Was 1976 the best year of your life?

Actually, this might explain something I've thought about quite alot, though not very seriously, as will no doubt become abundantly clear.

In the demonology since the realignment of British politics, the seventies are synonymous with all that was shite with the old world order. In what is laughably known as the political spectrum these days, it is axiomatic that things are so much better now than they were in the days when we went cap in hand to the IMF.

Unlike many who pontificate on such matters, I was around in 1976 as - at 18 years old - an almost fully functioning human being, and funnily enough I enjoyed life. Jobs were relatively easy to come by and the famed inefficiency of British Industry mean that the workplace was a pretty cool place to be. You hung out, chilled, did a bit of work now and then and got paid for the privilege .

Many of the things that exercise us these days were much less common then. Time poverty, widespread depression and stress related illnesses were concepts yet to trouble us unduly. The gap between rich and poor was less and the underclass hardly existed.

Summers were better, too.