All change for the region and UK 40 years ago
Writer REMEMBER 1979? It was a year which would prove to be a watershed for life in Britain and the North East.
The election of Margaret Thatcher as Tory Prime Minister on May 3 that year would bring about a radical change in political and economic thinking that would have a direct impact on our region.
The last year of the 1970s, and those that followed, saw a quickening in the decline of the region’s traditional heavy industries, coal, shipbuilding and heavy engineering.
Where in previous times there had been support from the state for ailing industries, a change of economic philosophy would mean this was no longer the case.
The Conservatives had swept to power in the wake of widespread public sector strikes that brought chaos to the country in the early part of the year.
“Crisis, what crisis?” declared Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan. The country gave its answer in May’s shock election result.
Elsewhere, the IRA were in the headlines. In March, Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Airey Neave was blown up in his car as he drove out of the Palace of Westminster. And, in August, Lord Louis Mountbatten was killed holidaying in Ireland.
Twenty-four hours later, a massive explosion killed eighteen soldiers at the British Army’s Warrenpoint barracks.
In less harrowing news, Trevor Francis became the world’s first £1m footballer, signing for Nottingham Forest and paving the way for an explosion in transfer fees in the following years.
At the cinema, new releases included Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Alien, and Monty Python’s The Life Of Brian.
In the pop charts, The Police – featuring Wallsend lad, Sting – Blondie and Gloria Gaynor were some of the big sellers, while Last Of The Summer Wine, M*A*S*H and Little House on the Prairie were popular on TV.
In world news, 1979 saw 69 Americans taken hostage in Iran; the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania; the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan; and Saddam Hussein becoming president of Iraq.
Closer to home, Newcastle United, not for the first or last time, were in the doldrums. Relegated a year earlier, they now found themselves marooned in the oblivion of football’s Second Division where they’d remain for another five years.
Enjoy our selection of Sunday Sun archive photographs taken around our region 40 years ago.