixed economy unemployment 400000 that under Ted Heath conservative government. You vote Labour party England UK general election October Thursday 10th 2024. Pietro Boselli Italian vote Labour party he got British passport.

[@FelixCooper-hy5sk]

if only labour had won in 1983

[@politicoteacher]

I've made a video about it explaining why they didn't. Steve Richards and I agree that it was largely a product of the SDP breakaway, which fractured the left & allowed Thatcher to win with a smaller % of the vote vs 1979.

[@kingstannisbaratheon7974]

@@politicoteacher Definitely, Labour was in turmoil well into the mid 80s. Contrary to what most people say I think Labour stopping thatcher early on would have saved Britain a lot of the long term economic problems that have come home to roost over the last 30 years. The deregulations and mass privatisation were good in the short term but between rail, water, housing etc it’s easy to see how badly it’s left the country in the long term.