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I don't recall any blackouts in the 80's that were due to industrial action by the miners. Mrs T made sure she had enough coal stockpiled to confidently take on Author Scargill. Maybe you are thinking of the 70's blackouts?

74 pence an hour to start? You didn't know you were born. It was 28 pence an hour when I started. We could only dream of such riches in 1974. Sam, you are not saying anything here. You've just quoted your income and that of your family. But we were all poor back then, the country was relatively poor - which I stated earlier. It is in no way significant that you and your family were only earning a few quid in the early eighties. So was I. I was only on ?60.00 for a 40 hour week! But by 1989 I was driving a Rolls! The point is that the Tories made the general economy far more dynamic by cutting out inefficiency and waste. This lead to unprecedented growth - and lots of opportunity for anyone with a bit of get up and go or entrepreneurial spirt to make some real dough - not just bankers and City boys, but ordinary folks too. Of course if you weren't business minded and were content with your lot (your weekly wage) you would just get the same amount in your pay-packet every week. But you can't blame that on the Tories. The individual has to put something in and take a chance to get something out. No government can hand you riches on a plate. And if they did it wouldn't be worth having (no sense of achievement).



Officer Dibble

"The Tories were also the people who sold off public utilities and conned the public to buy shares in what they already owned,"

If it was the case that the public already owned BT, and all the rest, how come they couldn't go down to the bank and cash their share in? What good is notional ownership to anyone. It doesn't mean jack.



Officer Dibble

We actually went to war because Bush, not Blair claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
The people who perpertrated 9/11 were Al Queda and Osama Bin Laden and backed or supported by the Taliban who were in Afghanistan.
Israel, it doesn`t matter what we say or do unless America stops supporting them lets be honest.

And fiddling unemployment ? That was the Tories thing. How many people were taken off unemployment and given disability just to lower the figures?

[quote]I don't recall any blackouts in the 80's that were due to industrial action by the miners.[/quote]

Wasn't born until 76 Mr Dibble. There definitely were blackouts in Sheffield during the early 80's? It can't be after the summer of 84 as we moved home and the blackouts happened in the old house. There definitely were strikes & blackouts though because I remember playing with my toy soldiers & lego bricks by candlelight!

[quote]74 pence an hour to start? You didn't know you were born. It was 28 pence an hour when I started.[/quote]

Ok, 28p ph in 74 and 74p ph in 92, that's an increase of 264% in 18 years.

74p ph in 92 to the current minimum wage for 16 year olds is ?3.30ph in 06, that's an increase of 446% in 14 years (it's actually less than 14 years as the minimum wage wasn't introduced until 98 I think?)

Another difference was in 74 your 28p per hour was at least part of an apprenticeship, and there was a good chance of a full time job. During the 90's schemes there were no jobs and the companies just got shut of you after 2 years. They just used you for cheap labour............it wasn't training at all. All they did was learn you enough to work for 2 years at 74p an hour, then kick you out and get the next batch of school leavers in because once you turned 18 they had to take you on permanently on full wages. It was just slave labour to be honest and it was the Tories that brought in the schemes and fully supported the exploitation of kids who were just starting life................what a fucking start, working your bollocks off, knowing you were being used and then kicked onto the dole queue.

A side point to consider Mr Dibble:

Those school leavers with no job prospects between 89 and 94 are between 28 and 33 years old now. Aren't these the generation of parents who have sired the kids of 10-15 year olds hanging around the local shops we see today? Maybe we had a generation of parents who had no prospects and no hope. Maybe they found it hard to crawl out of the pit they were in, and instead took the 'I don't give a fuck anymore' attitude? Maybe this attitude was picked up by their children who are now the chavvy little fuckers we have today? Maybe 'those' seeds were also planted by the Tory party? Makes you wonder............


[quote]Of course if you weren't business minded and were content with your lot (your weekly wage) you would just get the same amount in your pay-packet every week.[/quote]

I agree with you here. Although a nation of business minded people cannot work without the labourers. (too many chiefs and not enough indians) The Tories knew this and thought that by encouraging a few to get rich easily would mean more jobs for everyone else. They didn't factor greed though. Just because you open up a business and get rich, it doesn't mean you'll employ more people or rise their annual wage.

If it was so easy to start a business and make money under the Tories, how come the dole queues were longer than The Great Wall of China? How come 'millions' of Brits went to Germany, Greece and Poland for labour? Now it's the other way around! Bringing in the minimum wage was supposed to cause even higher unemployment..............................where is it? All the Tories did was make it easy for a few individuals to get cheap labour. Maybe those people who made lots of money and driving Rolls Royces were the employers of the kids that were on 74p per hour?

Maybe the Tory party was needed in 79.............but not anymore. Labour is losing it's way I admit..................but looking back to the early 90's and late 80's, I'm glad I'm living in 2006.