Labour Leadership watch

We have become so obsessed with what politicians look like [even what their WIVES look like] other than how intelligent/honest they are .

WW would you deny the part played by some unions in the 1970s and truly want a return to they ways they acted, often against the interests if their members, at that time?

I speak as someone who was a Union Rep myself.

How can anyone ignore the fact that Brown and Labour left us in such a mess? Yes, there was a world wide recession, but the great economist Brown
Had a lot to answer for too.

Ed Miliband did in the end, apologise for that, but a bit late.

The unions were bringing this country to it's knees in the 1970's, we know because we all lived through it!
Whatever you think of Thatcher, the one thing she did that was good, was to curb the power of the unions,and the massive effect they had both on the country in general and the Labour Party.

I didn't, and still don't, agree with the way she treated the miners though.

The car workers, and others of that ilk, did need curbs.

Perhaps so, Anya, and I have read that Arthur Scargill, was a great problem too and that miners were cursing him as much as Thatcher.

All water under the bridge now, but it would be a bad thing for the country should the unions ever get so out of control again.

OK let's look at the marvel that was Thatcher.
Poll tax riots 1981 - policy abandoned
Company earnings down by a massive 35%
Unemployment reached an enormous 3.3million yes I repeat 3.3million!!!!!
The precious oil revenue used to plug the deficit caused by her monetarist policies.
Social housing sold off from which it has never recovered.
Inflation rose to 18%

And of course a recession caused by her po!icies

Who said she was a marvel? I said the 'one good thing' that she did.
But that was so very long ago now, best to stick with recent history.

The miners strike and the treatment of our families may be water under the bridge for those not affected, it certainly isn't by those affected . That cow Thatcher stopped money to feed the children of the miners , families lost their homes, communities were wrecked , but it takes an evil person to take support away from innocent children , using children to tske revenge , evil, evil, evil,

Well some of you have had fun with Michael Foot's coats. I remember at the time, when all the right wing papers were having a go, that there seemed to be a taste of inverted snobbery in the comments. We were in the days when more younger people were going to university and you could hear the venom about how they dressed, behaved, etc. Foot looked rather like a university lecturer to me.

Margaret Hilda, on the other hand, always made me think of Allen Bennett's mother in the way that she dressed. You know, at a time when the class system still mattered, the upper working class and lower middle class wanted rules - although poor old AB's mother often got them wrong. MH enabled them to copy the already out of date hairdo (except for the Queen of course and that probably tells us something about Margaret Hilda) and those suits How sad.

So, we have now discussed how one person from each party dressed, way back when, rather than what they stood for. This seems to signal the principles that influence some. Sad isn't it.

I think it's water under the bridge now for everyone AB. The mines as we knew them are long gone and those children grown up and getting on with their lives, and lives not blighted by having to spend every day in darkness down a mine.

Sad that some people have no sense of humour.

That was to the post by GG.

Ana, Michael and Jill were dear family friends , would you want to get involved with mocking people you were fond of?

I will say when Michael heard all the criticism over his winter coat he wasn't upset or angry , he thought it sad that we had become a people who preferred to talk about what a person wore than the fact the day was to commemorate the dead of the wars , so those on this thread mocking him be assured he felt pity for you that an item of clothing was of more concern than the memory of those who died for you to have freedom of speech

Then you are mistaken rosesarered

It most certainly is not, and never will be, water under the bridge for those affected rosesarered. You could not be more wrong.

OK let's look at the next recession in the 1990s and the wizard that was Major another TORY government.

Let me remind you of that genious Lawson and the glory of supply side economics - remember that?
Well for those who don't a brief rundown.
The supply side miracle allowed for or so they tnought the Tory government to grow the economy faster than the long term trend. What they absolutely failed to understand was that the growth was based on nothing more than increased consumer spending and credit or debt.

Naturally the bubble burst in the early 90s caused by high inflation and a large current deficit - blimey a Tory government with a deficit whod have tnought -so they took the momentous decision to link sterling to euro via the ERM - remember that clever move???
Black Wednesday - remember the poor harrased Chancellor on the steps of no 11 with Cameron in the background?
Yet another TORY government caused recession.

Dead of the wars? What are you talking about AB?Oh, you mean that day at the Cenotaph? It certainly didn't bother me what he wore at any time, but at that time, and we are going back a bit, it was the custom ( still is) that everybody at that ceremony looked super smart. And he didn't. So the papers were always going to come down on him for that.
I think I probably speak for all the Gnetters on here, when I say we have plenty to thank all those who died fighting in the wars, for, not least our freedom of speech.And I speak for myself when I say that I don't need you to remind me.It's a bit of fun about a coat!

Anniebach, no one was 'mocking' Michael Foot, nor did I ask you to.

I suppose your suggestion that roses try to get in touch with Jill via a medium was meant to be a joke, so there is a glimmer of a sense of humour there...

Ever heard of that great British tradition known as eccentricity?

It takes many forms - The Bullingdon club and sneering young men in evening dress spring to mind.

Another point to disagree on then, folks.What a life, down the mines all day!
It caused a lot of misery for the families at the time, other jobs hard to come by, but now we are here, at this point in time, young men must be glad they don't have those hard old lives, bent double a lot of the time, deep in a mine and black as tar when you come home.nobody would actually want those days back again.

It's a coat for heaven's sake! free speech and all that?