Coups and Coalitions: The Two Elections of 1974

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May's general election is the most open in decades. In Archive on 4, Steve Richards goes back to 1974, to explore the last time Britain faced such political flux, and its lessons for today. 1974 saw two elections in eight months. The first was so indecisive it produced a minority government. Like today, politics was going through a long, painful change. Neither major party had a commanding leader or a dominant political argument. And then all this was brought to a head by the worst economic crisis since the War. Steve talks to veterans about what followed, as many feared democracy itself hung in the balance. Conservative MP-to-be Douglas Hurd was at Prime Minister Edward Heath's side as his struggling Government was driven to call an early election, only to lose power. His party colleague, Norman Tebbit, already an MP, was biding his time before declaring his contempt for what he saw as Heath's discredited compromises. Dennis Skinner was a junior Labour MP, close to the miners' union - in sharp contrast to his party colleague, Shirley Williams. In 1974, she became Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection - to spearhead the minority government's push against inflation. Meanwhile, as today, smaller parties were on the rise. David Steel had to race back to London to make sure his leader, Jeremy Thorpe, didn't take the Liberals into coalition with the Tories. And Gordon Wilson was one of several new SNP MPs who arrived at Westminster - feeling, he tells Steve, like commandoes in hostile territory. They explore the lessons of all this for today, as Britain faces a return, for the first time since 1974, to an era of deep electoral uncertainty. PRODUCER: PHIL TINLINE.