Press Comment
Popular newspapers backed the campaign enthusiastically and praised the workers behind it. As early as 30 December 1967, the Daily Express ran the headline "Five Girls Britain Can be Proud of" over a picture of the five originators with Fred Price. The Daily Mirror welcomed the spread of the campaign as its lead story on 3 January, and despite its traditional Labour and trade union sympathies it supported the Colt shop stewards against the union leadership. A Mirror editorial on 5 January declared that "the patriotic truth about these rule-book dominated trade union sourpusses is that they are incapable of recognising true patriotism when they see it".
The Economist wrote on 6 January that, on hearing of the campaign, "the fashionable response in many sophisticated circles was a giggle", but that had transformed into "something louder than a grunt of admiration". The newspaper concluded that the campaign "may very well have accomplished, in the past week, the extraordinary feat of edging a national mood just an odd half-degree in the right direction." Likewise, the Financial Times regarded it as "a beacon of light in an otherwise dismal economic and industrial prospect", but encouraged the diversion of the campaign into opposing absenteeism and restrictive practices as well as encouraging individuals "to identify their efforts with the success or failure of the country as a whole".
A week later, the Economist leader was slightly more wary about the campaign, seeing it as a symptom of widespread disenchantment with politics and thinking Britain lucky that "there is no demagogue of sufficient ability around to exploit it". The New Statesman admitted that "in strictly economic terms" the campaign to work extra hours made sense, but pointed to some of the oddities of the campaign, including the Birmingham betting-shop which had opened early as a contribution to the production drive, and the Portsmouth workers who, having agreed to work extra hours, demanded to leave early so they could see a television programme about the scheme.
Read more about this topic: I'm Backing Britain
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