Britain today

[John Boy Saint]

I take it your not old enough to remember Thatchers Britain!

 

Some of us remember the Labour Government before she came to power.

 

Makes you laugh really, yes she like all Prime Ministers in the job too long let it all go to her head in the end, but when she took over this country was going down the pan at a rate of knots. Unions ran the country striking for the merest reasons, rubbish piling up in the streets amongst other things, we were a leper colony to other countries, she had the balls most politicians lack in doing the nasty things to get this country going again. Most people in the south had very little to moan about in the mid to late eighties.

Anyone living in an around Southampton today who's livelyhood relies on the business that the docks brings in would be doing something else if she had not taken on the unions, Southampton Docks had a union led policy, going back years, of replacing whoever left with another person despite the technology being in place to make the docks more efficient. The docks were people inefficient and losing money because they were too expensive, the result of breaking the stranglehold of the unions all those years ago means that Southampton still has a successful shipping port. (I will point out that I had an Uncle who worked in the docks for years, the amount of times we were round his house with my Auntie in the 70's when I was little and he would come home in the middle of the day, take off his boots and Donkey jacket walk into the kitchen and say "we are bloody out again" were countless).

 

I am not defending Maggie like she was a god, I had negative equity, I had mortgage payments on a small mortgage that made you sweat, both my wife and I were made redundant as a result of the economy under her tenure. But she did make the S hitty decisions that none of the clowns today would make.

When it comes to political digs slagging Thatcher is a bit lame in 2009, and a bit old hat: a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then.

[badgerx16]

Quote:

Originally Posted by badgerx16

Seems like a typical inbred, narrow-minded, bigoted, Yorkie.

 

Do you actually realise the sheer hypocrisy of that statement?

 

I would accept the tautological error of having "inbred, narrow-minded, bigoted" and "yorkie" in the one sentence.

[Wade Garrett]

Some of us remember the Labour Government before she came to power.

 

Makes you laugh really, yes she like all Prime Ministers in the job too long let it all go to her head in the end, but when she took over this country was going down the pan at a rate of knots. Unions ran the country striking for the merest reasons, rubbish piling up in the streets amongst other things, we were a leper colony to other countries, she had the balls most politicians lack in doing the nasty things to get this country going again. Most people in the south had very little to moan about in the mid to late eighties.

Anyone living in an around Southampton today who's livelyhood relies on the business that the docks brings in would be doing something else if she had not taken on the unions, Southampton Docks had a union led policy, going back years, of replacing whoever left with another person despite the technology being in place to make the docks more efficient. The docks were people inefficient and losing money because they were too expensive, the result of breaking the stranglehold of the unions all those years ago means that Southampton still has a successful shipping port. (I will point out that I had an Uncle who worked in the docks for years, the amount of times we were round his house with my Auntie in the 70's when I was little and he would come home in the middle of the day, take off his boots and Donkey jacket walk into the kitchen and say "we are bloody out again" were countless).

 

I am not defending Maggie like she was a god, I had negative equity, I had mortgage payments on a small mortgage that made you sweat, both my wife and I were made redundant as a result of the economy under her tenure. But she did make the S hitty decisions that none of the clowns today would make.

When it comes to political digs slagging Thatcher is a bit lame in 2009, and a bit old hat: a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then.

 

I agree with your last comment, but what you say about the docks isn't accurate at all. OK they did strike, I remember my dad being on strike for 14 weeks, but for good reason. On that occasion, the judge came firmly down on the side of the workers, and it was the management who had broken the law (this was 1984ish, when union bashing was in its golden era).

 

To say it was all the fault of the workers, and that they somehow stopped the use of improving technology is wrong. Ask them yourselves, and they will tell you that the National Dock Labour Scheme was outdated and needed to be replaced.

[bristolsaint29]

There was no Royal Mail depot invaded and lorries trashed, the truth of it is that Royal Mail have been asked to divert from the route that was involved in the acciedent due to people mourning the gypsies death throwing stones at the vans, slightly different from the story you have portrayed.

 

In respect of the hospital they were not deliberately blocking the entrance but if anyone knew the hospital there is insufficient parking anyway.

 

I'm not condoning there actions just pointing out facts and to be fair more concerned about the innocent Royal Mail driver who is currently in hospital with a broken back.

 

If you want to have a rant about this country look at the fact the Bristol police shut all 4 lanes of the M5 for 7.5 hrs whilst trying to talk down a man who jumped from the Avonmouth bridge causing 35 mile tailbacks on a bank holiday weekend.

 

Oh and the fact that no water was handed out to the estimated 15000 cars stuck in the following mess.

[badgerx16]

There was no Royal Mail depot invaded and lorries trashed, the truth of it is that Royal Mail have been asked to divert from the route that was involved in the acciedent due to people mourning the gypsies death throwing stones at the vans, slightly different from the story you have portrayed.

 

In respect of the hospital they were not deliberately blocking the entrance but if anyone knew the hospital there is insufficient parking anyway.

 

I'm not condoning there actions just pointing out facts and to be fair more concerned about the innocent Royal Mail driver who is currently in hospital with a broken back.

You mean it isn't a 'true story' Maybe it came from the Daily Mail

Oh well, I suppose you should never let the facts get in the way of a good old rant !

[spyinthesky]

I agree with your last comment, but what you say about the docks isn't accurate at all. OK they did strike, I remember my dad being on strike for 14 weeks, but for good reason. On that occasion, the judge came firmly down on the side of the workers, and it was the management who had broken the law (this was 1984ish, when union bashing was in its golden era).

 

To say it was all the fault of the workers, and that they somehow stopped the use of improving technology is wrong. Ask them yourselves, and they will tell you that the National Dock Labour Scheme was outdated and needed to be replaced.

 

Wade I worked in the Docks in the 80's. The men had a decent job, good pay with plenty of time off due to overmanning but still they had disputes about the most obscure reasons.

They even had internal disputes with people within their own union (eg if a lorry driver did not carry a union card he might not get unloaded)

The NDLB Scheme was the prime reason for this which basically provided a Docker with a job for life. It was probably easier to sack a High Court Judge than a Docker

The NDLB scheme ports were very ineffective in comparison to Continental or non Scheme ports. The men were v poorly led by their Union (TGWU) and, if the union had been more realistic it would be highly unlikely that Thatcher would have sought to repeal the NDLB act.

As it was the NDLB was disbanded, many Dockers lost their job and the ports became far more competitive with productivity per man increasing by 300% on the first year the NDLB was disbanded.

Individually the men were good people and great fun but collectively they were a pain in the arse

[Saint George]

Yup...When i was a Merchant Seaman back in the 70's, I used to 'hate' coming to UK Ports ....Everything was soooo antiquated and the attitude of the Dockers stunk....What would take a week to load/unload in Britain could be done in 2-3 days in pretty much any other major Port in the western world....In fact you were doing well if you weren't delayed even further with strikes or breakdowns etc.....

 

No wonder the only thing you'll find in most of the once great old British Dockyards these days are Apartments. I guess you could call them a monument to the successes of socialism

[Thorpe-le-Saint]

Yup...When i was a Merchant Seaman back in the 70's, I used to 'hate' coming to UK Ports ....Everything was soooo antiquated and the attitude of the Dockers stunk....What would take a week to load/unload in Britain could be done in 2-3 days in pretty much any other major Port in the western world....In fact you were doing well if you weren't delayed even further with strikes or breakdowns etc.....

 

No wonder the only thing you'll find in most of the once great old British Dockyards these days are Apartments. I guess you could call them a monument to the successes of socialism

 

It must be great giving us a lecture on the wonders of Capitalism from up there on your pedastal. If workers in this country were paid decent wages and given decent terms and conditions of employment then there would be no need for strikes. However, as is ALWAYS the way with Capitalism, the making of money takes priority and this is put above everything else.

[Junction 9]

The French never strike do they.

[bristolsaint29]

I have come to the conclusion that Bristol is becoming a seriously ****ed up place to live, so far this week we have had a bloke stabbed on Park street in the city centre whilst sat in his car, a 17 yr old boy has been murdered within 1 mile of where I live (which is a small suburb on outskirts-quite nice actually)with up to 30 kids fighting using bricks and broken bike parts? and now 3 boys have done a copycat of the assault recently on 2 boys sexually assaulting them and making them perform sex acts on each other and making them eat dog poo! These 3 kids were 11 and 12!!!

 

Think I may need to move