From Cooperation to Confrontation? Trade Unionism, British Politics and the Media, 1945-1979 By Lucy Bell A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Sheffield Faculty of Arts and Humanities Department of History February 2018 Some images have been redacted from this electronic copy due to copyright restrictions Acknowledgements Many thanks to Professor Adrian Bingham, who has guided this project with supreme patience and professionalism. He has answered all manner of vague emails and tangential questions with honesty and his feedback has always been thorough and clear. Thanks also to my secondary supervisor, Dr Sarah Miller-Davenport, for providing her thoughts and reflections during the final phases of writing. I am indebted to the number of friends and colleagues at the University of Sheffield who have provided me with ideas and suggestions. Thanks to my parents, Judith and Stuart, for their constant support and my brother Matt, particularly for his comprehensive knowledge of word processing tricks. The treasured friendship of Alex, Fiona and Lizzy has provided much needed laughter and encouragement. Most of all, thanks to my husband Tom, without whom I would not have started this project, let alone finished it. He has supplied me with love, conversation and coffee – three ingredients which were absolutely essential during the grey winter months of writing up. This work was supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (grant number AH/L503848/1) through the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities. For my grandparents 2 Abstract Despite the media’s significant influence on British society’s transformation between 1945 and 1979, relatively little is understood about their effect on the mythologised decline of trade unionism. In response, this research forms the first comprehensive study of the media’s role in the battle for public support between government and trade unions. Facilitated by the recent digitisation of newspaper sources and television reports, this research assesses media content from across the political spectrum, including five national dailies. It explores coverage of particular moments in the political relationship between the government and unions, as well as wider structural concerns in economic discourse. Beyond content, this thesis assesses the personal and political motivations behind production, utilising memoirs from prominent editors and journalists, as well as evidence from the BBC and TUC archives. It reflects on the way changes to the media landscape, including the waning influence of left-wing media and the rise of right-wing tabloids, shaped and restricted the dominant frames of explanation for Britain’s supposed decline. The influence of the media on public attitudes is assessed through extensive exploration of Gallup polls and political surveys, enriching our understanding of trade unionism’s engagement with wider social change. Through these processes, the research seeks to scrutinise the validity of common simplistic assumptions about the media’s attitudes towards the labour movement. Rather than a story of inevitability and relentless hostility – an impression which is difficult to reconcile with union’s rising membership during the period – coverage of industrial relations was fraught with inconsistencies and contradictions which at times favoured the union cause. Ultimately, this thesis seeks to illuminate the cumulative power of industrial relations coverage over several decades, which was fundamental to the political battles of the 1980s. 3 Table of contents Introduction 6 Chapter One – Political trade unionism and Cold War binaries 32 Chapter Two – Affluence, Anxiety and ‘the Robot Age’ 63 Chapter Three – Cracks in Labour’s ‘jerry-built façade of unity’ 92 Chapter Four – Declinism, Morality and ProductiVity 119 Chapter FiVe – Public disillusionment and the Manufactured Crisis 150 Chapter Six – Britain’s ‘bureaucratic Imposition’ and new economic priorities 182 Conclusions 211 Bibliography 219 4 Table of Figures Figure 0.1: National Circulation Figures (1947-1985) ............................................................. 11 Figure 0.2: Editorial Mentions of Strikes in British Newspapers (1945-1979) ........................ 15 Figure 0.3: Article Mentions of Strikes in British Newspapers (1945-1979) ........................... 16 Figure 0.4: Gallup Poll Approval Ratings (1954-1979) ............................................................ 20 Figure 1.1: ‘Union Wage Demands’, Daily Express, 28 May 1956, p. 6. ................................. 44 Figure 1.2: ‘The Politician of the Year’, Daily Mirror, 19 December 1956, p. 9. ..................... 48 Figure 1.3: ‘The Reds in Britain’, Daily Express, 21 May 1955, p. 6. ....................................... 51 Figure 2.1: Mentions of ‘Automation’ in British Dailies ......................................................... 72 Figure 2.2: Mentions of ‘Redundancy’ in British Dailies ......................................................... 77 Figure 2.3: ‘Why be frightened of a little word?’, Daily Express, 16 May 1956, p. 6. ............. 80 Figure 2.4: ‘Political Planning or Chaos?’, Daily Mirror, 1 July 1955, pp. 10-11. .................... 85 Figure 2.5: ‘Vicky Cartoon’, Daily Mirror, 14 May 1956, p. 3. ................................................ 89 Figure 3.1: ‘A fight to the finish’, Daily Mail, 14 May 1956, p. 1. ........................................... 96 Figure 3.2: ‘Bloody Good Sense!’, Daily Mirror, 18 January 1969, p. 1. ............................... 108 Figure 3.3: ‘Surrender ’69’, Daily Express, 19 June 1969, p. 1. ............................................. 114 Figure 4.1: Productivity articles (1960-69) ........................................................................... 121 Figure 4.2: ‘Government’ in productivity articles (1960-69) ................................................ 121 Figure 4.3: ‘Union’ in productivity articles (1960-69) ........................................................... 122 Figure 4.4: Comparison of frames of explanation in the Guardian (1960-69) ..................... 123 Figure 4.5: Comparison of frames of explanation in the Times (1960-69) ........................... 123 Figure 4.6: Comparison of frames of explanation in the Daily Mail (1960-69) .................... 124 Figure 4.7: ‘Exposing the Fifth Column’, Daily Mirror, 26 April 1965, p. 1. .......................... 127 Figure 4.8: Total references to ‘Unofficial strikes’ in British dailies (1960-69) ..................... 142 Figure 4.9: ‘This bloody mess’, Daily Mirror, 30 September 1968, pp. 16-17. ..................... 143 Figure 4.10: Total references to ‘Wildcat’ industrial action in British dailies (1958-71) ...... 144 Figure 5.1: ‘U-Turn’ articles in national dailies (1945-77) .................................................... 156 Figure 5.2: ‘For all our tomorrows’, Daily Mirror, 28 February 1974, p. 1. .......................... 159 Figure 5.3: ‘British Illness’ and ‘British Disease’ in British Dailies (1960-80) ........................ 162 Figure 5.4: ‘Nothing up his sleeve!’, Daily Express, 19 January 1979, p. 1. .......................... 171 Figure 5.5: ‘The Sick Men at the Gate’, Daily Mail, 7 December 1978, p. 1. ........................ 176 Figure 6.1: British Economic Optimism ................................................................................ 183 Figure 6.2: Government problems according to Gallup polling (1970-79) ........................... 185 Figure 6.3: Perceptions of the cost of living problem and the Retail Price Index (1970-79) 185 Figure 6.4: Perceptions of the cost of living problem and press coverage of inflation ........ 186 Figure 6.5: ‘Can our cars ever catch up?’, Daily Express, 1 October 1977, p. 10. ................. 190 Figure 6.6: ‘Jim Reads the Riot Act’ (The British in Looneyland), Sun, 2 March 1977, p. 2. 194 Figure 6.7: ‘Surrender!’, Sun, 10 October 1978, p. 1. ........................................................... 200 5 Introduction One dominant assumption underpins historical understanding of industrial relations coverage during the twentieth century: consistent and unremitting media hostility towards unions. Jean Seaton, for example, has argued that ‘union-bashing’ is a ‘convention of the British media’ that has been accepted ‘fatalistically’ by the unions.1 Several overviews of industrial relations, such as those provided by Richard Hyman, have typified the press’s response to industrial unrest as one which held workers and trade unions ‘exclusively responsible’ for disagreement.2 Sociologists Peter Beharrell and Greg Philo argued in 1977 that, in cases of serious crisis or conflict, trade unions have been the media’s ‘favourite scapegoats’.3 If such conclusions were based on the two extremes of twentieth-century industrial relations, the 1926 General Strike and the 1985 miners’ strike, in which the press and television media played a significant role in discrediting the efforts of the labour movement, this would appear to be an entirely reasonable line of argument. Colin Hay’s extensive assessment of media coverage during 1979’s Winter of Discontent also reinforces these perceptions, as coverage of the winter’s public sector strikes were found to be decisive in buttressing Margaret Thatcher’s case against the unions.4 However, little is understood of the coverage between 1926 and the crisis of the late 1970s Labour government, and such an exclusively negative