Michael Foot

[jrtv]

Michael Foot the Labour MP as died, I remember it was him who let Mrs Thatcher take the helm, what sort of country would it be now if he had won ?

[R1Geezer]

what facts did I get wrong Streetend? I don't believe i said anything about dates of elections etc. Liverpool today owes more to the Tories than Labour mate, get you head out of your a5se. Anyway I agree that using an Obit to have a go at someone else is totally uncalled for.

[Sqad]

steve.....I respect your opinion.

My opinion:

UK was a different country in the 1980’s.
We had the worst industrial relations and the most days lost to strikes of any industrialized country in the free world.

The militant unions were baying for blood. The cloth cap colonels of the Trades Union had brought down Ted Heath’s weak Tory government in 1974. He surrendered to the miner’s union in 1972 only to be faced with another strike 2yrs later.

In 1978 it was the turn of the public services union, in which they began a series of strikes which brought down Wilson’s successor Jim Callaghan.in 1979

Labour or Tory, the Unions were after you.

However confidence in Britain was returning and Nissan opened it’s factory in Sunderland creating thousands of jobs…….the Unions had to be restrained.

Mrs Thatcher was elected for the second time and Scargill was ready to attack her.

The miner’s strike was doomed as most miners simply didn’t want it and Scargill did not have the support of other unions.

[jake-the-peg]

In the late 70's we had a very bad balance of payments defecit - bad enough for a devaluation of the pound.

Sound familliar?

Margaret thatcher came in and Geoffrey Howe ordered massive and immediate public spending cuts

This is sounding really familliar? - any bets on what happened next?

Yep huge amounts of public spending money taken out of the economy precipitated a whopping great recession.

During that recession there was no government support for private industry and we lost much of our manufacturing base which allowed other countries to move into the void.

The propaganda machine ran out the "blame it on the unions" line still regurgitated by all the little Thatcherites to this day - but in reality manufacting industry was weak but it was monitarism that killed it

We have a choice in the next few months - do we want want another recession or not.

Because sure as eggs is eggs Osbourne will give us one

[Answerprancer]

*sigh* He was a leg-end in his own lifetime.

[BertiWooster]

Jake
Are you going to spoil your vote - youv'e got no other choice , have you ?

[I.Don No]

Personally, I think Michael Foot is one of the best prime ministers we never had.

IMHO the real reason Margaret Thatcher (spits) was elected was down to the Gang of Four starting another political party, splitting the labour vote and that enabled the worst prime minister we ever had to carry on slamming this country into the ground.

We had a young family when MT was first elected and I would not wish those times on anyone in a similar position. She was elected in 1979 under the slogan 'labour isn't working'....circa 1million unemployed.....and if I remember correctly hers and her cronies' policies succeeded in adding a further 2million to that number before she was done.

Michael Foot was what the Labour Party stood for. I mourn his passing, but he is in a far better place now.

*starts sewing bunting awaiting the passing of MT* She will not so sorely be missed by those of us who were not on the rich list while she was at the helm.

[LoftyLottie]

I second that I.Don No. All of it.

[modeller]

streetendboy Maybe you can tell me why over two million council tenants who were not able to buy their houses under Labour grabbed at the chance to buy their homes under Thatcher. In my area we had huge council estates where nobody who had any choice wanted to live but they changed almost overnight into very pleasant areas. People love to own their home, even our socialist councillors, and we have plenty bought their homes when they were given the chance. Had we not had Thatcher and the Tories 2 million people would still be living in the socialist paradise.

[I.Don No]

modeller

MT wanted council tenants to buy their council homes so that she could grab even more people by the short and curlies.......those new owners had a mortgage to worry about now and so were less likely to challenge employers, and people on the housing waiting list were doomed to stay on that list for a longer time than previously, because she would not allow councils to use the money from the sales to replenish the stock.

*carries on sewing bunting*

[LoftyLottie]

Well done, I Don. One of the worse things to ever happen was the sale of council houses, hence the decline of much needed social housing.

[modeller]

Tell that to those 2 million ex- council tenants who now own a nice house and garden with no morgage and something to give to their kids when they die . Of course as Socialists no doubt you would just confiscate the lot in typical Kremlin fashion and drag everyone down to equal poverty level. Not a chance my kids live and own their council houses and spend a lot of time and effort on improving their homes for themselves and not for the council landlord. As do millions of others who live in the real world not in Trotskyland . I grew up in a strong Labour household , we were shop stewards and we also knew that most of our neighbours wanted the opportunity to improve their living conditions , above all to own their own homes. MT gave them that opportunity. I noticed you avoided answering my question. Why did 2 million council tenants buy if as you claim it was wrong ?