"Adrian" wrote in message ...

Oh, and btw - if such a large percentage of the population weren't fed up
of the unions etc, how come only 36% voted Labour in '79?

Oh and nothing.

I already explained that in detail earlier in the thread. It's not really my fault if
you suffer
from comprehension, or short term memory problems, now is it ?

They'd had enough of "Sunny Jim", that's true enough. Who was forever promising
to deliver the unions and was failing to do so. His Heathrow press conference following
the Guadaloupe summit, regaling shivering reporters in a winter bound
Heathrow with his tales of swimming in the warm Caribbean between sessions
is what prompted Larry Lamb to run to the wholly aprochryphal
"Crisis what Crisis ?" headline in the next day's "Sun".

Elections are there to be lost as well as won and it was a combination of
a wholly complacent "Sunny Jim" who should have gone in the autumn
but didn't, and accelerated and guaranteed Council House sales, what
swung it.

from Wiki

quote

In the summer before the Winter of Discontent, the minority Labour government's fortunes
in the opinion polls had been improving and suggested that they could gain an overall
majority
in the event of a general election being held. However, on 7 September 1978, Callaghan
announced that no general election would be held that year. Callaghan's failure to call
an
election would ultimately prove to be a costly mistake for his government.[11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_Discontent

quote

As I said Sunny Jim might possibly have won a GE had he gone to the country in the
autumn. Thatchers victory is totally down to him along with the carrot of council
house sales Just as her successive victories were down to the Falklands, and self
inflicted wounds courtesy of Michael Foot, Looney Benn and the Welsh Windbag.
With the unemployment stats fiddled by transferring claimamts onto enhanced
sickness benefit subsidised by oil revenues.


michael adams

....