Queen Elizabeth II For Dummies by Stewart Ross

Author:Stewart Ross [Ross, Stewart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781119850366
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2022-03-21T00:00:00+00:00

Finding reasons to be cheerful

It would be wrong to paint the 1970s as a decade of unalloyed conflict and gloom. Despite many signs to the contrary, living standards continued to rise. Far more people owned cars and an array of household gadgets in 1980 than 1970.

Undaunted by the heel-dragging of Ted Heath, the women’s movement continued to chip away at male prejudice and condescension. In 1975, a Sex Discrimination Act came into force, offering the prospect of equality for women in the workplace. Interestingly, however, males still took precedence in lines of hereditary succession, including the Crown.

A powerful signal of the way things were going came when the Conservative Party, a bastion of tradition, elected Margaret Thatcher as its leader in 1975. From that moment onwards, the country faced the unprecedented possibility of two women at the top: one as Head of State and another as prime minister (see Chapter 18).

In the early 1970s, the Queen’s place at the centre of the royal stage was temporarily taken by her daughter Anne. She had sloughed off her stroppy teenager phase and become something of a royal hero. First came her success as an Olympic horsewoman (see Chapter 14), then her glamorous wedding to Captain Mark Phillips in November 1973. For a short time, the deprivations and blackouts were forgotten. Out came the glass coach (see Chapter 10) and the crowds. The worldwide TV audience was larger than ever and, after the obligatory balcony appearance, the royal couple sailed away on the Britannia (see Chapter 10) for a honeymoon that took them to the other side of the world.

Not long after her return, Anne was brought down to earth (not that she was ever prone to flights of fancy) by a kidnap attack (see the sidebar, “Not bloody likely!”). She coped as she did her challenges in the saddle, with jaw-dropping sangfroid.

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