British Gas MD to get 10 million pound golden handshake!

[nickelarsed]

British industry was trashed by nationalisation. Something the German's, Japanese and American's never did to theirs. That was my point. Hate Thatcher as much as you want, I do. I hate all of them . But pretending that we were any better off before her is simply not true. And pretending that all those problems listed are some how down to the evil Thatcher is just plain wrong. It makes life easier to blame her for lots of people because it takes the focus off the faults of others. Remember what they called us in the 1970's? The sick man of Europe, we even had rolling power cuts, you had to wait for months just to get a phone line. At one point the dead were not even getting buried. So yea Thatcher I'm sure did lots wrong, but she was no worse than those that went before or after her. And better than some

 

[petercj]

British industry was trashed by nationalisation. Something the German's, Japanese and American's never did to theirs. That was my point. Hate Thatcher as much as you want, I do. I hate all of them . But pretending that we were any better off before her is simply not true. And pretending that all those problems listed are some how down to the evil Thatcher is just plain wrong. It makes life easier to blame her for lots of people because it takes the focus off the faults of others. Remember what they called us in the 1970's? The sick man of Europe, we even had rolling power cuts, you had to wait for months just to get a phone line. At one point the dead were not even getting buried. So yea Thatcher I'm sure did lots wrong, but she was no worse than those that went before or after her. And better than some

The Iron Lady was part of the problem - she wanted to do battle with the unions for her own ideological ends.

Yes, there were some idiots around in the unions at that time, but because Thatcher caused such a sense of insecurity in many working people the idiots got listened to.

In the 60's the Morris / Austin Mini was a massive success, and was admired across the world.

British steel was some of the best in the world, and you could tell whether it was British or not as soon as you started working with it.

The British motor cycle industry was closed down in Britain, and it was said there that was no longer a market for motor cycles.

The Japanese proactively created a market for their motorcycles by using state of the art manufacturing methods.

Very few people in Britain today understand what role the unions played in training and the maintenance of working standards, and the development of safe working practices, and employee rights. Mention the unions and most people think of militant trouble makers and the disruption of the 70's, particularly in the South of England.