General Chat

John, I saw the planning by union reps for Orgreave i live a couple of miles from their, and i stand by what i said,

Scargill and his bully boys where 100% responsible for the violence

Just because they got taught a lesson that day doesn't make any difference as to where the blame lies,

As for ex miners working pushing trolleys round a Sainsbury car park, I no plenty who went on to university and who retrained for other jobs such as school teachers, Lorry drivers, Nurses and paramedics, police officers and personnel/human resources managers health and safety officers, just to name a few.

Roy

Edit, Also plenty spent their redundancy on setting themselves up in business and some are now quite successful and very wealthy men

I must admit I am with Roy on this one

Roy. Scargill had an agenda that was nothing to do with miners welfare. But the ordinary miners had a terrible time with the police at Orgreave and elsewhere.

Maggie and her hatchet man McGregor were absolutely disgusting. They were determined to tear apart the coal and steel industries - the very industries that kept Britain great.

And if you really think men in these mining communities would rather be pushing trollies round a Sainsbury car park than hewing coal, you do not understand these proud communities. But then, neither did Maggie.

Rose, Their was in fighting in her government by several of her so called cabinet ministers with very large knifes ready to use the minute her back was turned, They hated having a woman in charge and that was blatantly obvious from day one, Men or mice?

John, Don't try teaching your gran to suck eggs, I was part of what happened in the strikes with all the violence and i can assure you and anyone else that Scargill and his bully boys where 100% responsible for the violence I was offered beer and petrol money to get to locations where the violence was to happen by his union comrades who used to come into the working men's clubs buying beer for anyone who would subscribe and take part but i declined that offer.

Roy

Attlee was my favourite, Maggie. Followed by Ted Heath.

Social housing!!! Is that what this thread is about? Sorry >>>>>>>>>>>>

I think I must point out that whether one is an apologist ( fan if I'm kind) for Thatcher or not, it should be remembered that it was her own party that got rid of her as PM, because they knew re-election would be impossible if she was leader.

However 'good' you think she was, she failed to take even her OWN people along with her, let alone the 'opposition'.

Anyway...wasn't this thread about housing? ;-)

It would be easier to list the good prime ministers....

Roy I don't think many miners will attend her state funeral. She is held in contempt round here. And so is Churchill. Both tried to break up strikes with violence and memories are exceptionally long.

I wonder which Prime Minister will go down in history as being the worst since WW2. I would find it difficult to decide between Blair and Thatcher :-(

Exactly Annx, I was beginning to think only i was the only one on GR who understood what she meant, I also have plenty of ex, miners "friends" who agreed with her and most say that she did them a big favour because once the pits shut it opened their eyes to a better quality of life once they had accepted it and moved on

Roy

I agree with you Roy. As a payer of benefits many years ago it was drummed into us that it wasn't the government's money we were paying out, it was the hard earned cash that came from taxpayers......the same source as our wages and was not to be wasted. The term used to us frequently was the 'public purse' and we were expected to protect it. That was what Thatcher meant, it is individuals that we pass in the street that are funding all these things, the working man and companies paying their taxes, not some bottomless money pit called 'the government' or 'society'.

No, Roy, the joke was Thatcherism. And a very, very bad one.

what happened to all this cheep gas
we were getting from the north sea :-(

Terryj, We had coal and steel industries but industry is their to generate revenue, The coal and steel was costing the tax payer millions every week to keep them open and dragging the country into bankruptcy

Roy

true but we had industries
remember them
coal
steel
etc

Guinevere, Just letting in a little water, Now that is a joke, Dirty man of Europe strikes and blackouts rubbish not being collected from the streets and trips to the IMF with cap in hand to borrow money to pay the bills,

On that basis the titanic would never have sunk

Roy

Wrecked? No, just letting in water a little.

Thatcher completed the job by scuttling it and sending it to the bottom taking all the third class passengers with it.

She made sure the officers made it to the lifeboats though, always looked after her own.

John, Britain was wrecked before Thatcher, anyone who thinks otherwise is in denial of the facts

And what was the driving force behind the 94% hype in house prices? dodgy Finance for which our grandchildren will be paying the price in years to come,

Roy

Fact: From 2001 to 2011 the price of the average home increased by 94%, while wages rose by just 29%, according to the NHF

So how (unless you have a house to sell) is the average person going to be able to afford a house? Very few new buyers will be able to get on the housing ladder.

Osborne's plan just ensures more crippling debt - to the Government - if you try to buy.

So, is more social housing needed? YES.
...and one bedroomed places are useless. They have a limited occupancy.

I am amazed that anyone liked Mrs Thatcher. She was the one person who wrecked Britain. Not only that, she spawned Major, Blair and Cameron in her mould (don't count the other one as he was never Prime Ministerial material). So we have had 30 years of this destructibe "Thatcherism" now from boteh major parties.

Once Thatcher pushed herself into power, she systematically destroyed everything good about Britain and promoted all sorts of unproductive men who wanted to make a fast buck. Greed of politicians is her fault, lack of proper social housing now is her fault.

I can't wait to read a proper "warts and all" biography of her once she had shed the mortal.

Sorry Roy and others. But we must agree to differ.

I agree that social housing should never have been sold off. Although there were some families who had lived in their council houses for years and had paid rent, some of these families were quite capable of buying on the open market but chose to buy their council house because of the generous discounts and the fact that they were superior to many private properties at that time.

I consider Mrs Thatcher used the opportunity to buy as a vote catcher.

I do agree with many of the posters, before starting a programme of social house building, look at what is currently available and unoccupied, look at what the population needs, more user friendly properties for the elderly and smaller properties for those who wish or are niow being forced to downsize.

I do agree there is a problem with immigrant families who in some cases have large families and therefore will get preferential treatment but also British families also who take preference over the childless couple and the single person. .

Vera