Remembering what Thatcher led us out of

IN his opening paragraph, Dr Glyn Powell refers to the myth perpetrated by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s that our economic failings were the fault of trade unions (Yorkshire Post, August 22). Either he has a short memory or is perhaps too young to remember the 30 years before Thatcher.

Harold Wilson famously said a week was a long time in politics and for 30 years, it was also a long time without a major industrial strike.

In his next paragraph, he talks of Tory MPs blaming “idle workers”. At any one time, thousands of workers were “idle” but that should not to be read as meaning lazy or indolent. They were idle because their dinosaur union leaders regularly deprived them of the opportunity to work by calling an endless succession of strikes.

They used to boast of, and demonstrate, their ability to bring the country to a standstill. Their power over their memberships was imposed by such practices as voting with a show of hands at mass meetings where dissenters could be identified and subsequently intimidated into compliance. Being “sent to Coventry” was one well-known practice but those who served in industry could testify to more malicious and less well-known methods.

There are many factors that have led to our present parlous economic situation but the unions, or more exactly their leaders were a major factor in the destruction of our manufacturing infrastructure.

There is plenty to argue about what Thatcher may or may not have led us into, but let us not forget what she led us out of. Dr Powell goes on to say that short-termism is a trait of Britain’s so-called elite. He is absolutely right about that, although who he includes in the elite is perhaps a separate question. Politicians don’t think beyond the next election.

At the same time, a large section of the public also have the unfortunate habit of changing their choice of Government if it hasn’t achieved their expectations of Utopia within two or three years of election.

On the other hand, long-term thinking by some politicians can equally be flawed. A prime example was Aneurin Bevan who argued at the creation of the NHS that the cost would progressively reduce as the nation became healthier with the benefits of free healthcare.

From: Don Burslam, Elm Road, Dewsbury Moor, Dewsbury.

I CONCUR with Mr Davies (Yorkshire Post, August 15) in his doubts about the viability of the capitalist system but I am afraid I cannot join him in his belief in Keynesianism economics.

This has, of course, been tried repeatedly and leads only to stagflation and uncompetitiveness whatever the initial surge in the indices. It goes without saying that Marxism too is a non-starter having been tested to destruction, literally.

So far the Government has failed to kick start the economy but before people rush to judgment, however, the figures show that many other countries including the US are achieving little or no growth.

From: David W. Wright, Uppleby, Easingwold, North Yorkshire.

THE serious news about the UK’s economic situation showing a deficit of £600m in July and the decline in export order books partly blamed on the eurozone debt crisis, makes one wonder whether our coalition Government has any answers to our growing problems.

Yes, we need to divorce ourselves from the EU as quickly as possible, but closer to home there are questions to be asked about our fuel taxes which are the highest in the EU (Yorkshire Post, August 24) with 60 per cent of what customers pay at the pumps going straight to the taxman.

Presumably this goes some way to pay for our continued and unjustified involvement in conflicts outside the UK, such as Afghanistan, and worryingly the noises being made by William Hague about involvement in the Syrian conflict.

But we are daft enough to cut back our Armed Forces and police and yet expect our police to pay for policing the football clubs when we see the obscene wages paid to the footballers and the profits made by the clubs.

While we continue to fork out a £3m subsidy to the trade unions “to train their activists” and Whitehall departments are still increasing their already bloated staff numbers for example, there is little hope for us.

Ball boy left 
in tears

From: Claire Dewis, Tackford Road, Wyken, Coventry.

I AM writing to express my disgust at the actions of a large contingent of Sheffield United fans at the recent match against Coventry City at the Ricoh Arena.

An incident just prior to Sheffield scoring involved my son, one of the ball boys at the club. The ball was kicked into the sterile part of the away stand, and my son was responsible for its retrieval. As he had been watching the pitch, as required, he did not see exactly which row the ball had gone into and the ball was a similar colour to the seats. He could not find the ball immediately, which led to the Sheffield fans booing, shouting abuse and using profane language, accusing him of time wasting.

Thomas is proud to work for the club and was celebrating his 12th birthday. However, he was extremely upset by the reaction of these ignorant, aggressive bullies who obviously considered it appropriate to reduce a small boy to tears in front of 12,000 people. Would they treat their own children in this way? These people do not deserve to be known as supporters as there was nothing supportive about their behaviour.