The North South Divide

[ghostrider]

You see, it depends on sections of people/communities and certain working practices as to whether Thatcher was the good, bad and indifferent.
A sort of clear marmite leader (puppet) in a way, throughout the entire country.
The woman had to right wrongs but wronged the rights in the process.

There's loads of bad things she's done in terms of direct hits on communities, including the miners, especially. But there's no smoke without fire and you have to look at the unions and how they became a help and a hindrance and generally not in equal terms for the betterment of the people they were supposed to serve.

Many people in the north east voted and do still vote, labour... but the truth is that each party simply robs Peter to pay Paul. Puts a penny in your right hand and takes two from the left. All parties.

No doubt about it the miners suffered horrendously.
The problem was, Scargill pushed them into a battle that they were not going to win and would have been best served in seeing out their time and going with whatever flow... in terms of new jobs after closures...which wouldn't have been easy for most but at least they could have done it without (in some) criminal records (unfair...but) and debt and starvation, plus a massive split in the entire communities in just about everything, which was a massive shame.

In an ideal world...a fair world, where the working person was catered for in terms of things like what happened with the mines...in terms of ensuring there was near flawless movement back into work in short order with subsidies to ensure the transition was as painless as possible, there wouldn't be any need for anyone to battle out a stance on keeping something open that is clearly earmarked as close to unworkable - unsustainable - unprofitable and basically unstable for the hard working miner.

Scargill and co played a game that cost thousands of men a lot more than just losing their jobs.
Thatcher could have dealt with it much better, but when something is irretrievable and has to be changed to progress then someone is going to lose a battle and we all know it's not going to be the strong arm of the law under Government control, whether that law is a legal one or designed specifically to deal with any battle, to see that it is done.

I hated what Thatcher done with a lot...or who was pulling her strings...but equally labour left a nice big mess for her to clear up and clearing up the mess of one Government is never going to be a bed of sweet smelling roses.