Could such a conjuncture have been achieved in earlier periods in the UK? The experience of earlier decades suggests that it is highly likely that inflation expectations would have gone up with inflation. How much this can be attributable to central bank  independence or the inflation target is difficult to disentangle.
But the fact that the Bank of England had the independence to pursue the inflation target set by the Chancellor must count for something. The fact that the target was not adjusted upward to accommodate the rise in inflation is also consequential. The Bank of England did not have a political incentive to achieve surprise inflation, Barro-Gordon style. That's the good news.