Read this BBC link on Andrew Marr's History Of Britain - 1970's (Tuesday night on BBC):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6721709.stm
I remember the Winter Of Discontent, when there were power cuts, rubbish piled up in the streets everywhere for weeks on end, the schools were closed, the dead went unburies, no ambulances, no trains, no buses, no petrol, and a 3 day working week ... all thanks to the unions!
Do you agree with me that despite the problems and challenges facing our great counrtry, we should all be grateful to Maggie Thatcher for ending chaos like that?
2007-06-05 02:19:51 · 26 answers · asked by Our Man In Bananas 6 in Politics & Government ➔ Government
VOICE OF REASON - your answer is complete twaddle.
I was there, I saw it in Bexleyheath (and Sidcup) where I lived on Arbuthnot Lane, rubbish piled high for weeks on end ... so don't give me the rose tinted Michael Foot version of events!
2007-06-05 12:41:01 · update #1
thank god for maggie
2007-06-05 09:20:53 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
No the legacy of this is a nation staved of skill and overloaded with immigrant and migrant workers on the minimum wage.
The closed shop was to protect the trade, something we now lack. A skilled hard worker could expect a very decent living.
I met a printer who was offered the job of professional footballer in the 50's who turned this down, as it was to low paid.
Remember Maggie took more roofs off factories in this country than the Luftwaffe.
2007-06-05 02:30:29 · answer #2 · answered by wellcome 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I was a kid during the 70's and I don't remember my school being shut, I was probably one of the unlucky ones. I remember power cuts because we had a coal fire, and used to sit around it playing cards, and making toast on the fire.
1. those were the happy days and I would gladly go back to being 8-16 again.
2. Yes Maggie was a good prime minister for some things and not others, Tony blair didn't do any better.
2007-06-05 02:28:40 · answer #3 · answered by Jeanette 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Your question is complete twaddle
***************************************
The 3 day week was in the early 1970s under Edward Heath's Tory government.
The dead did not go unburied - some one day strikes in a small number of areas did close a handful of cemeteries, just like the always are closed on Sundays and Bank Holidays.
Rubbish did not pile in the streets for weeks on end - the famous image of snow covered bin bags used by the Tories was actually filmed during an dispute between bin-men and Tory run Westminster council in the mid 1970s.
2007-06-05 07:27:36 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Oooh me please - just for a Day and I could Buy all the right shares and become a Mill Owner.
BTW it wasn't ALL thanks to the Unions - it takes 2 sides to have an argument.
MT cut too hard and the power pendulum swung so far away from unions that we now have slave / indentured labour practices and workers without contracts pensions or any protection.
MT caused social chaos and destruction of wage stability to guarantee stable markets for the wealth owners - What's an economy for? For all of us or for just the mill owners?
2007-06-05 02:34:34 · answer #5 · answered by Wayne ahrRg 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Obvious you don't remember the pittance that we got
for a full weeks wage ?that's what it was all about ,the
unions wanted us to have a bigger slice.Thatcher stopped
school kids having milk,she wanted the poor to be poorer.
Even now Cameron wants no more grammar schools.
The conservatives would love it if we had the seventy's now
And they would get it all wrong again.
2007-06-05 02:36:56 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would if I still knew what I know today, but if I had to learn everything over again then no thanks, once is enough.
Maggie had some good points like Tony Blair, but after a few years in power they think they know everything and us common folk should just be grateful they let us live here!
2007-06-05 02:38:09 · answer #7 · answered by malcolm g 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If that was how it was and she ended it yes .but the days of rubbish piling upin the streets looks like it miight be back .
2007-06-05 03:31:39 · answer #8 · answered by keny 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The 70's were crap, Dull and grey and bloody cold ! all we had in the charts were acts like David "bleeding" Essex until punk came along !!
Best things:- mark3 cortina, the sex pistols, ice jubblies, the six million dollar man, Star Wars and december 31st 1979!!!
2007-06-05 02:33:43 · answer #9 · answered by Red5 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
take me back to them days i loved them if i could turn back the clocks i would todays society is rubbish when was the last time you seen any good news on the tv in them days in the 70s we did not have much but we had the best thing love an laughter.
2007-06-05 02:25:26 · answer #10 · answered by meandean 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
why would youwantto go back the decade of strikes and power cuts? . I remember just how dire it was back then..
The only reason id go back to the 70is would be for Punk music,
2007-06-05 03:27:47 · answer #11 · answered by robert x 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋