Baroness Thatcher passed away

ukcarper

Generali wrote: »

I take your point but in the old days we'd all have to wait 18 months for an over skilled engineer to be able to visit.

Perhaps it's better that most are connected in days and a few wait years?

That must have been the old days the only thing you had to wait a long time for was a new line.

I'm not saying BT was a well run company prior to privatizations it wasn't and some of the efficiency changes have been good for company but they could and probably would have happened anyway.

sabretoothtigger

Is it true that without Thatcher we might not have Mr Whippy icecream?

Im a big fan, that alone deserves a 21 gun salute I reckon

StevieJ

CLAPTON wrote: »

that is of course so but it is meant is the sense that

later administration had the opportunity to
-reopen the mines
-reopen Liverpool docks
-re-nationalise various industries
-reintroduce 95% marginal tax rates
-reverse financial deregulation
-build more council houses


like with the descendents of William 1, the policies remained unchanges

It appears that the Thatcher legacy only counts when it is perceived to be positive

Margaret Thatcher is keeping a record number of Britons in work, nearly 30 years after her policies drove unemployment to the highest in living memory.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-08/thatcher-legacy-sees-employment-rising-amid-u-k-slump.html

BTW the Mail is really dredging the Mariana trench this week, they really are a pathetic excuse of a newspaper

MS1950

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

Is it true that without Thatcher we might not have Mr Whippy icecream?

Im a big fan, that alone deserves a 21 gun salute I reckon

And it's in keeping with her her later political life that this only recorded application of her scientific training involved:

"a method of doubling the amount of air in ice cream, which allowed manufacturers to use less of the actual ingredients, thereby reducing costs".

http://www.mrwhippyicecream.co.uk/the-history-of-ice-cream/

roy62

If she was so good why did they kick her out.

Graham_Devon

ukcarper wrote: »

The way faults are handled now is worse than in the past technicians being sent out on faults which to any train person are obviuosly in exchange.

This is what I meant about their core services. I don't actually get many faults anymore. Certainly far less than we used to.

ukcarper

Graham_Devon wrote: »

This is what I meant about their core services. I don't actually get many faults anymore. Certainly far less than we used to.

More to do with equipment than any thing else.

Generali

ukcarper wrote: »

More to do with equipment than any thing else.

Developed as a result of the profit motive in a capitalist system

There's not much point in setting up a company to peruse a great idea if 'unearned' income is going to be taxed at 98% (as I believe it was in 1979).

ash28

ILW wrote: »

I believe the NUM actually went on strike (or threatened to) during WW2.

The NUM wasn't formed until 1945....

However, there were more days lost to strikes during WW2 than the preceding 10 years....not just the miners, lots of other strikers too, apprentices, shipyard workers, armaments workers....the first dispute of the war was Clydeside apprentices in 1941....

Of the strikes around half were about pay and half about working conditions. And strikes were illegal...

A miner during the war years was more likely to be killed or injured than at anytime during the preceding 30 years or so. The death and injury rates in the mines during the war were high. At the time of nationalisation in 1946 the death rate was around 80 per 100k. It fell over the years to rate of about 10 per 100k in the 60s - but since privatisation has risen again to around 40 per 100k - the average in industry is 0.7 per 100k.

Mine owners opened or re-opened seams that were deemed to be dangerous or uneconomical in peace time...that wouldn't have been in the name of profit would it?

During the years 1939 to 1945, 20k miners were seriously injured and 5.5k were killed.

I think for a lot of working people the war years were a time of intolerable working conditions, rations and poor air raid provision...conditions that I think most of us just couldn't imagine.

Jennifer_Jane

ash28 wrote: »

The NUM wasn't formed until 1945....

However, there were more days lost to strikes during WW2 than the preceding 10 years....not just the miners, lots of other strikers too, apprentices, shipyard workers, armaments workers....the first dispute of the war was Clydeside apprentices in 1941....

Of the strikes around half were about pay and half about working conditions. And strikes were illegal...

A miner during the war years was more likely to be killed or injured than at anytime during the preceding 30 years or so. The death and injury rates in the mines during the war were high. At the time of nationalisation in 1946 the death rate was around 80 per 100k. It fell over the years to rate of about 10 per 100k in the 60s - but since privatisation has risen again to around 40 per 100k - the average in industry is 0.7 per 100k.

Mine owners opened or re-opened seams that were deemed to be dangerous or uneconomical in peace time...that wouldn't have been in the name of profit would it?

During the years 1939 to 1945, 20k miners were seriously injured and 5.5k were killed.

I think for a lot of working people the war years were a time of intolerable working conditions, rations and poor air raid provision...conditions that I think most of us just couldn't imagine.

I have always thought that the strikes during the war years were an act of huge betrayal to a starving Country. I assume previously uneconomic mines were opened because of the threat to shipping to bring in imported coal.

If I'm wrong, then apologies, but that's always been my view.

You are right about the conditions though. My sister used to hide under the stairs - what does that do to a child? My mother once showed me a bullet mark where a German plane had shot at her. No wonder MacMillan said in the 60's "You've never had it so good". I remember (and a couple of others here (BobQ, Grizzly?) will remember rationing.

But the War did give us some great recipes - apple crumble; carrot cake.

Still nothing like what the people on mainland Europe had to deal with obviously.