This is possibly one of the most complex topics on this forum. Undoubtedly, the Unions in the 70's were massively powerful and able to bring their industries to thier knees - governance of the country was not really in the hands of the elected politicians but in the gift of the Union Leaders. In that respect, the Unions needed to look at the greater good, not just to the benefit of their members, although some may argue that that would be beyond their remit. In the absence of this kind of pragmatic self-interested holistic view, with the Unions willing to come out for any and every reason, it was inevitable that someone would have to take them on.
However, Thatcher delighted in taking them on and not only reducing their powers, but destroying them. Having removed the only real counterwieght, she was able to flog the family silver - the nationalised service industries - Gas, Electric, Water, Rail, selling off the council house stocks without replacement and deregulate the previously highly regulated financial services industry. In the short term, this generated a large glut of money for reducing taxes for their mates - witness the reduction of the top rate of tax from 85% to 40% for example - and produced a false sense of wealth for the working classes, who owned their homes for the first time. The appreciation of the prices of shares in the now-privatised utilities proved beyond doubt that they were sold off at way below the correct market price, and the Tories' mates made the most of this. Even the working classes appreciated the mirage profit from the rise in thier ex-council house's valuation.
But now we are reaping the whirlwind. The prices of energy is spirilling, the big utilites companies making in excess of £1bn annually each DURING A RECESSION with the government unable to effect them; a lack of any affordable housing for starters for a number of reasons, from the artificially inflated house prices due to a lack of actual stock available, no rentable council housing because no new stock was built after the old was sold off, large deposits needed due to the collapse in the mortgage sector on the back of the stupid 125% mortgages and fraudulent gained (and arguably conspired by bank staff on commissions) mortgages; huge expansion of Welfare State on the back of having to pay inflated utilites and rent payments (see the first two above) - and now even working people have to claim 'benefits' to make ends meet but still stigmatised as 'Parasites' and 'Spongers' by the likes of the Daily Mail, who link the behaviour of a psychopath like Philpott with claiming benefits.
Had Thatcher not sold off the Utilites, Council Housing and Rail, we could be looking at a much lower Welfare State bill because we would still control the prices of rent and utilites. The contracts of state employees could have been modernised but not destroyed in the manner they were, and we could have retained a sense of united community and society that the Tories always hated because it got in the way of making profits by looking after each other, and not gloried in the 'Greed is Good' message which is at the heart of may social ills today - the shortcuts that, for example, drug dealers take to their wealth, looking after no1 and to hell with everyone else...
However, Thatcher delighted in taking them on and not only reducing their powers, but destroying them. Having removed the only real counterwieght, she was able to flog the family silver - the nationalised service industries - Gas, Electric, Water, Rail, selling off the council house stocks without replacement and deregulate the previously highly regulated financial services industry. In the short term, this generated a large glut of money for reducing taxes for their mates - witness the reduction of the top rate of tax from 85% to 40% for example - and produced a false sense of wealth for the working classes, who owned their homes for the first time. The appreciation of the prices of shares in the now-privatised utilities proved beyond doubt that they were sold off at way below the correct market price, and the Tories' mates made the most of this. Even the working classes appreciated the mirage profit from the rise in thier ex-council house's valuation.
But now we are reaping the whirlwind. The prices of energy is spirilling, the big utilites companies making in excess of £1bn annually each DURING A RECESSION with the government unable to effect them; a lack of any affordable housing for starters for a number of reasons, from the artificially inflated house prices due to a lack of actual stock available, no rentable council housing because no new stock was built after the old was sold off, large deposits needed due to the collapse in the mortgage sector on the back of the stupid 125% mortgages and fraudulent gained (and arguably conspired by bank staff on commissions) mortgages; huge expansion of Welfare State on the back of having to pay inflated utilites and rent payments (see the first two above) - and now even working people have to claim 'benefits' to make ends meet but still stigmatised as 'Parasites' and 'Spongers' by the likes of the Daily Mail, who link the behaviour of a psychopath like Philpott with claiming benefits.
Had Thatcher not sold off the Utilites, Council Housing and Rail, we could be looking at a much lower Welfare State bill because we would still control the prices of rent and utilites. The contracts of state employees could have been modernised but not destroyed in the manner they were, and we could have retained a sense of united community and society that the Tories always hated because it got in the way of making profits by looking after each other, and not gloried in the 'Greed is Good' message which is at the heart of may social ills today - the shortcuts that, for example, drug dealers take to their wealth, looking after no1 and to hell with everyone else...
