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In 1973 the national conference of the National Union of Students (NUS) voted to campaign for gay rights, making NUS the first national organisation in the UK to make such a public commitment. Using archive material, this article outlines how NUS came to this decision, and the initial challenges it faced in taking up this work. It explains that NUS was influenced by early liberation politics, but faced difficulties when this clashed with the belief of some on the Left in the primacy of the class struggle. Nevertheless, some important progress was made in these early years, even if some of the wider societal change was still elusive. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyses the emergence of politically motivated acts of left-wing terrorism in Britain between 1967 and 1972. Through the case of the ‘Angry Brigade’, an ill-defined grouping which claimed responsibility for a number of attacks against property between 1970 and 1971, it analyses how protest and political violence emerged from discourses and events in the British New Left, the anti-war protest movements, the counterculture, and the underground press. Against common interpretations of ’68 as a watershed of naïve hopes that waned into inaction, this article identifies a consistency of political activity that developed beyond traditional party and class politics towards a more internationally aware and diverse network of struggles for civil equality. Among the shared political and cultural commitments of the counterculture, campaigns around squatting, women's liberation, or the necessity of ‘armed propaganda’ each became possible and at times overlapped. It analyses the group's development, actions, communications, as well as surrounding media discourses, subsequent police investigation, and the criminal trials of ten individuals for their involvement in the Angry Brigade. The article reappraises their overlooked historical significance among the wider countercultural militancy and discourses of political violence of the late 1960s to early 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Three decades after the events themselves and with full access to the public record, historians and political scientists are now well placed to revisit and re-evaluate the 'Winter of Discontent'. This article reflects on the first book-length studies of the period published since the opening of the archives. I argue that although neither study profoundly alters our view of this crucial episode and its place in the pre-history of Thatcherism, taken together the evidence they uncover might provide the basis for an alternative assessment. Ultimately, however, such an assessment requires more attention to methodology and, above all, an approach to the archives and to witness testimony that is both more inductive and more deductive than that exhibited in the existing literature. In the process I hope to clarify what we now know and we have still to learn about the winter of 1978-79 and the popular mythology to which it gave rise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on Australia's response to the joint Anglo-American effort to expand military facilities on the island of Diego Garcia in early 1970s. The primary emphasis will be on the Whitlam government's rationale behind its diplomatic manoeuvre towards great power rivalries in the Indian Ocean and its supportive position towards the concept of building the Indian Ocean as a peace zone. It argues that the Whitlam government's policy towards the international diplomacy around Diego Garcia contributed to the shaping of a unique Australian foreign policy, one free from attachment to British and American considerations, although still mindful of the need to factor the interests of the UK and the USA into Australia's calculations of its own best interests. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In Britain in the 1970s inflation rose to historically unprecedented peace-time levels, and became the central issue of economic policy-making. We know a great deal about the elite policy debates on the significance of this inflation, and the arguments about how to reduce it, but we know far less about how inflation was understood by the population at large, and how those understandings were shaped. This article explores the evidence on popular understanding, especially analysing the material gathered by the Counter- Inflation Publicity Unit, created in the summer of 1975. Along with other evidence, this material is used to explore how far the Labour government's economic propaganda can be said to have influenced popular opinion on both the significance and causes of inflation. The evidence supports the argument that the belief that trade unions were the main culprit for inflation was reinforced and entrenched by this propaganda, with important unintended consequences for the arguments about policy that followed the ' Winter of Discontent' of 1978/9. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the British government's reaction to the unionist workers' organisation the Ulster Workers’ Council's (U.W.C.'s) 1974 loyalist general strike in Northern Ireland from 1974 through 1977. The role that that 1973 Sunningdale Agreement, which attempted to establish a power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland and a cross-border statutory body the Council of Ireland, played in the aforementioned strikes is discussed.

This article examines talks that took place between British government officials and loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland at a critical moment in the most recent Troubles. In particular, this article describes talks that took place secretly at the Northern Ireland Office's ‘Laneside’ building, a secluded suburban house used by British diplomats and MI6 officers on the shores of Belfast Lough between 1971 and 1976. Drawing on both recently released archive material as well as interviews with those who worked at and visited Laneside, this article explores what went on at these talks and analyses their outcomes from three different perspectives. This article demonstrates that the most accurate perspective from which to view what occurred in these meetings is neither top-down (government led) nor bottom-up (paramilitary led), but one that looks at what went on there as part of a conversation which both sets of participants for a time found useful. For the loyalists, Laneside had a role as a venue to think about strategy (rather than negotiate ends). For the British these were conversations that were useful in furnishing their understanding of loyalism, and as a place where policies could be explained and problems better understood. Looking at what occurred at Laneside as a semi-autonomous governmental body in Northern Ireland reveals key insights into both the loyalist paramilitaries' political ideas as well as the aims of British policy in Northern Ireland. Furthermore, this middle perspective holds a mirror up to the more familiar talks then occurring between the very same British officials and the Provisional IRA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the political situation in Great Britain after the general election in 1974 during which the Labour Party won the most seats in the House of Commons. Topics mentioned include the unpredictability of the victory of the Labour Party of the Conservative Party, the country's need for a political coalition, and the report of the elections in the British journal "The Times."

A reprint of an article which was published in 1975 is presented. Topics mentioned include the political crisis faced by Great Britain at that time, the referendum which took place in 1975 regarding the country's support to the European Economic Community (EEC), and the evolution of the concept of sovereignty.

The article focuses on the evolution of the periodical throughout the 1970s. Topics mentioned include the possibility to purchases previous issues, the social and political situation of Great Britain at that time, and the future of the Labour Party, a British political party. The author also discusses the social issues faced by the country the ones related to education and housing.

The article discusses the British government under the Labour Party during the mid 1960s. An overview of the Labour Party's history from the early 20th century through the 1960s is provided. The role that the Labour Party politician Harold Wilson plays in regard to the Labour Party's electoral support is discussed. The relationship between the political philosophy of the British Conservative Party and the Labour Party, including in regard to socialism and their philosophy on the role that government should play in the economy, is also discussed.

The article discusses administrative law and parliamentary power in Great Britain as of October 1967. An overview of the relationship between British courts and the British Parliament, including in regard to jurisdictional authority, is provided. The author discusses the prospects for parliamentary reform, including its relationship with legal reform. An overview of the putative need for the creation of a new jurisdiction in Great Britain, including its proposed incorporation of the Council on Tribunals, is also provided.

The article discusses the British Parliament's relationship with the regional governments of Great Britain during the mid 1960s. An overview of the British Parliament's Economic Planning Board's relationship with the Regional Planning Councils, including in regard to the coordination of economic planning and economic development polices between the British and local governments, is provided. Legislative committees of Great Britain's regions, including the Scottish and Welsh Grand Committees, are discussed.

The article discusses civil service sector reform in Great Britain as of April 1967. Particular focus is given to the specialisation of British government administrators. An overview of British government's management, including their putative mobility of employees between governmental departments and the management's relations with the British Ministry of Education, is provided. Topics, including the recruitment policy for government administrators, the field experience of government administrators and government administrators' relationship with departmental planning, are discussed.

The article discusses the relationship between the press and politics in Great Britain as of April 1967. The role that entertainment plays in British newspapers, including in "The Times," "The Daily Telegraph" and "The Guardian," is discussed. The article discusses the sources of information that British journalists rely upon, including the British government's information officers. An overview of the British newspaper industry, including the circulation of newspapers' relationship with consumer demand, is provided.

The article focuses on the political and economic situation of Great Britain in 1977 after Harold Wilson's term as Prime Minister. Topics mentioned include the Labour Party's campaign against the government, the need for the political party to choose between a social democracy and a democratic Socialism, and the values of socialism, including liberty, fraternity, and equality.