Shortage of time served tradesmen THATCHER to blame again?

Question

A nation of robots sitting in call centres !

Answer 1

Best Prime Minister we've had since Churchill...

People forget so easily the state Britain was in in 1979...I remember the Winter of Discontent before she came to power...

The dead went unburied
No rubbish collection for months
Energy strikes
rail strikes
Nurses strike
teachers strike ...
Rover, Ford on strike
Steel strike...
everyone on strike!
Blackouts every day in the winter!

I think people look back at the 70's (and the General Strike of 1972 which broke the Wilson government) with rose-tinted glasses...

Does no one remember our chancellor Dennis Healey going cap in hand to the IMF / World Bank for a loan to bail out the country becaue we were bankrupt?

Then they had to ask / beg the unions for wage restraint - which they didn't get.

Margerat Thatcher dragged this country into the modern world, kicking and screaming ...it was hard, and it was tough, but it had to be done...

It was Thatcher who negotiated and got us the rebate from the EU ... no one else - Thatcher! And before you blame her for us being in the Common Market, that was Ted Heath, and there was a Referendum!

I don't agree with everything she did - for example, the tax cuts maybe went too far, as this lead to the terrible state of our rail system... and of course the Poll Tax killed it for me... but don't tell me the 70's were wonderful.

Britains manufacturing base was priced out of the world market, nothing was being exported ...

As for the coal industry, don't get me started ... I wish we had a coal industry, unfortunately the only way it would work is if everyone was prepared to pay twice as much for electricty, because the cost of coal would be twice what is is on the world market!

don't tell me we made anything - if we made decent cars, how come everyone bought Japanese cars - it was because they WORKED !!!

If we wanted to have free trade (and we did, otherwise we couldn't get cheap wine, oranges, bananas, and cheap Japanese stereos etc) then we had to allow foreign goods into our country with level tariffs....

my 2 cents...

Answer 2

We have the same problem in the USA. So I would not blame it on any particular politician as such. Society tells kids that the future is in computers so few if any kids want to be tradesmen (electricians, plumbers, HVAC mechanics). These jobs pay well but require time and hard work. Society has branded these professions as being only for "peons."
So in the USA these jobs have been assumed by the only people willing to do them: immigrants from Mexico, South America, and Vietnam. In my company there are only a few electricians I can communicate with. Otherwise I need an interpreter. I am not complaining about the work ethic of these people. For the most part they are reliable but..they cannot speak the language and are poorly educated.
Meanwhile there are thousands of educated, English speaking kids unemployed just waiting for that job where they can be paid to browse the Internet.

Answer 3

To some extent, yes. From 1975 I was working in Local Government and in the beginning the Council took on a regular number of apprentices each year who 'did their time'. After Thatcher came to power in 1979 this had to stop. First of all, cash was cut back and economies had to be sought. The easiest, most immediate, way was to stop taking on apprentices. Then 'direct labour' organisations began to be closed down, so there was no demand for apprentices in the building trades. Municipal bus companies were swallowed up so no motor trade apprentices.

Answer 4

Baroness Thatcher is not to blame in any way for the lack of time served tradesmen. Actually it is the trade unions. They pushed for higher rates of pay for part qualified people and the employers wouldn't have it. Result, factory based apprentice schemes were discontinued.

Answer 5

It was the trade unions not Thatcher whom I detest.I remember in the building trade when everyone had an apprentice who were extremely badly paid until they did their time.The Unions insisted on huge pay rises and like one builder told me people on seeing a lad fetching and carrying would ask who was paying for him and in the end the builders stopped taking on apprentices because the customer refused to foot the bill.This happened in many industries where it became more viable to employ time served tradesman.Now we have reaped the harvest and there is a lack of true skilled craftsmen.

Answer 6

As someone who was an apprentice hydraulics fitter in 1979, I would agree totally.
Thatcher used 'monetarism' to supposedly make Britain leaner and fitter. She did this by making it difficult for firms to trade, thus cutting out the 'weak'.
The fact that these 'weak' firms where making a profit before Thacherism, did not dent her ideological zeal.
So thousands of tradesman where thrown out of work, and retrained as salesmen or financial advisers, all paid for out of the North sea oil money that she squandered.
Those tradesman that managed to keep their jobs are now at a premium because of the national shortage.

Answer 7

No. it's the age old problem in Britain. Lack of investment. Be it health, private industry, the infrastructure or the armed forces. That's why we have an inadequate health service, lost many of our industries, have lousy public transport and our soldiers are getting killed for lack of armoured vehicles and flack jackets. Meanwhile we are spending billions on the olympics. How immature and trivial can you get?

Answer 8

Yes, Thatcher (spit) destroyed this country. It was just after my 26th birthday when this creature became PM in 1979. I remember sitting with a group of friends when the news came over that she'd won - a darkness entered my heart, a darkness that hasn't lifted yet........

Pre-Thatcher, we were a manufacturing country - we MADE things, things like ships, bridges, clothing etc. Sure, we had some problems with strikes and such, but as a whole we were hopeful, optimistic (perhaps just young!)

A lot of jobs back then were for life, although if you got fed up with your job it was a piece of cake to walk out of one and into another.

We had a huge coal mining industry, all our essential services were state-run (non-profit making), and we didn't have half the drug problems we have built up since.

Maggot Thatchaaargh and her henchmen (why do I keep picturing Daleks?) will rot in hell for the harm they did to this country - for me, her most hateful philosophy was that bit where she said, "There is no such thing as society, only individuals."

She virtually single-handedly created a culture of 'Me Me Me', promoting greed and a pitiless lack of compassion.

How I hated her (and hate doesn't come easly to me).........I'll be the one organising the street parties when she finally pops her clogs.

Answer 9

Indeed, SO. Anything, that has gone WRONG, in this Country, of ours, since 1975, - when Thatcher was elected Leader, of the Con merchants, (sorry, that SHOULD have been "CONSERVATIVES" is DIRECTLY attributable, to this EVIL individual! Those of us who were CHILDREN, at the time, were ALSO, made to suffer, in ONE way, - for, - as the Secretary of State, for EDUCATION, - it was SHE, who STOPPED the daily MILK rations, - hence, the slogan:- "MAGGIE THATCHER, - MILK SNATCER!" Many kids, - and, I will include myself, here, - were DENIED the opportunity, to fulfill their FULL potential, because Maggie, and her "HENCHMEN", - between them, - TORE the National ECONOMY, to SHREDS, - making this Country, - MY Country, - a LAUGHING STOCK!!!

Then, - when she's done the "DAMAGE", - MOST of which is STILL "APPARENT", to this day, - she has the LAW altered, so that SHE can be the FIRST WOMAN, - EVER, - to receive the "ORDER OF THE GARTER"! If THAT's not "FEATHERING YOUR OWN NEST" - then, WHAT IS?

Answer 10

Is this a question (*says me sitting in a bus company call centre*)