This was the 'who governs' election, fought in the midst of a miners strike. Edward Heath appealed for a mandate to adopt a strong policy towards the trade unions, but was denied it. The outcome was the first hung parliament since 1929, and a Labour minority government which went to the country after just seven months. The Liberals gained their best result - 19% of the vote - since the 1920s, but only 14 seats in the Commons. The Scottish nationalists also made striking advances. The February 1974 election inaugurated the era of multi-party politics in Britain.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-general-election-february-1974

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Support the show