Originally Posted by Oil_Slick

Originally Posted by Taffnp

Then out of work, but by Monday always had another job.

Should have got yourself a good trade then, shouldn't you!

Always gainfully employed during the 70's, 80's and on to today…

I did thats why I was made redundant then back in work on Monday

Originally Posted by rampant

Taking us into the ERM and then crashing back out of it

Time for a little historical perspective here, at the time of entering the Exchange Rate Mechanism which was to be the pre-cursor for entry to the Euro, both opposition parties had been screaming their heads off for months and complaining that the Tories were dithering, indecisive etc, and that it was essential for the UK's future prosperity that we join asap. Well we joined, much against the best instincts of many senior Tories incidentally, and pretty soon it all started to go wrong. I'm no economist but as I recall it had something to do with us pegging the value of Sterling to the Deutchmark. At any rate when it did go wrong we needed the Germans help and they refused. Interest rates had climbed steadily and peaked at 15% (for a few hours only though). We then took ourselves out of the ERM and it is generally accepted that from that point on our economy began to grow strongly. Interest rates plummeted and we began to get seriously rich as a country. Unfortunately for the Tories, they got no credit for this (the Voteless Recovery) and despite the UK finances being in better shape than they had ever been they were booted out at the next election - 1979.
New Labour inherited the best set of economic ciconditions ever bequesthed to an incoming Govt. After keeping to the Tories spending plans for two years Brown then embarked on the longest period of Government spending ever known, billions of pounds were fire-hosed at health, education, welfare and god knows what else. At the end of this binge we are on the bones of our arse, our hospitals are plagued with MRSA and bureaucracy, our schools turn out functioning illiterates and our exam system is a joke. Best of all we have about 2.5 million offically unemployed, (the unofficial is about 5 million, and rising!) 3 million immigrants and the prospect of our population rising to 70 million within 20 years, most of it due to immigration from the Third World.

Thanks Labour, you've been f**king great!

Labour has apparently sold the Dartford crossing. I have no idea who to, probably the French company which owns both severn crossings. I have tried without sucess to find out under what government leadership they were sold.

Oh Labour also sold steelworks to the Indian company Tata, which promptly closed them or laid off thousands o workers.

On the immigration point, I think it's more of an EU directive that each country has to take a set number of refugees.

Originally Posted by Taffnp

Labour has apparently sold the Dartford crossing. I have no idea who to, probably the French company which owns both severn crossings. I have tried without sucess to find out under what government leadership they were sold.

Oh Labour also sold steelworks to the Indian company Tata, which promptly closed them or laid off thousands o workers.

On the immigration point, I think it's more of an EU directive that each country has to take a set number of refugees.

Boll0x!


See that big bit of water called the 'English Channel'?


The only way people can cross that is because the Liebour Government has left the fvcking port doors open deliberately!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...r-adviser.html

Originally Posted by Jaeger

... it took f**king ages to get a phone line installed and the only phones available were black or white, like it or lump it. You had no choice as to who supplied your gas, electricity, water etc and you paid what was asked and put-up or shut-up. Honestly it was a differnt world, think East Germany with a Queen and you wouldn't be far off, and we all wore flares, platform shoes and and big F**k-Off collars too!

If you had the right connections, bottle green phones were also available.

A minor example of how backward Britain was in the 1970's. As a nipper I used to be awe struck by American TV shows like Rockford Files and Quincy because they had push-button telephones! I had never seen a phone without a rotary dial and it would take another 10 or 15 years before you could get them in Britain.

Another personal experiance, on my first day of full-time employment I was working with a typical 1970's throwback. At the end of the day, he physically threatened me for "working too quickly"! Considering this was my first day and I didn't have a clue what I was doing, I couldn't have been working slower. But, of course, it was showing him up, as I didn't take a two hour lunch break, three half hour breaks during the rest of the day and didn't spend half my time chatting to other people.

Originally Posted by Cabana

Quite a number of things...

Not sold us out to Europe.
Not sold us out to the US.
Not allowed immigration to go out of control.
Not allowed PC to get out of control.
Not sold of our gold reserves to fill their own pockets.
Not brought the country to its knees.
Not gotten us involved in needless costly wars.
The list is endless.

I think that the original question that prompted the OP to start this thread is much more relevant.


I am not sure why the OP mentioned unemployed, officuial unemployment figures are nearing 3 million....I would like to know the real figure....it is probably double that knowing the lies that Labour tell.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said it was more like 6 million a few weeks ago. DWP like to hide people on New Deal where they become trainees so do not show up on the unemployment figures + all those on Sickness Benefits who should really be unemployed.

Originally Posted by pandaplodder

I
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said it was more like 6 million a few weeks ago. DWP like to hide people on New Deal where they become trainees so do not show up on the unemployment figures + all those on Sickness Benefits who should really be unemployed.

I've got a niece who has a live-in boyfriend of about 22 who has never worked, and probably never will, because he gets, wait for it ..... 'panic attacks' if he has to go to work. Nothing humiliating like signing on is required, so he doesn't appear in any unemployment figures, he just sits on his bloated, fat, thick arrse all day drinking from cans of lager and knocking out kids like there is no tomorrow. They have two so far and another on the way. For this 'hardship' he gets a couple of hundred quid a week and all the benefits you can think of. Oh, and a nice new Barrett house on a brand new estate.

Maggies fault, obviously.

Originally Posted by Oil_Slick

Originally Posted by Twizzlelehope

Originally Posted by LateStarter

Magaret Thatcher - Nuff Said. :D

Agreed - "The Iron Lady" was not for turning.

You'll never see that fat cvnt Brown in a tank,


Even if he wanted to, he couldn't squeeze through the hatch.

And he would only need a mono-goggle if such a thing exists.

Originally Posted by Awol

Originally Posted by pandaplodder

I
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said it was more like 6 million a few weeks ago. DWP like to hide people on New Deal where they become trainees so do not show up on the unemployment figures + all those on Sickness Benefits who should really be unemployed.

I've got a niece who has a live-in boyfriend of about 22 who has never worked, and probably never will, because he gets, wait for it ..... 'panic attacks' if he has to go to work. Nothing humiliating like signing on is required, so he doesn't appear in any unemployment figures, he just sits on his bloated, fat, thick arrse all day drinking from cans of lager and knocking out kids like there is no tomorrow. They have two so far and another on the way. For this 'hardship' he gets a couple of hundred quid a week and all the benefits you can think of. Oh, and a nice new Barrett house on a brand new estate.

Maggies fault, obviously.

Well, in fairness she did introduce incapacity benefit. To hide the real level of unemployment.

Originally Posted by PoisonDwarf

Originally Posted by StickyEnd

Anyway, as a Nation we became a far wealthier one due to Thatcher's policies. Was it all good? No. Was it all bad? No.

Wealthier? Wealthier than what or whom? Isn't it all relative / comparative?

At the end of the day, the OP isn't going to get a balanced view of a political question on ARRSE. It's like a drunken version of the Daily Hate.

OK, I'll put it another way. The average family in the UK had far more resources to use/consume in 1995 than in 1975.