七十年代前的香港，“杨慕琦计划”的失败、笼屋居民的艰苦、被压榨的工人阶级都使香港社会的气氛十分压抑。 而市民为此提出抗争的手段是参与大规模的社会骚动，骚动最终虽然平息，但成功使港英政府在二十世纪七十年代开始了大规模的改革，尝试改变以往的统治政策，政府更通过设置机构，了解人民的生活与困苦。改革成果喜人，使香港成为了当时亚洲发展的模范城市之一。 这些改革都依照着一个原则，便是不能威胁英国的殖民地统治，但却不能招致中国政府的反对，这十分考验当时港督的能力。 其中，香港的政治改革和房屋经济改革都是人们关注的重点，当时的港督麦理浩都很好地完成了任内的目标，缔造了香港的黄金十年。

Before 1970s, Hong Kong society is full of depression because of the failure of The Young Plan, difficulty of den’s residents and the workers were squeezed by magnates. And people stood up and fought. It came up large social disturbances. Although the disturbances eventually were suppressed, it made British Hong Kong Government started reformation and tried to change their ruling policy. The government even set charities to understand how hard the residents lived. The reformation was so successful that made Hong Kong became one of the fastest development regions in Asia. But all these reformations cannot threat the colonial rule of the British Government. Also need to consider about the response of the Chinese Government so it was a challenging mission. And people pay attention to the political reform and House reform but eventually Governor MacLehose has done his job perfectly and made Hong Kong prosperous.