Phil King wrote:
Hi
Maybe not al' 'we' but although you speak about devastation and suffering no doubt you've got a nice job yourself and probably a nice car and house?
(altho' obviously I don't know for sure and I'm not crticising you or anyone for this) but all I'm saying is that for 'winners' to exist there must also be 'losers' too. I don't see anyone going on protest marches against the status quo (which Tony Blair carried left by Mrs. T). If we were still all proper socialists we'd be riding on buses and working in woollen mills.
I've got a good standard of living now - achieved by hard work on the part of me and my husband, who, just coming out of his time as a young apprentice in the plumbing trade during Thatcher's halcyon (tongue VERY firmly in cheek!!!) years found himself effectively on the scrap heap and without a job for almost three years from early 1980 onwards due to the dramatic slowdown in all areas of construction at that time.
The cry at that time was to re train - not so easy to find opportunities to do that when you live in an area that is seeing steelworks, shipyards and mines closing down, yes there were 'programmes' to help people equip themselves for change, but these were largely directed at the men affected by the closures of the shipyards etc. and they didn't help much anyway - just a sop provided by the government so that they could say they were putting some remedial action in place.
The early 80's weren't a good time for a young couple saving to get married and as I had a farily well paid, secure job I scrimped as my then partner took a range of jobs including taxi driver and barman. If the capitalist dream had worked he'd have pulled himself together and evolved as some self employed magnate or gone into the army which I am sure would have fit in perfectly with Thatchers plans!!
Yes we wanted to own our own home, not because of any latent Tory - ism (frankly, i'd shoot myself) or any dis loyalty towards the Labour ethos but because times and expectations move on and we progress.
Speaking as a someone who took regular food parcels to their (miner) cousin's so that their kids could eat properly - I was 20 years old and growing up VERY quickly - but I was in the enviable position of being in employment - I think THAT is what socialism is about. You spread the economy so there's less of a fat cat/underprivileged ratio and you look after those less fortunate. (That doesn't mean pandering to the spongers, it's up to whatever government that's in power to manage that as best they can - and it's difficult to run any welfare system fairly 'cos the potential for abuse is so great.)
I saw first hand what it was like to be a 'loser' at this time and I can honestly say that the hurt and bitterness I, my neighbours and my family experienced at that time cannot be put into words. I certainly don't consider myself to be a 'winner' now. I do, however, live in fear that the Tories will get in again as there is (imho) a misplaced view that people who now regard themselves as successful will be better off under their regime. I think that if they do get in the divide between the haves and the have nots will become even greater and we'll see the escalation of the underclasses on a huge scale.
I'm not saying that Thatcher / the Tories had any power over world markets which no doubt influenced the decline of industry at that time, but she DID stick the boot in and cripple the production and working class pride of this country.
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