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I stand by my original words, that Maggie stood up to bullies and restored pride in this country. As many who know me will attest, I am a Tory supporter, probably on the left of the Tory beliefs in so far as I do not believe in pure economics as a base to form any government, there has to be a strong element of social justice as well. Thatcherism was based largely on economic theory, but at the time of her election that was exactly what this country needed after having been held to ransom over the winter of discontent by unions that were not intent on representing their members, but driven by dominating a pathetically weak Labour government and determined to bring down any Tory government as they had done with Ted Heath a decade before.
I lived at the time of the miners' strike in the Barbican YMCA, directly opposite a pub in Fann Street, EC2, called 'The Shakespeare', which happened to be the pub that Arthur Scargill used to drink in; no more than a 5-minute walk from his penthouse Barbican flat, he was nevertheless driven there by his chauffeur in his Jaguar car with two minders in tow who prevented anyone, even his own supporters, from getting anywhere near him. A mate of mine from Liverpool wanted to buy him a pint to show support, and received a punch in the face for his bother; Arthur Scargill was no more a true representative of the working man than is Barry W - and I was sickened by his behaviour and attitude. Shown on the TV news standing on the front line with the striking miners one day, then living the life of luxury the next not speaking to anyone.
The miners were decent people who stood up for what they believed in - I come from a family of working class people in Stoke On Trent, including an uncle who worked as a face worker at Trentham Colliery, but the truth is that the NUM under Arthur Scargill were on a political agenda to bring down the Government. If they had stood up for the rights of their members instead of making the whole issue political, then I firmly believe there would still be a British coal industry today. A smaller, slimmer version of the megalith that dominated great swathes of this country, perhaps - but it would still exist. Margaret Thatcher killed off the coal industry, and that was inevitable once Scargill took her on and lost. In the end, the coal workers lost their livelihoods because Scargill and Thatcher both became entrenched and wouldn't back down. As always, it was those caught in the crossfire who paid the price.
Gary's quite right - if we worked together and tried to find a consensus instead of the ritual boxing contest that party politics is all about, this country might make significant steps forward. Before Tony Blair lost his integrity, he was advocating much the same thing, and if the debt from the recession we seem to be emerging from is ever to be paid off, confrontational party politics has to go.