In article ws.net,
:::Jerry:::: wrote:
Do you really think that paying ten people to do one mans work was
efficient, that was British industry BEFORE the '80's!

That's what you were told. You obviously believed it. It was a lie.

I'm not talking about her vindictive approach to some unions but her
realisation that UK industry was un economic.

Because it was very badly managed. It was changed to be extremely badly
managed.

Re reading the Labour Manifesto of '79 I suspect that Callaghan had come to
the same conclusion and would have used oil revenue to re structure the
countries industry, if only he had gone to the country in '78 - before the
'Winter of Discontent'...

Absolutely. But the 'Winter of Discontent' was almost 100% tabloid fiction.
The mainly successful attempts by the Labour (with Liberal) government to
reduce the 'through the roof' inflation of the previous Tory government had
hit especially hard on the lower paid. Letting go after a period of restraint
is always particularly difficult but the government were (mainly) managing it.
The Liberals bailed out of the coalition in order to reduce the political cost
at the next election of being in government and the tabloids scented blood.
Thatcher solved the very tricky and delicate problem of possible re-inflation
by destroying industry and letting unemployment rip to way over 4 million
after being elected on a 'reduce unemployment' ticket.

Getting back to something close to uk.d.i.y. I worked at finding jobs for
people in the building industry during the 70s and managed a close-on 100%
success rate to get joiners, brickies, plasterers, H&V Engineers, &c in work
at the end of a six-moth training course. Employment prospects never got back
to that in the 80s and 90s - and house prices didn't go down because that
'over-employment' had disappeared.

--
John Cartmell john@ followed by finnybank.com 0845 006 8822
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