Platform shoes, flared jeans, glitter make-up, shocking silver and pink outfits, huge collars, long hair — and economic hell. That was the 1970s.

For all our sakes, I really do hope it doesn’t get that bad this time round — Abba and Slade have a lot to answer for — but a spell of stagflation-lite looks increasingly likely.

Stagflation was the term coined in 1965 by Iain MacLeod, the Tory chancellor, to describe the dread combination of stagnation — when interest rates should be cut to stimulate the economy — and inflation, when the opposite should apply.

The economy is slowing but, thanks mainly to the credit crisis and the soaring prices of oil and food, inflation is rising.

So interest-rate expectations are rising, just when house prices are falling and we are losing our shopping habit. It looks ominous.

The Bank of England says it is only a blip, that commodity prices will stabilise and let interest rates shrink. I am not so sure.

China and India’s expansion are driving inflation because of their insatiable demand for food, oil and raw materials. That demand is not about to abate.

And inflation is habit-forming. The more it seeps into the collective consciousness, the more self-fulfilling it becomes as people stock up at today’s prices and demand bigger wage increases.

But the 1970s X-factor was union militancy. Unions seized on the uncertainty to foment unrest, leading to strikes, violence and power being switched on for only three days a week to save coal. Two indecisive general elections left Britain rudderless.

While we are a long way from that, the latest changes in the economic climate are, as they were 35 years ago, affecting behaviour.

Abbey Mortgages claims that 2m people are moving home as a way of betting on the property market, either by renting in the hope of buying cheaper or by moving upmarket at what they hope will be giveaway prices.

And the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has found that one in six of us is thinking of changing jobs for a shorter commute, to save petrol.

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