What my attic tells me about Britain's development over the past half century

I've been going through cellar and attics over the past few weeks, sorting and chucking out. I thought I'd finished, but I found one last box yesterday, hiding under the Xmas Decs.

Two of the items suggest a certain circularity in our nation's progress. The first (probably courtesy of Private Eye) is from 1974, the second from a year later. 

Things like this and Emily Maitlis's thought-provoking Edinburgh speech last week aren't mood enhancers, to say the least.