Israel

[Returnofrros]

Employers dont want to train people the skills required for industry or commerce.
I worked offshore for about 15 years, and the easiest way to get offshore was to spend thousands of pounds to attain the necessary
certificates required for the position you were seeking.
Once you were offshore , the company would pay for course renewals when they expired.

Same with the hotels, apart from the managers, all the hotels were run by POLISH workers who had certified EU SKILLS.
They were very efficient, but did not receive the same rates of pay as British workers.

Indian restaurants were bringing chefs from various regions in India and Pakistan when they required another chef.
Alex Salmond stopped this and told them to train people up, the same way as they learnt their skills.

Most working class folk cud aspire to not a lot pre thatcher, post thatcher the majority far better off

[BCram]

Probably an element of that but let's look further back.

What happened to our manufacturing industry in the eighties when Thatcher was dictator? It was decimated. We moved from being a manufacturing driven economy to being a service driven economy with a huge military; result of that being a skill drain. Companies went to the wall and skilled people were dumped on the scrap heap - young school leavers were left with the choice of dead end jobs or the military. Then the yuppies rose, with a different set of skills none of them practical and mostly self serving. Now, of course, we want the skills back so how do we get them? There were few apprenticeships available during that time and probably fewer journeymen capable of doing the training so we go overseas and look for those skills in the hope that we can get them back and producing for our economy.

I agree about the farce of getting so many people into pointless degree courses and we're suffering as a nation because of it now. University driven wokery and a failure of these people to understand a simple physical work ethic means many (not all by any means) are happier protesting against existing employment opportunities than actually taking that employment.

Agree with much of this analysis, but I am not and never have been convinced that Thatcher caused the decline of our manufacturing sector. For me, she dealt with a problem, rather than created the destruction.

Scotland's Oil pushed up the value of Sterling and it became cheaper to buy in finished goods rather than make similar products in Britain.

She sold us the trickle down theory of growth and made financial services the most and possibly the only profitable sector of our economy.

Somehow we need to find a way to make money. I don't see very much sign that manufacturing is going to be the way we do that. Research and development was supposed to be our way forward. Design and intellectual property rights would allow us to retain high paid jobs and profitable companies who got their products made in other countries who had much much lower costs of production.

Just ask Dundonians what happens when you move the factories that processed the jute from Dundee to India. Exactly the same has happened. The UK financial services are in the process of selling off the few companies that have any future value. That future value will be created elsewhere imo.

I think I am most disappointed that I don't see any signs that our politicians care about the electorate. They need to stop their obsession with fighting each other, and actually do stuff that will build new businesses in the UK.

[Deeranged]

Agree with much of this analysis, but I am not and never have been convinced that Thatcher caused the decline of our manufacturing sector. For me, she dealt with a problem, rather than created the destruction.

Scotland's Oil pushed up the value of Sterling and it became cheaper to buy in finished goods rather than make similar products in Britain.

She sold us the trickle down theory of growth and made financial services the most and possibly the only profitable sector of our economy.

Somehow we need to find a way to make money. I don't see very much sign that manufacturing is going to be the way we do that. Research and development was supposed to be our way forward. Design and intellectual property rights would allow us to retain high paid jobs and profitable companies who got their products made in other countries who had much much lower costs of production.

Just ask Dundonians what happens when you move the factories that processed the jute from Dundee to India. Exactly the same has happened. The UK financial services are in the process of selling off the few companies that have any future value. That future value will be created elsewhere imo.

I think I am most disappointed that I don't see any signs that our politicians care about the electorate. They need to stop their obsession with fighting each other, and actually do stuff that will build new businesses in the UK.

Thatcher caused everything that's bad in the world as far as I'm concerned.

Left school in 1979, got an engineering apprenticeship, place closed in my second year, nothing else available because everything was closed or closing and basically it was the scrap heap or military. I did twelve years of my life in the RAF, I could've robbed a bank, hid the cash and came out to recover it all after five years and been instantly a self made man like she wanted us all to be. I chose honesty and made a decent path and career for myself off my own back.

I'm where I am now despite that evil bitch, not because of her.

[Returnofrros]

Thatcher caused everything that's bad in the world as far as I'm concerned.

Left school in 1979, got an engineering apprenticeship, place closed in my second year, nothing else available because everything was closed or closing and basically it was the scrap heap or military. I did twelve years of my life in the RAF, I could've robbed a bank, hid the cash and came out to recover it all after five years and been instantly a self made man like she wanted us all to be. I chose honesty and made a decent path and career for myself off my own back.

I'm where I am now despite that evil bitch, not because of her.

I'm where I am now........because of her.

[Deeranged]

I'm where I am now........because of her.

I just got a very serious set back right at the start of my working career and it was directly as a result of policies implemented by her first government. Took me years of hard work and study after leaving the RAF to get back on track, but I did it - despite what I will always say that evil bitch caused in my life and in many other people of my age's lives too.

Despite that I didn't celebrate when she passed away, I didn't bat an eyelid but neither did I celebrate - that would just have been crass.

[The AuldYin]

I left school in 1979 tae, when 1 in 4 worked for the taxpayer and income tax was 33%. I have more money and a far more comfortable lifestyle than my parents ever had despite me and my Dad both having similar jobs. How the fk can anyone say she failed?

[Returnofrros]

I just got a very serious set back right at the start of my working career and it was directly as a result of policies implemented by her first government. Took me years of hard work and study after leaving the RAF to get back on track, but I did it - despite what I will always say that evil bitch caused in my life and in many other people of my age's lives too.

Despite that I didn't celebrate when she passed away, I didn't bat an eyelid but neither did I celebrate - that would just have been crass.

This is how I see it.

She gave a helluva lot of people a stake in society, she opened people's eyes to possibilities, she encouraged a savings culture instead of pub, work, pub repeat, she put more disposable income in people's pockets than any pm and allowed people onto the property ladder who wud have never got on it.......she encouraged and expected folk to look after themselves.....self responsibility.

There were some losers but much more winners.

A conviction politician who had big ideas.

I accept some people lost out but many more winners.

70s Britain wasn't a utopia......far from it.

[Returnofrros]

Oh and left school 83 just for reference.

[The AuldYin]

Oh and left school 83 just for reference.

18 or 1983?

[Returnofrros]

18 or 1983?

Oh 19, that long ago it may as well be 18.