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.

Music

A few days ago a facebook friend posted his 'all time top ten' and invited people to comment/post their own... so I had a think and came up with my own - although I said at the time that my all time top ten could easily all be Bowie tracks (see previous postings on here).... So anyway, what I came up with was this (in no particular order) -

Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead

Joy Division - Ceremony

Human League - Hard Times

David Bowie - Look Back in Anger (yeah - this isn't my number one Bowie track... I know!)

The Blow Monkeys - Digging your Scene

The Stranglers - Walk On By

The Jam - Modern World

Black Eyed Peas - Ring a Ling

The Stone Roses - I Am The Resurrection

Well - although I got told my selection was rubbish because I was 'old' I don't think it's too bad... but then I realised how much good music which I love that I'd left out... Madness - The Prince, The Specials - Ghost Town, Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here, The Who - Love Reign O'er Me, Japan and David Sylvian, The Smiths, The Undertones, The Cure, The Cranberries, Elvis Costello, Dire Straits, Mick Karn (who was without a shadow of a doubt the best fretless bass player this world will ever see), Spandau Ballet, Keane, Simple Minds, Chris Rea, Radiohead, Muse, so many others that you'll get bored with me listing them....

This has made me realise two things....

Firstly, there is no way I can create an all time top ten - my moods change and what I listen to changes with my moods. Something I would put on a top ten today would possibly not make a top 50 tomorrow.

Secondly, I can't think of many bands/artists in the charts now who have the impact or the staying ability of bands from even as recently as 10 years ago.... I'm sure there will be some - but I'm struggling to think of any - Adele maybe? Paloma Faith possibly?? A quick look at this weeks top 40 albums and there are 2 by Bowie and albums from Suede, Stereophonics, Billy Bragg, Bon Jovi, Dido, Fleetwood Mac, Pink and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - a quarter of the top 40 albums by bands/artists who have been around more than 10 years.

I never thought I'd be one to say they don't make music like they used to.... but they don't!!

Horse Meat - what price convenience??

What price convenience indeed....
Well, to be fair, other than cultural preferences for what meat gets put on the table, there is nothing wrong with eating horse meat. Plenty European countries eat it and it was common in the UK as recently as the 1940's.
So what's the problem then? For me there are two problems....
The media - who on one hand are making this out to be a huge public safety issue and then in the next breath telling us all that the horse meat is perfectly safe. The ludicrous BBC sending a reporter to stand on a country lane in the middle of nowhere to tell us all about the fact that wagons full of meat drive down the lane was priceless. What you don't hear from the media is the second problem I have with the whole thing and probably the most important...
Being told what we are being sold! I wouldn't care if my lasagne was made of horse meat if that was what was on the packaging and that is what I had intended to buy. But to buy something and then find out that you actually got something which you neither wanted nor find acceptable as a meat for consumption is totally different. How long I wonder has horse meat been used to bulk up beef products? I have just heard on the news it has been at least 2 years! What else is being used as a substitute for what it is meant to be? There have been reports of pork being used in supposedly halal meat supplied to prisons - so this company was not just breaching the law but offending religious beliefs. Do we really know what is in your favourite burger or fried chicken nuggets? What about the toppings on your pizza? Or the filling in your sandwich? Come to that, what is the bread made of (apparently sliced white bread has ground chicken feathers in it but that could be urban myth).
I was under the impression that food labeling was very strict and if so how have companies been able to get away with it? Well - to my mind it is the pure dishonesty and greed of the producers. Horse is cheaper than beef and we are still in recession - if they can get away with it and make more profit then they are going to. But why has there been such a widespread problem? Well that's simple - supermarkets pricing and convenience foods.... I (quite smugly) have no concerns - I haven't eaten a ready meal for many years. Our meat comes from a local butcher who can tell you exactly where the meat has come from, our bread is home made and our eggs come from our own chickens. Our milk could be from the Fat Tony Rat Dairy - who knows! But many families eat ready meals and processed food pretty much every day - whether due to convenience or finances. It's so much easier to get everything from the local superstore than go to a butcher and get decent fresh meat, and so much easier to get frozen meals than buy the ingredients and make things yourself. There may not be a health issue with eating horse but there are a large amount of people in the UK who don't want to.
This is a huge wake-up call for the food industry. Butchers are already reporting increases in sales - I'm not surprised... but how long before the supermarkets get their customers back by selling poor quality cheaper 'real meat'?
It has to be remembered that the government have only ordered testing for horse meat... so the beef lasagne made with horse will be detected, but a cottage pie made with dog meat will not. I think there may be bigger scandals than horse meat in the near future.....