Thatcher......
There really is some utter horsebrick spoken about this woman, and what she did, or 'achieved'. Often by those who have not suffered directly from her actions and policies. Thankfully, some others can see the truth, as expressed in this thread. How much of 'The Truth' comes out now, in the media, with all of the gushing and revolting accolades, remains to be seen.
She got into power, in May 1979, and this country was ruined over the next decade by her policies, actions and attitude.
1. Strikes in the 1970's? Much had been down to shocking management. That is casually brushed under the carpet. Some union activity was unacceptable, but the biggest problem with unions then was there were far too many of them. Hundreds, literally. Often infighting. The other element that impacted on industrial relations was the class system. The 'Us and Them' mentality, with both sides trying to get the upper hand.
2. The economy. Her attitude was 'why do we need industry and manufacturing when we have the financial sector?' Recent events may fly in the face of that!
And what did she do?
The Industrial and Economic Disaster.
A rather unpleasant world recession hit this country in 1980. Thatcher, newly-elected, did what precisely, to help/protect British industry? Bugger-all. She cast it adrift. The north and midlands job-base was decimated. I will stick close to home: Sheffield and Rotherham were steel towns. It was the main job-base here, and the reason for their existance, with a large population built up over 200 years. In 1980, Sheffield was the 4th biggest city in England. After making promises (pre-election) to the steelworkers, notably in a famous film taken in Dunford Hadfields (now the home/site of the very lovely Meadowhall shopping centre) which was widely shown, Thatcher then did a complete U turn after being elected. An act of treatchery not too different to Campbells. She then stood by and let the industry go to the wall. The job-base of the area was destroyed. Its never recovered.
Then there was the second hammer blow, shortly afterwards. The coal industry was the other big employers in the area.
Thatcher decided to pick on the coal industry as the next target. The miners strike of 1984-85 is legend. She feared the miners union as the biggest threat to her Government and its survival. So the way to destroy the union and the threat was to destroy the industry. So then 'uneconomic pits' was that justification. Except that much of that argument was horsebrick. Thatcher used economic arguments to achieve political objectives. She conned voters. The miners was the most acute example. Grimethorpe, near Barnsley. A solid mining place. One of many. In 1997, a good 12 years after the miners strike, the place still looked like Beirut. I did a survey there. I was horrified.
The area of South Yorkshire has never recovered from the disasters of the 1980's, and has been in recession ever since. Nowhere near enough jobs for the population. Those industries needed to be modernised, not destroyed. They needed change and investment, as other European countries did with their similar industries. Remarkably, the little that is now left is Scandinavian or Indian-owned. Few local people work for them.
The Apprenticeship System.
Not being satisfied with wrecking British industry in general, the Thatcher Government then set about wrecking its future further by removing the apprenticeship system and replacing it with The Youth Training Scheme (YTS). 1980's. Scary, a disaster and we have now gone full-cicle and are moving back to apprenticeships! I rest my case.
The North-South Divide
The north and midlands were trashed by Thatchers Government in the 1980's, whilst the south prospered. Merseyside was slaughtered for jobs. So was the N/E. We moved to the north from the south in the late 1960's, and at that time the North-South Divide was largely a cultural one. The 1980's saw the development of that divide into an economic one. Its now colossal.
The Falklands War.
You have got to be joking! It was Thatchers Government's fault it happened in the first place. The Foreign Office screwed up and did not act on the tell-tale signs of trouble looming, in advance. They were there. Argentinian intentions were clear. Lord Carrington of the Foreign Office bit the bullet and resigned over the fiasco. Thatchers Fall-Guy for it. The Conflict (not 'war'. War was never declared) was a military victory, pure and simple. Yet Thatcher milked it and won the next election on the strengh of it. She would have lost without it, with all of the unrest at the time. Riots being the tip of it.
Privatisation.
Asset stripping on a grand scale, and selling-off the family jewels for a fast buck. Where was my 'cut', incidentally, when a public-owned body is sold off?
Greed is Good.
According to Mrs T. Only one snag with that, though. No it isn't. The short-termism instilled into this country from her reign has twisted its mindset for the worse.
Squandering for Politics
North Sea oil revenue in the 1980's should have really been put to good use. Instead Thatcher squandered it on funding mass unemployment, created by her in the first place, and largely in the north and the midlands!
The New Statesman on TV really did say it all; arrogance, greed, me, now, don't care about others as long as 'I'm all right Jack'.
I would love to have done her school report for her 10 year reign. It would be a fail across the board.
