No I can H thats the whole point, I can knock her for what she did as she ruined a lot of people's lives.

You were lucky you had a house to mortgage really aren't you H???
Not everyone did or does. It was only an opportunity if you had assets in the first place.

I can knock her for what she did as it was a land of the haves and the have nots...the vast majority of the have nots lioving in the north....perhaps we should have all got on a bike and cycled to London huh?

Similar but I dont think there is as many who dislike Brown that did Thatcher.

I dont like brown, but I also dont like "honest dave" I wouldnt trust him as far as I could chuck him, slimey toad.
To be honest they are all as bad as each other at the minute.

I really think your wrong about everyone not having the same opportunities.

Every council tenant in the country was given the same opportunity to buy their council house in the 80's and get a foot on the property ladder.

I think what's really getting up your nose is that alot of people down south took that advantage and took out the 95% mortgage offered to them and worked their butts off to pay for it, whereas like alot of miners wanted to be given everything for nothing. It was the miners and all the unions that killed the north, not Thatcher.

This is what I dont get, everyone was given the right to buy, but with unemployment being so high in the north it was near enough impossible.

Do you also think miners wanted everything for nothing, do you really think they would strike knowing they would be living in poverty, they would rely on church and community groups for food and other essentials.

I also see that no one has mention Denis & pals having interests in oil companys round about the same time as the miners struggles.

The unemployment factor in alot of instances was brought on by alot of people themselves because they just weren't prepared to move to where the jobs were. Now I'm not saying this is the case with everyone, but if you were offered a job down south for example and it meant you had to stay in the south for five nights to earn a wage, wouldn't that be better than being unemployed up north. As I said in one of the previous posts if I could work up north driving lorries while the strike was on to make more money then I could being a sparks, then why couldn't those up north work down south?

As we both know only to well not every miner striked, because alot of them knew only to well that it was better to be at work earning a wage than being on the poverty line. I really couldn't tell you how many time I drove past striking miners who were throwing bottles and bricks at those miners that choose to go into work and earn a wage. As has been discussed before you really can't say that that it would of been viable to keep those unprofitable mines open.

What has Dennis's interest in the oil companies got to do with it?

Alot chose to strike for something they felt strongly about rarther then be bullied.

Why should people have to move 200-300 miles for work just because thatchers goverment neglected industry up north, moving down five days a week and paying out double expenses in an unstable time money wise....

Many people found the fact oil companys benifited by the decline in coal a bit suspect to say the least, more so when many of these "unprofitible" mines were run privately and did make a profit.

And closing unproftible mines I dont have a problem with but I do find it ammusing that the people who come out with this are now moaning about the post office closing unprofitible branches

I must say that I really don't have a problem with closing any unprofitible post offices or any other form of business for that matter.

If you look at the what the post office offers nowadays you really don't need one in every town or village. 99% of pensions now get paid in a bank account, you can buy stamps in nearly every or garage shops. Plus if you cut out the waste then the overheads would go down, so the cost of stamps and over services wouldn't go up every six months.

Personally speaking I think that the post office is a monopoly that has gone out of control. Two years ago I use to be able to post a A4 envelope with a first class stamp on it, but since they brought in that stupid rule about envelope sizes and weights it now cost me £1.57 for first class postage, and that depends on it's weight.

If you are unemployed then buying your house is not an option.
My folks bought their council house...good move for them??? Dunno...never saw them, they were too bus working to pay off the house, then my dad died not long after retiring...worth it???? No I doubt it.
They weren't in the south.
There's more to life than money Colin.

The miners destroying the north....oh please, I'm not even going there, too tired.
It was about standing together working for the common good though...perhaps those miners that did strike felt betrayed huh?

Or were they just being greedy?

Thanks for your sympathy re my dad, but sadly it isn't an unusual situation in working class people who have worked themselves into the ground all of their lives (starting off in the pits at 14 looking after the ponies). I wouldn't have felt any differently had he lived longer, I still don't agree with the wholesale selling of council houses.
Whilst everyone had the so called chance to buy a council home...not everyone was in the position to be able to, thanks to incredibly high unemployment.

No Colin, I don't think that the miners who were out on strike were being greedy, I think they were fighting for their lives in more ways than one.

The thing is, the only thing in life we can be certain of is death. We can't know when it will happen, but what a shame to waste the important years, the years of hopfully good health, by saving money and working ourselves into the ground for a retirement that could be incredibly short. I know so many people who have dropped dead very soon after retiring. Once they relax their bodies seem to realise just how worn out they are. Live for today because tomorrow you could die.
Money is a necessity but I've found that those with a lot of it tend to be quite unhappy and anxious people...