Nothing worked reliably due to constant industrial action. We had a low-level civil war due to the IRA, with bombings being almost routine. We felt like we would be the first to go if the cold war went hot, due to the strategic importance of the radar base at RAF Fylingdales and the USAF base at Greenham Common. The decade was underscored by a pervasive fear of total societal collapse.
Interesting to see the three day week being blamed on industrial action. The industrial action was caused by workers losing spending power because of insane oil price inflation shocks. The government used this to cut public sector pay.
The shocks were caused by Arab-led OPEC objecting to US support for Israel in the Yom Kippur war, and the US was just as affected.
For some reason all of this has been written out of mainstream history. Everyone over a certain age remembers the miners, but no one remembers the oil rationing - or if they do, they assume the miners were somehow responsible for that too.
Ever since it's been used to justify wage suppression on the basis that Rising Wages Cause Inflation - which is very much not what happened then, and isn't the main cause of inflation now.
Plus as already mentioned the blackouts. I remember we had a camping gas stove, candles and paraffin heater to get us through those nights, plus hot water bottles (with water from the stove) for going to bed, because the whole house was cold.
I was born in 1966 and have been noting how much the 2020s feel like the 1970s in the UK: pessimism, inflation, industrial action and a feeling of decline.
I did not live through the 70s, and I'm not British, but I have heard people say the same about the US now. That there is a sense of exhaustion comparable to the 1970s.
If I could put on my sociologist hat, I would say it's due to demographics. The 1970s were the "trough of disillusionment" for the baby boomers as their youthful idealism faded, and we're seeing something similar as the similarly large echo boom generation ages.
Literally "Airstrip One"? Today the situation seems better: although the SLBMs are yank and the base is scots, at least the boomers themselves are english.
Also everything was owned by the government as a result of nationalization following WWII to get everyone working again. And while I believe that a certain level of socialism is necessary, having, for instance, every major British car company owned by the State resulted for the most part in some really boring, really shoddy vehicles, generally painted some grim shade of poo brown. (see also, Yugo, Lada, Trabant, etc)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Day_Week
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_Discontent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles#1970s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Fylingdales
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Greenham_Common