Mirroring England, mirroring decline, 1976–1978

This chapter locates Milton Keynes’ media representations during 1976 to 1978 within the context of the IMF crisis and the escalating sense of a crisis of state in the lead-up to the Winter of Discontent. The escalation of a narrative of political crisis and the perception of the postwar state settlement as being under terminal threat during this period drastically shaped attitudes to the forms and legacies of that state, including postwar urban planned spaces, which were increasingly seen as both symbolic of state failure and as having potentially contributed to it. In this context, MKDC presented a strictly “factual” campaign attempting to educate wider audiences about the town, its forms, and its plans for the future; while this had some success in terms of attracting residents and investment, it did not account for the broader antipathy to the idea of planning which was increasingly shaping broader media narratives about the town.