Margaret Thatcher RIP

I'm old enough to remember 3 day weeks, random power cuts, boiling a kettle and toasting bread on a coal fire because there was nothing else to use, needing to make sure there were enough candles etc. not to mention the bins not being collected and decent people who wanted to work not being able to because of flying pickets. Do you remember British Leyland? Crap cars coming off the production line and breaking down 3 days later because of shoddy 2nd rate workmanship and materials....The country was being held to ransom by union leaders who believed they should run the country, not the democratically elected government - and this was a Labour government - the ones the unions are supposed to like...

Margaret Thatcher was voted in in despite her being a 'milk snatcher' - that didn't seem to bother too many people then. If I recall correctly, she made no secret that things would be tough to get the country back on it's feet... and they were. Her election campaign centred on taking power away from the unions and a tag line of 'labour isn't working' and the British people gave her a mandate to go ahead and fight the unions. The fact that she did, took away the power that was bringing the country to its knees and got the country back on the road to recovery seems to be forgotten by a lot of people. Yes, it was difficult but the country was in absolute shit state.

The biggest problem most people have with Maggie is the miners strike. The mining industry had been in decline since the 60's or even earlier. The governments plan was for mines which were no longer profitable to be closed and the rest to carry on production - makes sense doesn't it?. The unions opposed this and insisted all stayed open so called a national strike to 'fight for the rights of miners'. This made no economic sense - at a lot of pits it was costing more to get the coal out of the ground than it could be sold for. There were a number of pits that were viable and could still have have resumed operations after the strike but the unions refused access for the safety engineers to maintain the pumps. They flooded and were lost. The union (or should I say Scargill) screwed their own members by not seeing sense. If it weren't for the unions the mining industry would have been smaller, but at least some miners would have kept their jobs. And they wouldn't have been forced to live in absolute poverty for the duration of the strike (whilst their union leader lived in absolute luxury).

Oh, and the poll tax. Deeply unpopular.... but I still don't see why.... Everyone has to pay for the services which are provided by local and national government. OK, so how do you do that fairly? Here's an example of unfairness - two households on the same street. One is a single man no kids, the other a family of 2 parents and 4 children. The single man uses less of everything the government provides as public services - less rubbish, less public transport, less education etc... yet in the old rating system he paid exactly the same as the family of 6 people - this model is still true of the current system. The poll tax simply took that unfairness away - each adult paid the same for the same services. So why was it unpopular? Because the poor had to pay the same as the rich.... Do the rich use more public services than the poor? Nope - they use far less. So why should they pay more? You don't go into Marks & Sparks and get asked how much you earn so that they can work out how much you should pay for something do you? Where else are you expected to pay a different amount for a service based on your wealth?? Hmmm....


So, to everyone who thinks it's a good idea to trample on Maggie's grave, or thinks we should get 'ding dong the witch is dead' to number one... try to imagine what this country would have been like if she hadn't won the election in 79... just think what the alternative would have been and what this country would have been like. I for one am glad she was elected and believe her to be the most important and best post war prime minister. RIP.