I worked in the Benefit Office during the Thatcher years and saw the Tories destroy Britain north of Watford. A word previously not even in the vocabulary of most Marpudlians destroyed the nation - unemployment. The consequence of the Tories determination to destroy the trade unions irregardless of the cost resulted what was the previously a part-time two morning a week outhouse of a benefit office becoming the busiest building in Marple full of people desperate for work receiving benefits which they had paid for during their many years of work.
What a wonderfully simplistic reveiw of the post-war industrial decline in Britain, it was all Thatcher's fault??? Throw in a nice big chip the shoulder re. the North-South divide.
British industry's problems started far earlier than 1979. Post-war government wanted influence over industry as it provided money to help industry return back to non-military production and as a result industry had to do things that were not really best for industry but best (in the eyes of the government) for the UK as a whole. For this reason we saw the likes of Rootes group building it's new car in Linwood Scotland rather than the midlands where it had a skilled labour force, similar interventions occurred across the industries but other big ones were Triumph being forced to move to Speke. THis all led to industry creating sub-standard products that only had a market because of protectionism and the commonwealth.
Additional workers rights were welcome but weak management and weak government ensured that worker power soon got out of hand & British industry became unproductive as it suffered from crippling industrial action.
Failing businesses were bailed out. Instead of receiving the kick up the backside it needed, when industry failed government bailed it out and nationalised it which was a disaster.
Once we joined the EEC, we could no longer protect our industry and the ineptness of British products and poor workmanship contrasted with products made away from these shores.
The UK government continued to prop up industry and intervene in industry that it really knew nothing about. A huge grant was given to Wallsend ship-builders to build huge super-tankers to compete with the Japanese despite the yard being far more adept at building smaller vessels and Offshore rigs. The big ships were built, they were to expensive and weren't as good as the competition so it wasn't surprising that once the super-tankers rolled into the Tyne, the yards didn't get anymore orders and all it's customers for smaller craft had gone elsewhere too. Add to that, the Labour government gave all it's military orders to Scotland for political reasons - shipbuilding had died long before Thatcher.
By 1975, it was clear the UK economy was in trouble but the likes of Tony Benn pressed on with throwing public money into industry and nationalising where possible. '76 saw the realisation that the money had gone and in came the IMF. The likes of Triumph in Speke were closed (as it happened, it had been closed for more days than open for the previous 3 years due to industrial action) as the govt could no longer prop it up.
In this time, the high earners had fled the UK due to the crippling tax rates so that should be a warning that driving the top 10% away will not help you tax take.
It was already clear that the UK could not carry on pretending to be an industrial power-house. Labour, under Callaghan had some success in stopping the rot by following the IMF conditions for the bail-out. Those conditions were pretty much Thatcher's policy too and in she came.
Her policy was no more bailing out, industry had to survive on it's own, survival of the fittest. Privatise the likes of Roadline, Sealink, IMOS, ICL, Rolls Royce, BA etc. Privatisation had already been successful when the Tories were in power under Heath when Thomas Cook, Lunn Poly, Rolls Royce cars and Carlisle's public houses were sold into private enterprise and freed from the shackles of State ownership.
We take it for granted now that industry must compete, so which part of this policy do you disagree with? Perhaps government should own pubs , perhaps we should have a state travel company?
I have no great interest in politics but my only political ambition was that we would never again see a Conservative government. Two days before the last General Election Andrew Stunnell put a letter through my door stating Labour cannot win in Marple - you must vote LibDem to keep out the Tories. I dutifully did so and Andrew Stunnell immediately became a founding father of the ConDem coalition and later received his knighthood in recognition of this act of betrayal. Westminster LibDems sold their souls to the devil to satisfy their lust for power and sacrificed many admirable policies and I vowed that I would never again vote LibDem. Local LibDem councillors who I believe have done a fantastic job over many years were left to do the dirty work of their political masters and the Tory party which used the LibDems to destroy healthcare (try getting a doctor's appointment in Marple in less than a week), public services and public transport (grotty old bangers of trains with seats so close together you cannot fit if you are over 5 foot 10:
Why do you think Lib Dems have betrayed you? If you didn't agree with Lib Dem policy then I'd say it's pretty stupid for voting for them. They are the 3rd party in UK politics, like Greens and Ukip, the most they can expect is coalition so, given the chance they must go for a coalition, otherwise, the vote are wasted.
I voted Lib Dem and I'd have been horrified had they gone and propped up the hideous Gordon Brown and his repulsive bullying side-kick Balls but I knew there was a chance and I could only hope the likes of David Laws would dominate the treasury as Balls was so inferior (Balls knew this and was behind the leaking of Laws' homosexuality).
if the Scots had gained their independance the all public transport in Marple other than the 394 and 62 would have been foreign owned)
Price of milk?
now deride the LibDems in the final months of the coalition.
That's how it was always going to end, both parties have to show their differences as we approach election -granted, it's not been managed well.
UKIP offer nothing but hatred
Is the irony intended?
so my cross will have to be in the Labour box not because they inspire hope but because there is no other alternative. Ironically this will almost certainly be a vote wasted but at least at the moment the Tories have not privatised democracy.
Why, which policy do you agree with? All you have posted is a make-believe story and nothing to suggest you agree with any Labour policy?
