Thatcher stood up to forces of anarchy as industry declined

From: Gordon Lawrence, Stumperlowe View, Sheffield.

IN response to my letter (Yorkshire Post, September 21) Mr Trevor Woolley accuses me of mistakenly glorifying 
Margaret Thatcher (Yorkshire Post, October 1) but he seems to have evaded all the factual contents I set out. Nevertheless, I will attempt to address some of the allegations and facts he presents in his reply.

Yes, Mr Woolley, I do acknowledge that most of the old manufacturing industries of the North, and I will include Wales, Scotland and the Midlands, were run down – if not demolished – during Mrs Thatcher’s premiership.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But these industries had 
been on the verge of obsolescence or at least rapid decline before Mrs Thatcher arrived on the scene.

Their demise was inevitable. Other countries with labour forces, more flexible and willing to accept change and new technologies (e.g. in shipbuilding and car manufacture) captured the markets.

In fact, it was the resistance of the left-wing militants, causing mayhem, that prevented a more benign rundown of these industries. Decline became extinction because of the worsening ability of our manufacturers to survive against global competition.

Arthur Scargill and other NUM leaders accelerated the downfall of the mines when he, undemocratically, precipitated the miners strike in 1984. Scargill’s prime motivation was in fulfilling his own anarchic political ideology rather than concern for the miners and their families. Arthur Scargill, like many other left wing extremists, regarded democracy not as an ideal but as a vehicle to be exploited.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

As for the selling off of gas, electricity and other nationalised industries one would think, according to Trevor Woolley, they were models of efficiency. In fact, they exemplified what was seriously wrong with the British economy.

They were over-manned, strike-ridden, lacking in investment and often an affront to their customer base. They were a happy hunting ground for destructive anti-capitalists. And in spite of their losses they could not go bankrupt. It was hardworking taxpayers who were milked to sustain their existence and support the excesses of the subversive activists.

Mrs Thatcher, it seemed, was the only one who had the energy, intelligence, guts, resilience and staying power to stand up to the disruptive forces that bedevilled the country.

Admittedly, she was no 
paragon of virtue, but Trevor Woolley, like so many of her critics, have made her a scapegoat in the very painful but essential transformation our country so desperately needed.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It was the unrelenting forces of anarchy against the forces of democracy and economic necessity that intensified the struggle to make the fallout much worse.

From: Ken Holmes, Cliffe Common, Selby, York.

THE easiest thing in the world to do is spend someone else’s money. Hence, Ed Balls tells us that if Labour are elected next time around, he intends to spend, spend, spend.

That tells us he has learned nothing from the last time he pushed someone to do it.

The phraseology “spend, spend, spend” reminds me of pools winner Ms Viv Nicholson from Castleford. She said she would do it and did. She spent her money in style and enjoyed it while it lasted. And above all, it was her own money, unlike the brass that Ed Balls and company intend to fritter away “if” they get the chance.

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

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

WE all have to deal with the council, government departments including the Inland Revenue, building societies, banks, insurance companies etc. The amount of leaflets, booklets, letters, certificates and guarantees is reaching ridiculous proportions.

My instinct now when receiving yet another wad of this useless stuff is to throw it in the bin unread.

Unfortunately, however, 
there may be a document amid all the dross which actually serves some purpose and should be retained.

Perhaps the people who write these verbose and superfluous screeds should reflect a little before writing them.

After all, I thought we were 
all supposed to be saving 
money. Somebody should tell 
the bureaucrats but I suppose they live in a world of their own.