BoxRec

dondada wrote:

Callowland wrote:Which ironically the Labour Party allowed.

A new Labour much more akin to Conservatism than traditional Labour. They betrayed their voters time and again.

fizzjambo wrote:I haven't been out celebrating her death, not because I have a single drop of fondness, respect or good will for her, rather that the damage she and the cohort of cronies in her Government and private industry did has already been done and the effects are entrenched throughout my country and the rest of the UK. I've no issue with anyone celebrating her death, if the media and general political spectrum can trumpet her passing with the fervour many of them are embarking upon then it's just as palatable in my eyes for those who find her passing a reason to rejoice to take to the streets and do so.

The idea that Thatcher as an individual is solely responsible for all of what happened to my country under her tenure is wrong - those in her Government, those she made wealthy, those who voted for her, those whose vested self interests she protected are accountable as well - but she was the figurehead of the changes that were forced through in the 1980's, changes which I believe still take a heavy toll many men women and children today.

The area in Edinburgh where I work today is synonymous with much of what she and others of her ilk caused. Generations of the long term unemployed live in what little council housing remains, much of it barely fit for human existence. Much of it has been knocked down, replaced by a college and hospital built under Private Finance Initiative schemes which levy a heavy cost on the public purse in the form of expensive, fixed rates which return a healthy profit to their private consortiums. What affordable housing is now built is done so under intense pressure, and is done so to the bare minimum, in the least desirable areas. The cost of housing in the city is such that young, working class families are forced to move tens of miles from their families and local communities out to the outskirts, and then take on the financial load of car ownership due to the poor quality of our public transport network. Those who are left behind are left with little. No local community. High crime. Jobs in business parks miles away. In these circumstances drug and alcohol abuse is high, violence and crime common - there is little sense of community.

She stood by as the coal, ship and metal industries in my country were torn apart. Communities suffered the cost. She stood by while a Poll tax was levied with the idea that we all pay the same amounts - peanuts to the city slicker she was helping to make rich, unaffordable fortunes to the manual labourers she had cast aside. The old rates up here were unpopular but the result of the change was that this countries people were treated like lab rats as a testing subject for the rest of the UK.

For me what is there to celebrate? That at 31 I'd be viewed as crazy to seek council housing when what is left of it has been left to rot? That families and communities around me are still suffering from the industries she tore apart? That what is left of the Labour party is a shadow of what it once was, paying lip service to the working class whilst constantly seeking ways to curry favour with middle England (where-ever the hell that is)? I'm glad she is dead but it's about 40 years too late to celebrate it.

DMA1987 wrote:

Mensa07 wrote:Question.. If there is still coal to be mined in these pits, is there anything stopping a private company mining there? I was just wondering if some of these places could ever go back to being mining towns again.

From what I understand the pits were closed in such a way that they can't be safely reopened.

Coco wrote:I felt Maggie and her politics were good for grafters with ambition whatever class you were.

Callowland wrote:Tony Blair really showed us how to reverse Thatcher's policies.

He re-regulated the banks and renationalised the utilities Thatcher privatised, and then re-opened the mines.

He then taxed the rich and re-distributed to the poor.

He also protected British workers' jobs.

What a Socialist.

banjo wrote:British coal was crap wasn't it? Too much sulphur or summat. Foreign coal was better quality and better value.

The motor industry had the same problem, paying over the odds for a piece of poo built here when you can get something from Germany or Japan which won't fall apart and costs less.

keithmoonhangover wrote:

Coco wrote:I felt Maggie and her politics were good for grafters with ambition whatever class you were.

Not if you grafted at a shipyard or coal mine in the North East of England.

Parson Cross wrote:Yes she did. Publicly she was saying we will never give up the Falklands.
Privately negotiations were nearly concluded to hand them back just before the Argies invaded.
Documents disclosed under 30 year rule.
We never learn - all Politicians are liars and piss in the same pot.
Boxing Promotors ..........

fizzjambo wrote:

keithmoonhangover wrote:

Coco wrote:I felt Maggie and her politics were good for grafters with ambition whatever class you were.

Not if you grafted at a shipyard or coal mine in the North East of England.

Agreed. I've always resented this idea that Thatcher was for you if you grafted. You don't get much harder physical graft than down a pit, or on a dockyard. She was for you if you wanted to better yourself but for me and many others that's about climbing your way over the top of others . As idealist as many may see it I'd prefer to better myself by trying to improve the lot of my community or fellow workers rather than simply feather my own nest.

Mensa07 wrote:Question.. If there is still coal to be mined in these pits, is there anything stopping a private company mining there? I was just wondering if some of these places could ever go back to being mining towns again.

palooka wrote:

Mensa07 wrote:Question.. If there is still coal to be mined in these pits, is there anything stopping a private company mining there? I was just wondering if some of these places could ever go back to being mining towns again.

Many of the pits required pumps to clear water; the pumps were turned off and so the pits flooded and the machinary ruined, loads of the gear down there had to be taken down and then assembled. The coal cannot be recovered, it just got wasted.

Mensa07 wrote:

palooka wrote:

Mensa07 wrote:Question.. If there is still coal to be mined in these pits, is there anything stopping a private company mining there? I was just wondering if some of these places could ever go back to being mining towns again.

Many of the pits required pumps to clear water; the pumps were turned off and so the pits flooded and the machinary ruined, loads of the gear down there had to be taken down and then assembled. The coal cannot be recovered, it just got wasted.

ah ok, thanks.

palooka wrote:The new estate at Edlington and the one at Armthorpe on top of the pit works have problems with subsidence.

Mensa07 wrote:

palooka wrote:

Mensa07 wrote:Question.. If there is still coal to be mined in these pits, is there anything stopping a private company mining there? I was just wondering if some of these places could ever go back to being mining towns again.

Many of the pits required pumps to clear water; the pumps were turned off and so the pits flooded and the machinary ruined, loads of the gear down there had to be taken down and then assembled. The coal cannot be recovered, it just got wasted.

ah ok, thanks.