Talk:Three-Day Week

Memories
From personal memory, there was also a rolling programme of power cuts and Television services were suspended after 9:30pm.

I was only 15, so do not remember clearly if this was part of the Three Day Week period or at another time close to it. Can anyone confirm this and provide more precise info for a page edit? -- —Preceding unsigned comment added by Burgh House (talk • contribs) 12:26, 2006 November 17


 * Definately, I remember maps being published in newspapers indicating which areas would get power cuts on which days (I was 19). If somebody could find a copy of these, it would make a great picture for this article. This article needs lots more content. I remember factories working either Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday or Thursday-Friday-Saturday depending on the power-cut rota. The phrase "Three-Day Week" is still thrown around, but most people are now too young to remember it and it is slowly getting forgotten. TiffaF 09:20, 13 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I was thinking the same thing. This article needs more about the mpact on daily like in Britain. (What did schools do - I was at school at the time, but don't remember. -- Beardo (talk) 12:06, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

I just left school and started work in a small engineering company around this time. On the days we were not supposed to work, we blacked out windows and worked away quietly in the backroom. There were also long queues at petrol pumps with fights often starting. I also remember the maps and times published for power cuts. Even though we knew the time of a power cut, it was still very demoralising to be left in the dark with no TV. 195.171.114.12 (talk) 11:53, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

I worked in a pub collecting glasses and remember the pub being open through the power cuts, lit by candles and no music, just chat. We could only sell bottled drinks as none of the pumps would work (we had no hand pulled) and luckily tills were manually operated. These days pubs would have to shut due to electronic tills not working. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.56.70.160 (talk) 12:46, 24 October 2014 (UTC) This from the Guardian confirms the rolling power cuts effect https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1972/feb/16/fromthearchive — Preceding unsigned comment added by 148.64.8.114 (talk) 09:47, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

Greater efficency
I have heard, but I don't have any proof at all, that productivity actually went up during the 3 day week as everyone was no doubt working as hard as they could when they were there. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 124.254.77.5 (talk) 12:27, 19 December 2006 (UTC).


 * Yes, I was taught this at school as well by an older teacher who remembered the events very well. I have no citation for this, and I wasn't alive at the time, but it would be very interesting if someone could find more about this. Parkinson's Law about work filling the time available might well apply here, it could be that we spread work out the more time we're given to do it, instead of just getting more done. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 212.146.47.250 (talk) 01:24, 3 April 2007 (UTC).

Life on Mars
Power cuts are mentioned regularly during the BBC series set in 1973. -- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.254.77.5 (talk • contribs) 12:28, 2006 December 19

The Life On Mars website states millions of people getting fired as a result of the 3-day week. 62.219.112.249 (talk) 13:43, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Essential services
I'd love to know how restaurants can be classified as "essential services" LOL Thats ridiculous. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.198.33.252 (talk) 13:29, 12 November 2008 (UTC)


 * And how were people with electric cookers meant to get a hot meal in January and February during power cuts if the restaurants are also closed? MidlandLinda (talk) 21:14, 6 December 2011 (UTC)
 * I was about 7 then, and remember my mum cooking on a camping stove, and toasting bread on the open coal fire. We used candles and hotwater bottles. Looking back, it must have been desperate (far north of Scotland), but as a child, it seemed like a bit of an adventure. 2A00:23C7:6F89:BF01:4CBD:EF21:6CAE:A8B2 (talk) 22:47, 20 March 2023 (UTC)

Oil crisis
Although it is only mentioned as an aside, the Mid-East Oil Crisis of 1973 was a much more potent cause of the 3-day week than any action by coal-miners, which followed on. The miners were placed under increasing pressure to produce more and more coal with scant regard to their pay and conditions. I speak only from memory - I was 30 at the time. Fairlightseven 01.09.09  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.9.144.100 (talk) 12:21, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Wrong dates?
BBC says Heath began 3-day week on 9 Feb 1972 http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/16/newsid_2757000/2757099.stm

This link suggests there was a 9.30pm TV closedown (due to power rationing) in September 1972 http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9c0019949ef94d40b3fbbc7cb9215efd — Preceding unsigned comment added by Enospagans (talk • contribs) 11:16, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

The article states that "the early television closedowns would continue until Friday 22 February, with the usual closedown hours reinstated on Saturday 23 February 1974", citing BBC Genome (the Radio Times archive).

I'm told that the actual date that regular hours were restored was Friday 8 February, but that it took the Radio and TV Times a couple of weeks to catch up because of their copy deadlines. This would make sense given that Heath called the election on 7 February, and it would have been very difficult for the TV news programmes to cover the campaign under the restrictions. (ITV's News at Ten in particular had been subject to a strict 10.30pm or even 10.20pm cutoff.) GDBarry (talk) 06:51, 7 August 2017 (UTC)

Was Heath a time traveller?
Re. 'Background' I'm not sure how events in 1974 and 1975 can be background to events in 1973. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:C7F:4C69:FB00:E946:AE0:DFA2:CBEB (talk) 12:01, 26 August 2018 (UTC)

Categories
I have added this to Category:1974 labor disputes and strikes as the miners' strike was central to the issues, so it seems logical that this article should be in the category. Dunarc (talk) 22:58, 9 April 2021 (UTC)