It was a year of growing public and political uncertainty over joining the European Community. Health and education funding were under the political spotlight and a general election was looming.
For 1970 Britain, as the Cabinet Papers published yesterday reveal, many of the issues troubling politicians bear remarkable similarity to those that prevail today.
In the spring of 1970, Harold Wilson's Labour government was well ahead in the polls and expected to win the election. But confounding the pundits, Edward Heath's Conservatives swept the Labour administration from power and set about bringing Britain into Europe.
The papers, released under the 30-year rule, reveal that the Conservatives feared a public and economic backlash against membership of the Common Market because they knew joining it could lead to monetary and even political union. A Foreign Office document from November 9th, just five months after winning the election, gives detail to the cabinet debate.
"The plan for economic and monetary union has revolutionary long-term implications, both economic and political," the document states. "It could imply the creation of a European federal state with a single currency . . . It will arouse strong feelings about sovereignty."
The Conservatives took Britain into the Common Market in 1973, but Heath has always denied he misled the public about the extent of European integration. He told the London Times yesterday: "I said our purpose was to join a community that was going to be full."
In May 1970, the England football team went to Bogota to prepare their defence of the World Cup championship. The England captain, Bobby Moore, and Bobby Charlton visited a shop in their hotel and a few hours later Moore was accused of stealing a bracelet. He only avoided trial in Colombia after the head of the country's secret police, Gen Leyva, visited a judge warning him that continuing the action against Moore would be "highly counterproductive" to the national interest.
The papers also provide evidence that the former Tory minister, Jonathan Aitken, lied when he was facing charges under the Official Secrets Act. Aitken was a journalist in 1969 when he was given an official report disclosing Britain's role in supporting the Nigerian government in a civil war. He was acquitted over publication of the report, but the papers show that while he insisted he had never made copies of the file, he had made six copies and tried to sell one for u £500.
The hijacking of five aircraft by the Palestinian guerrilla group, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), put relations with the US under strain in 1970. The papers show that in September that year, Heath told his cabinet he had "acquiesced" in a US proposal to offer the release of the PFLP terrorist, Leila Khaled, and other members of the group held in Switzerland and Germany in return for the 56 US and European hostages.
But the papers reveal the decision to trade Khaled for the hostages, which was criticised by the Tory right, came after Britain, Germany and the Swiss had threatened to negotiate a separate deal with the terrorists.
As Jordan faced civil war and Israel refused to release its Palestinian prisoners, diplomatic relations between Britain and the US faltered. A telephone conversation between Sir Denis Greenhill, permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, and Joe Sisco, US assistant secretary of state, revealed Britain, Germany and Switzerland were unhappy that the US was not putting more pressure on Israel to release the Palestinians.
Greenhill told Sisco a deal with the terrorists was possible, leaving the US "unprovided for". But Sisco replied: "I think your government would want to weigh very, very carefully the kind of outcry that would occur in this country against your taking this kind of action."
In May 1970, the then Labour government wanted to prosecute Peter Hain, the current Labour foreign office minister, over his involvement with the Stop the '70 Tour campaign.
The young anti-apartheid demonstrator was leading a protest to prevent a tour of the UK by a whites-only cricket team from South Africa. He wrote to the home secretary, James Callaghan, seeking assurances that the police would not adopt discriminatory methods when dealing with demonstrators pro testing against the tour. But Callaghan told the cabinet that assurances were not necessary and Hain had laid himself open to "prosecution for conspiracy . . . even before such plans `to disrupt cricket matches' had actually been put into practice". Under increasing pressure, Callaghan asked the MCC, cricket's governing body, to stop the tour and the cricketers remained in South Africa.