Galvanise_ said:
Given that I was born in 88, i've often been surprised by the level of Thatcher Hate. She won three terms, was in with the Americans and did a lot of decent reforms. Sure, she fucked off/over a lot of unions and brought in the poll tax, but surely she felt she had the publics support given the number of votes she won.
It's kind of hard to explain how it felt. But try reading your post over again - but before you read it over, imagine yourself in the position of a local miner in, say, South Wales or South Yorkshire. So local that you don't need - and probably can't afford - a car. Your pit closes as a result of what you see - and are told - as Conservative policies.
Now, usually you'd go to another pit - but this time they have all closed. All of them. EVerything withinh even stupid cycling distance.
Nearest pit you can get work is possibly in Durham. 200 miles. Plus you can't afford to move, plus everyone else is thinking the same thing so competition will be huge. You can't even afford to get there for interview if they have one. There's no other work around, not in your valley, not in the next one. Valley next over there's a steel mill, but they have the same trouble. They're pulling people from their other plant at the coast to avoid redundancies rather than sacking them 15 miles south and recruiting you. There's a commitment to regeneration funds for your valley, but that won't produce results for 10 years.
Multiply that by a lot across multiple industries and you get some sort of feel what it was like. Complete hopelessness in many areas.
Now generally I'm a supporter of what Mrs Thatcher did. But that's not ignorant support - I lived in South Wales and South Yorkshire at the time, I saw what it did, listened to people affected. I still think it was right - and so do some of the people who lived there, lost their jobs and had to deal with it the best they could. It was largely an accident of industry like the Cornish tin mines, when they are no longer economical - they close and leave some devastation.
But what should we do? Keep them open as tourist attractions (works maybe once, and besides needs far fewer less-skilled staff)? Run them at a loss (seems the preferred option of some Union barons)? Put up Tariff barriers (bang goes free trade).
On the whole, it needed sorting. It got sorted relatively quickly. Better that than dragging it out.
Hell of a hole for people to find themselves in, but also a horrible hole for politicians to find themselves in. Something had to be done, something got done. It might not have been the same something or the best something, but it got done. And that was important.
