I'm Backing Britain

The campaign started spontaneously when five Surbiton secretaries volunteered to work an extra half-hour each day without pay to boost productivity and urged others to do the same.

After a few months without any noticeable effect on individual companies or the economy generally, interest flagged amid much embarrassment about some of the ways in which the campaign had been pursued and supported.

Arising out of devaluation, John Boyd-Carpenter (Conservative Member of Parliament for Kingston-upon-Thames) wrote to The Times in a letter published on 13 December 1967 suggesting, "If a number of people, particularly in responsible positions, would set by an example by sacrificing say the first Saturday of every month and working on that morning without extra pay, profits or overtime, it would give an example to others at home, and show the world that we were in earnest".

[5] On 27 December 1967, Fred Price[6] (Marketing Director of Colt Ventilation and Heating Ltd) sent out a memo headed "General progress report", which assessed the company's economic prospects.

The memo was received by five secretaries working in the company's head office in Surbiton, Valerie White, Joan Southwell, Carol Ann Fry, Christine French and Brenda Mumford.

[6] O'Hea then ordered (from Norprint of Boston, who supplied them free[10]) 100,000 badges featuring a Union Flag with their slogan written across the centre and began writing to 30,000 employers to encourage them.

The Council pointed to the difference between productivity and output and stated that each individual firm must consider what would be appropriate in its circumstances depending on its "agreements between management and working people".

Clive Jenkins, general secretary of the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs, thought it was a "confidence trick" and observed that "when the British ruling class is in trouble it wraps itself in the Union Jack".

[26] The Economist wrote on 6 January that on hearing of the campaign, "the fashionable response in many sophisticated circles was a giggle", but it 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".

[27] A week later, the Economist leader was slightly more wary about the campaign and saw 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".

Written by Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent, and sung by Bruce Forsyth, the chorus included "The feeling is growing, so let's keep it going, the good times are blowing our way".

[34] Postmaster General Edward Short encouraged the Royal Mail to introduce an "I'm Backing Britain" franking mark,[35] which was used on 84 million letters passing through 125 Post Offices between 9 and 29 February.

[37] The campaign found expression in the giving of conscience money to the Exchequer, as noted by The Guardian's Financial Editor William Davis;[38] in the middle of January, it was observed that every postal delivery to the Treasury contained letters offering gifts.

[40][41] The campaign took a knock when the London wholesaler Scott Lester ordered thousands of white T-shirts on which it screen-printed the "I'm Backing Britain" slogan; the shirts had been made in Portugal.

It was commissioned by the Daily Mail and appeared on the newspaper's front page on 5 January;[44] The poem compared Britain's economic plight in 1968 with the Blitz and ended: To work then, islanders, as men and women Members one of another, looking beyond Mean rules and rivalries towards the dream you could Make real, of glory, common wealth, and home.

[47] The society recruited 11 extra full-time staff in January 1968 for the campaign,[48] and appointed Admiral of the Fleet Sir Caspar John as its figurehead.

The Guardian's Financial Editor William Davis had already noted in his column of 10 January that attention was moving away from the idea of providing free labour.

[38] The Industrial Society also stressed that working extra half-hours was "a tiny part" of the national campaign and criticised people who tried to make anti-union propaganda out of the reaction to the case.

The adverts, topped with pictures of the three main party leaders, urged readers to "Act on just six of the uncranky suggestions on this page" and listed those who had supported him.

[55] Critics pointed to the fact that Maxwell's Pergamon Press printed a large number of its textbooks and scientific journals in Eastern European countries.

[59] At an after-dinner speech in Burnley on 8 January, Prime Minister Harold Wilson criticised those who were "complaining that the other fellow is not pulling his weight" including trade unionists who pointed to the failures of individual employers.

[60] Wilson, who later wrote that the campaign "was a helpful and robust response to the gloom and near-defeatism" after devaluation,[34] put Edmund Dell, Under-Secretary at the Department of Economic Affairs, in charge of government assistance.

[63] After the AEU banned the four Colt shop stewards from office, the shop stewards recommended to the workers at the Havant factory on 10 February that they stop working unpaid overtime because of the strife it had brought to the union, but the works director thought that the workers would in fact continue and pointed to the fact that the AEU was not the only union present.

[63] The television series Dad's Army, the opening episode of which was recorded on 15 April 1968, began with a contemporary scene in which Alderman Mainwaring was the chairman of the Walmington-on-Sea "I'm Backing Britain" campaign.

[67] Also in March, the campaign moved from the Industrial Society's headquarters at Bryanston Square to rent-free offices donated by National Cash Register.

New Statesman columnist Philip French thought its "jingoism and intellectual dishonesty" was offensive and felt that the excessive press coverage defied comment "other than the gesture of laughing at" it.

[75][76] The first episode of what was to be the long-running Dad's Army sitcom, shown on 31 July 1968, begins with a pre-title sequence flashforward showing the lead characters at a dinner to launch the Walmington-on-Sea "I'm Backing Britain" campaign event.

At the conclusion of the film Carry On... Up the Khyber, made during the summer and opening in November 1968, the raising of a Union Flag with the "I'm Backing Britain" slogan is greeted by Peter Butterworth turning to camera and saying: "Of course, they're all raving mad, you know!"