On December 31, 1979, Louis Heren of The Times summed up the dying decade on a glum note: "The seventies will probably be remembered as the decade when the decline of Britain, at home and abroad, accelerated at an alarming speed."

Skimming elegantly through ten years' worth of strikes, inflation, power cuts, class conflict and general economic misery, he left his readers with this happy New Year message:

"The decade passed leaving behind two more unanswered questions. Were the majority prepared to accept a lowering of living standards, growing unemployment and other painful adjustments, and would Mrs Thatcher's policies, which called for these painful remedies, reverse the nation's decline? I, for one, am unwilling to hazard a guess."

The mood he was in at the time, he'd probably have been wrong. But who'd be prepared to guess today, with the Seventies apparently so determined to come back and haunt us again?

1. Failing economy

It may be bad now, but at least we don’t have to listen to the Bay City Rollers, says our Business Editor. And thank heavens we can still afford trousers that come all the way down to our shoes.

Now:
Ominous echoes of the 1970s

Then:
A remedy for the new stagflation

2. Strikes

The other English vice, apparently. We were cured of it by the firm hand of Margaret Thatcher. Who’s going to do it this time?

Now:
Get ready for a summer of strikes

Then:
Strikes: are we really as bad as we think?

3. Sky high oil prices

The global economy is in a tough spot, caught between sharply slowing demand in many advanced economies and rising inflation everywhere (IMF, 2008)

Western nations have become far more sensitive in the past few years to the idea that they should sacrifice goals such as growth in an effort to hold down prices (The Times, 1976)

Now:
Record oil prices top next week's G8 agenda

Then:
Oil prices: how-big an increase can the West take?

4. Labour Government on its uppers

In those days you just went on having votes of no confidence until you won.

Now:
Gordon Brown wins this skirmish but he is still fighting for his political life

Then:
Tories table motion of no confidence iin the Government

5. Abba

“When I told a colleague that I was going to write an article about Abba, he said ‘Who!?’” Yes, and what exactly is a Beatle.

Now:
Mamma Mia! Björn to run (and run, and run, and run...)

Then:
How Abba got into the money, money, money

6. Delia Smith

Amazing how hot under the collar everyone got about Delia’s reprise of How to Cheat. She could do no wrong in the Seventies among those of us who didn’t hang out in thyme-scented villas in Provence.

Now:
Delia Smith changes the way we eat in new book

Then:
The Delia Smith Collection

7. Mateus Rose

Well a bottle of the pink fizz was very nice with Menu B at the Chinese on a Saturday night; I won’t hear a word against it, although I’m not sure I’ll be rushing back to sample it now it’s fashionable again.

Now:
Rather than lager, try the rosé, madam

Then:
A rose by any other name would sell less quickly

8. Maxi-skirts

Get down and get dowdy. As skirts plunge to trip-over-and-fall-flat-on-your-face level again, let’s revisit that old theory about hemlines and economic hard times.

Now:
The return of the maxi dress

Then:
Economically, the long and short of it

9. Martin Scorsese

Hurray. Shine a Light, Scorsese’s homage to the Rolling Stones, is the perfect excuse, as if we needed one, to dust off our video of his monumental Last Waltz – the Band’s last concert with an immortal guest line-up. The greatest rock film ever.

Now:
Martin Scorsese and Rolling Stones on the making of Shine a Light

Then:
Thanks for the memory: Scorsese's elegy for rock

10. Dalek toys

Yes, I know, they’re never really out of style. The new ones probably use more batteries. For fools of all ages.

Now:
Top Christmas toys 2008: stylophones and other old favourites parents loved

Then:
Shop early for Christmas 1974