Thatcher’s revolution was final nail in the coffin for UK - Yorkshire Post letters

Gordon Lawrence (Letters, The Yorkshire Post, May 10) praises the myth of Thatcher’s revolution of 40 years ago. In fact, it was more like the final nail in the coffin of the UK.

Last year in 2018, the Tories were boasting our economy has been as strong as it was 40 years ago.

If I’m right, that goes back to 1978 – that horrid Old Labour government the Tories were so desperate to get out as the country was in dire straits – or so the Tories and their media claimed.

In 1978, we had millions more in work, millions fewer living in the UK.

You could buy a pint of bitter in the North, 20 fags and get a little change from a pound, we had the majority of our industry left, employment rights after 13 weeks (not a EU policy), reasonable wages, thousands more pubs, and women retired at 60 and men at 65.

Forty years on according to the Tories in 2018 and to this day, I would need a minimum of £11.50 to buy a pint of bitter and packet of cheapest 20 fags to get a little change in my area of the North.

Employment rights are back to two years (not a EU policy) as Thatcher’s regime immediately in 1979 began changing employment rights.

Women now retire at 65 and men at 66 after Tony Blair’s Americanised minimum wage – which reduced manpower and hours – was carried on by the Tories who, deep down, detest it but know that to scrap it is a vote loser.

There have been millions more invited in for existing jobs, as well as thousands of illegal immigrants who have gone from the radar – deliberately, I and many others believe – more and more unemployment fiddles, thousands fewer pubs, more homelessness and many dying, with patients left on hospital trolleys.

In contrast, there are more tax breaks and loopholes for the wealthy and policies to attack the less well-off which have carried on since Thatcher’s destruction from 1979.

But the Tories blame everyone from unions to single mums for their failure. Between 1979 and 1997, the Tories more than doubled the cost to the welfare state and are still doing so – but if it stabilises inflation to have more claiming, so be it.

Thatcher’s revolution that Gordon Lawrence speaks of is still living on; we’re going further down the pan.

Thatcher’s policies are to blame – what happened to my pint, 20 fags and a little change for a quid before Thatcher wrecked us?