We Must Un-Thatcherise the North
Interesting article here
http://www.ukipdaily.com/must-un-thatcherise-north/#.U7krWLFYySo
that's right - UKIP!
"To describe the struggle between Thatcher and the miners as a civil war is not a connotation I use lightly, but to use any other term would be bereft in highlighting just exactly what took place in that year long strike; Thatcher put into use all the resources available to her, from employing MI5 to encroach on the demonstrations, the use of National newspapers to unapologetically smear Arthur Scargill and his henchman with questionable accusations (much in the same manner they do with Nigel Farage and UKIP today), to setting up a crack team of Police Officers to directly and violently engage the demonstrating miners, pitching brother against brother, sons against fathers, and wives against husbands".
" .......what we now see today, are the once prosperous and united industrial cities now divided and in many areas reduced to abandonment and dilapidation, where crime, drugs and alcohol are a normal way of life. We see a country which is now dangerously close to breaking apart as Scotland, once a Conservative stronghold but now decisively anti-anything Conservative, puts to vote a referendum on independence this September in order to try and break away from the Tory legacy".
I agree with much of what he says, unfortunately I'm not convinced by the economics of fracking and do not believe it is safe. Instead The UK has millions of tons of coal in reserve so that could be a better short term replacement until nuclear fusion is viable.
http://www.ukcoal.com/world-coal-statistics.html (3,196 million tons (2011 figures).
As for his remarks about "financial services", all they do is charge fees and interest on debt they create out of thin air and we know how that ended in 2008!
We are importing coal? Are we insane? We are dependent for oil and gas on dubious "gentlemen" in the Middle East and hoping Vladimir Putin keeps on supplying us (pipelines through the Ukraine). I can just remember the natural gas conversion of the late 1960s, happy days when we were told natural gas would be so cheap it would cost too much to meter it.
http://www.ukipdaily.com/must-un-thatcherise-north/#.U7krWLFYySo
that's right - UKIP!
"To describe the struggle between Thatcher and the miners as a civil war is not a connotation I use lightly, but to use any other term would be bereft in highlighting just exactly what took place in that year long strike; Thatcher put into use all the resources available to her, from employing MI5 to encroach on the demonstrations, the use of National newspapers to unapologetically smear Arthur Scargill and his henchman with questionable accusations (much in the same manner they do with Nigel Farage and UKIP today), to setting up a crack team of Police Officers to directly and violently engage the demonstrating miners, pitching brother against brother, sons against fathers, and wives against husbands".
" .......what we now see today, are the once prosperous and united industrial cities now divided and in many areas reduced to abandonment and dilapidation, where crime, drugs and alcohol are a normal way of life. We see a country which is now dangerously close to breaking apart as Scotland, once a Conservative stronghold but now decisively anti-anything Conservative, puts to vote a referendum on independence this September in order to try and break away from the Tory legacy".
I agree with much of what he says, unfortunately I'm not convinced by the economics of fracking and do not believe it is safe. Instead The UK has millions of tons of coal in reserve so that could be a better short term replacement until nuclear fusion is viable.
http://www.ukcoal.com/world-coal-statistics.html (3,196 million tons (2011 figures).
As for his remarks about "financial services", all they do is charge fees and interest on debt they create out of thin air and we know how that ended in 2008!
We are importing coal? Are we insane? We are dependent for oil and gas on dubious "gentlemen" in the Middle East and hoping Vladimir Putin keeps on supplying us (pipelines through the Ukraine). I can just remember the natural gas conversion of the late 1960s, happy days when we were told natural gas would be so cheap it would cost too much to meter it.
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Comments
With most other methods of generating electricity you can turn off the generators off at will. However with coal the furnaces keep burning even when the electricity is not needed.
Wind Power can work if methods of storage are used for the electricity that is generated at off peak periods. e.g. Hydro storage and compressed air storage.
The same applies to solar, tidal and wave power.
Unusual term to hear.
I don't think you can remove Thatcherism as one might bleach the colour out of a fabric.
Rather, it needs replacing with something new. Which seems to be quite a problem, as there is nothing around to replace it with that carries any plausibility with the majority of the electorate.
Labour seem to be dangling the same old New Labour claptrap, with little promise of anything new.
In the last election we went from the frying pan into the fire. Now we have the option of voting to get back into the frying pan again.
Not great options imo.
It would end up being done by Eastern Europeans.
Not absolutely sure the BIB is true, I thought the coal was ground down to coal dust, the furnace lit, coal dust is blown into the furnaces to keep them burning, and when not required the blowers are turned off the furnaces go out.
Depends on the quality of the coal of how polluting it would be, UK coal is high quality. Unfortunately , most mines are now flooded and would be uneconomical to re-open. Green alternatives don't cut it in an industrialised country due to its cost....Nuclear it is then.....
After all, coal mining is a messy business - I used to live in sight of the massive slag heaps next to one of the collieries in Nottinghamsire, which can cause local geological changes, such as subsidence and pollution of the water table. That's besides how dangerous a profession it can be and damaging to health. Lots for NIMBY types to protest against.
Really?
If you cast your mind back to 1984, there were thousands of men who wanted to carry on in mining. The mines closed, the men were thrown on the scrap heap and many of them never worked again.
Look at Germany, they are stupidly closing down their nuclear power stations and now realising the downside of "renewable green energy".
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-04-14/coal-rises-vampire-like-as-german-utilities-brave-crisis-energy
"Coal Returns to German Utilities Replacing Lost Nuclear: Energy"
"The result: RWE now generates 52 percent of its power in Germany from lignite, up from 45 percent in 2011. And RWE isn’t alone. Utilities all over Germany have ramped up coal use as the nation has watched the mix of coal-generated electricity rise to 45 percent last year, the highest level since 2007".
Somebody replied "Rather, it (Thatcherism) needs replacing with something new. Which seems to be quite a problem, as there is nothing around to replace it with that carries any plausibility with the majority of the electorate".
The ideas in the article seem a good place to start, what a shame Margaret Thatcher is no longer around to read it.
But it's got to the point where it's hard to see them winning a majority for a generation.
I look at the Conservative party today and it's like an old criminal gang carrying off one last "job"
And they will take the FibDems down with them...
It's not 1984 now though.
Coal mining was all they had ever known.
We live in a different world now.
Thatcherism lives on in the form of Farage - what a load of rhetoric.
Hmmm - I'm trying to think of some.....
After we leave the EU, maybe it's time to start dismantling the whole sham of "globalisation". It's not been great for us - has it?
As predicted 20 years ago by Sir James Goldsmith
http://ragingbullshit.com/2014/04/19/sir-james-goldsmith-an-unlikely-defender-of-the-common-man/
"Goldsmith laid out in simple terms the dangers of what he saw as unfettered globalisation, warning of the perils of NAFTA, GATT and the merging of sovereign European nations into the EU. He predicted that the only possible beneficiaries of unbridled global free trade would be the major multinational corporations who would have free rein to roam the globe in pursuit of the cheapest labour".
The problem is that Britain by itself does not have the power to unpick globalisation. It would require the co-operation of a large number of other companies.
That will not happen.
Anyway blocking trade with developing countries only leads to even more poverty in those countries.
Not exactly fair on them is it.
I thought we elected governments to look after OUR interests, not big business.
I don't want to see poverty in any country but our people come first.
I don't think thousands of people who have seen their jobs "offshored" would agree with you.
You do know that trade wars often end in shooting wars don't you.
I don't think that anyone wants to see this.
Also I doubt that anyone would like to see the rises in prices that would come from tariffs being imposed on foreign goods.
What sort of businesses?
Not easy when the products can be made in asian sweatshops (by people earning very little with no healthcare or pensions) and then sold at dumping prices on the british market.
So you are happy to see your taxes spent on social security benefits and the other costs of mass unemployment? You can't have it both ways.
More services than manufacturing but there are still some niche markets the UK manufacturing base is good for.
So let's put this "return t'pit" crap out the window.
Re-building industries such as engineering, textiles, computers and consumer electronics isn't "return t'pit" is it?
We were told that "services" were "the future" when globalisation started to wreak its havoc. Financial services? That ended really well.
Yes but if prices go up then any increase in wages are going to be rendered irrelevant.
If we can replace imports with locally manufactured goods, the unemployed will then
- earn a regular wage / salary
- pay taxes and NI contributions and pay into a pension for retirement
- be able to pay their bills without state help
- have money left over to spend, a boost for other areas of the economy
What's hard about that?
If it sounds like the pre-globalisation 1970s, as the article states
"What was lost? As Beth Butler, a teacher during the 70s, puts it “A zest; a get-up-and-go; an optimism. People seemed to become gradually more passive under Thatcher, as though the colour had gone out of their lives…People were interested in what they had for themselves, rather than doing things together”.
Of course some bad things were going on in those days, no denying of that. But most people had a reasonably secure long term job to look forward to in those days and a future. What future does the young graduate, loaded up with student loan debt drifting from one short term job to another have today? Three years of university followed by decades of stacking shelves in Tesco or serving in McDonalds?