I'm a Stokie to and can well remember sitting in college surrounded by blokes who had lost their jobs at Shelton Bar - steel works. Likewise I can remember figures of £200-300 a week being mentioned by miners of the day. Way, way above what was the norm for the average working man. That said Thatcher wrecked the mining industry to loosen the unions grip on the workforce. But in doing so industry fell like a house of cards, mining, steel, rail, ship-building. As has been said once the north was the powerhouse of the country and industry, with more work than jobs. In mining alone 30,000 jobs were lost. And if it wasn't bolted down she sold it to the private sector.
She devastated the lives of 1000's to break the unions, people lost their jobs, homes, once thriving towns have become sh1tholes of unemployment with no industry replacing what had gone. What is shameful is there is still nothing there 30 years on.
What is really ironic is that the financial industries that have been built up in there place operate pretty much as the unions did. Now government sings to the tune of the banks instead of the unions. All they've done is create a new monster to fight with. I wonder if Thatcher was still in power whether she would have let the banks go to the wall the same way she did the mining industry?
Without question the unions needed reigning in but did the price need to be as high as it was? Thousands still hate her with a passion and she damaged the police at the same time because of how she used them to break the strikes. As a by the by, I had a mate in the police at the time and the overtime he clocked was incredible.
