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punk rebel ecks posted:I see. What were the reasons for why these things happened IYO? Do you feel that the United Kingdom's then left wing route was something they could have continued? How far to the left was U.K.s economy back then? Like does any modern country compare. The pre-Thatcher Labour government made some pretty bad economic decisions that were largely the result of the more limited economic understanding of the day. For example they tried to control inflation using wage-price controls, something that hits the poorest hardest and put them at total odds with their core supporters the unions. In hindsight it was a policy adopted by many countries of the day, but it's fallen almost totally out of favour since then.
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Mar 24, 2016 14:45
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BalloonFish posted:And that would require things to fail as spectacularly for the current thinking as things unravelled in the late 70s: The Winter of Discontent, when a combination of inflation running at 15% and government capping pay rises at 5% led to crippling strike action, including the picketing of hospitals and uncollected bags of trash piling up in the streets, was the clincher and really convinced the British public (and much of the media) that something had to change. Well so far we have junior doctors going out on strike and the teachers are balloting for it. Joined up action is a real possibility. The problem is now the press are predominantly anti-union and enthusiasm for action could be a lot higher among every group that has been hit by this government's policies. Corbyn is also being hit with a smear campaign the likes of which we have never really seen before ("CORBYN NEARLY SNAPS" was a story in the Mail yesterday about him looking at a woman with an irritable expression on his face). He's also deeply unpopular with most of his own MPs who continually brief the hostile press against him. Overall it seems unlikely we will get a Labour government in 2020, but at least he does seem to be having some impact in dragging the overall narrative away from being 'of course we should gently caress the poor, but how hard exactly?'
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Mar 27, 2016 17:09
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Solumin posted:As an American whose knowledge of Thatcher extends to, "Everyone in Britain hates her," this thread is really informative and interesting. Thanks OP for making it and thanks BalloonFish (and everyone else) for the really informative and awesome posts. If you want to know why everyone in the UK hates Thatcher someone will have to do effortposts on the Miner's strike and the Poll Tax.
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Mar 27, 2016 22:37
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