Margaret Thatcher still casts a long shadow over Britain today

After listening to Parliament yesterday paying tribute to Margaret Thatcher after her passing and reading local tributes from Tory Mp's and Councillors I feel it is important to make points about the one politician that totally affected my life more than any other, something I must acknowledge. My view is not balanced and "I would say that wouldn't I", but I got involved in politics to oppose everything she stood for as I firmly believe Margaret Thatcher wanted to divide and conquer to secure victory for the Tories and their friends at the expense of many.

Firstly on a human level it is important to pay respect to the family bereaving their mother, grandmother and relative.

I want to document total criticism of the political doctrine of "Thatcherism" that made permanent change in Britain and still casts a long shadow over the country.

My son, currently studying the 1980's at school asked me what did I do when Margaret Thatcher was in power, well I told him. I left Hugh Faringdon School in Southcote after my final CSE exam on the day Maggie came to power on 4th May 1979. I remember the bitter election campaign of 1979 when the Tories scored a major point of claiming "Labour Isn't working" when unemployment was 1.2 miliion and too high. When Margaret Thatcher left power in 1990, kicked out by her own MPs, unemployment was over 3.5 million and masked by many ex-workers being given welfare payments of sickness benefit to camouflage the unemployment figures. This is a lasting legacy that all governments since her administration have struggled to control. Horrified at her uncaring and complacent attitude to unemployment I joined the Labour Party in January 1980 and horrified at the onset of a class war I went to war against Thatcherism.

My son asked me why many people still hate Margaret Thatcher and her polices after all these years, I replied because she and her party hated them. True Maggie was a conviction politician, but seeking consensus and representing all of Britain, absolutely not! She hated the North, particularly those who worked in Heavy industry that were trade unionized, she used Scotland as an experiment ground for her policies, such as the Poll Tax, she was scornfull against Liverpool which may have contributed to the response to the Hillsborough tragedy when the victims were criminalised and she sought to divide Northern Ireland, not heal the wounds.

I was on strike throughout the 1980's as a response to her policies, I became a shop steward at British Leyland in Cowley, attending nearly every demonstration and picket against the Tory Government. I remember the bitter defeats of the Steel Workers, Printers at the Stockport Messenger and at Wapping that gave Murdoch the monopoly of the media, Civil Servants at GCHQ and then the Miners, taken on after her complete victory of the Falklands conflict. I remember the mass redundancies in the Car Industry and total closure of industry to successful achieve the objective of defeating the unions. I remember the seafarers at Dover losing their jobs due to a major assault on their employment rights, families thrown on the scrapheap in the pursuit of naked profit. I Heard Lord Young yesterday dismiss this by stating that this was the result of the monetarist economic consequence and he said to "make an omelette you have to crack a few eggs". What they failed to understand, that the real casualties were not militants or union leaders but the millions of hard working, non political families that lost their livelihoods and never fully recovered, who then became politicised because of the hatred that was being practiced at Downing Street. Ordinary people were being dubbed as the "enemy within".

I remember the People's March for Jobs from Jarrow in 1981 that ended in defeat, the riots of 1980, 1981 and 1985 that ended in death and turmoil, the miners strike that had Britain close to civil war and in which the wounds were never healed. Most miners did not fully support Arthur Scargill but were proud of their communities and colleagues and were fearful of defeat and pit closures. Margaret Thatcher inflicted total defeat on the trade unions after the miners strike and the Tories walked away from large areas of Britian decimated by the strike and de-industrialisation, with no assistance or alternative propspects of employment and devoid of hope, a legacy still apparent today.

I remember the IRA hunger strikers in Northern Ireland in 1981 and Margaret Thatcher dismissing their demands only to grant every single one of them just weeks after they had all died. This is something hard to comprehend after the onset of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and the power sharing between unionists and Sinn Fein. Margaret Thatcher would never be able, or want to achieve this objective due to her conflict conviction rather than a consensual approach. The vast majority of british and irish people hated terrorism but they wanted a long lasting solution that put a permanent end to the killing of the innocent and they did not get this until after her exit from office.

Who would like to comment on the Tory Government policy under Margaret Thatcher of suppression of gay rights under Clause 28 which caused angst and bitterness amongst the gay community. Not for her civil partnerships or gay marriage under this present coalition.

My lasting memory of the 1980's was maggie's dismissal of the anti apartheid movement and her labelling of Nelson Mandela as a terrorist. I remember standing with comrades forlonly at the South African embassy at Trafalgar Square and outside Barclays bank, a big investor in South Africa calling for sanctions against the appartheid regime that had just butchered people at Soweto and in the townships.

Whilst Maggie was a hard working politician with an attention to detail she got lucky in her opponents. She won three elections despite being unpopular because Labour were even more unpopular and divided, split between right and left and struggling to recover from the 1970's. Her legacy is that a party disunited and void of ideas will never win, something the current Tory party may need to think about. Ultimately conflict politics ends in failure for all whilst bringing people together and creating consensus is the best way forward to bring harmony, something she stated she would do in her election victory of 1979.

Margaret Thatcher's shadow is long. Her sale of council houses was extremely popular for many who bought their homes cheaply and became homeowners for the first time. What was not popular was her refusal to allow councils to invest in more council housing to replace the stock and left millions of pounds untouched in the bank accounts of councils whilst there became a housing crisis. A lasting legacy of the Thatcher years is the ongoing crisis in housing where millions of young people cannot afford a mortgage or to rent privately. In 1982 at the age of 19 I bought my first home with friends for £12.000, I was earning £4.000 a year. Today if this was replicated I would be earning over £60.000 for a factory job in order to be able to afford a mortgage.The subsequent Labour Government invested heavily in social housing but were powerless to control the housing market such was permanency of deregualtion and market rent setting.Sadly another legacy of this policy of selling council houses is that a large number of these homes have been acquired by multi national landlords who own vast amounts of property. So much for the ordinary person becoming a home owner.

Other "Thatcherite" legacies that have cast a long shadow include the failure of the Poll Tax, the most regressive tax where the 'dustman paid the same as a duke'which caused widespread non payment and disorder. Scotland was particularly affected and her legacy in Scotland is that in 1979 there were 22 MP's elected, today there are more pandas in Scotland than Tory MP's.

One of the tributes given to Margaret Thatcher was the "Big Bang" of 1986 that deregulated the financial institutions and put them at the top of the pecking order of the global financial order. Bouyed by the privatisation of industries such as telecoms, gas and electricity and the sale of popular shares the City became the engine of Britain, replacing the old order of manufacturing. Whilst this policy was undoubtedly popular for many who bought shares there is a silence when it has been argued that this era sowed the seeds for the global recession of 2008 onwards when banks and financial institutions, totally deregulated went on to become reckless and unsustainable in their practices. The Labour Government found it hard to reverse this policy and had to rack up debts in order to bail out the failing banks. Over £80bn was spent on bailing out the banks in order to protect the crumbling system set up by Margaret Thatcher. I would argue that it is a legacy of her policies that the vast majority of the population in Britain have to pay for a recession they did not create in order to protect a corrupt and incompetent financial banking system. Proper, effective regulation must be the order of the day.

"Tell Sid" was a great advert for the sale of gas shares. Millions took advantage and made money. It was unpopular in the 1980's to oppose this policy and the sale of shares contributed to the Tory election victory of 1987. Maggie certainly knew how to buy votes! However, now our energy is owned by large multi national companies and we stand on the brink of an energy crisis where there is a shortage of gas. We are appealing to the East European nations for our supplies and are vulnerable to power cuts which look inevitable in the future. Even David Cameron forgot the market philosophy of the Thatcherite era when he tried to control energy tarrifs to curb rising prices and promised legislation to control the market, but was powerless to do so because of deregulation. If you see Sid tell him we have no control over our energy supplies because of the power of the market. Thatcher's legacy, good or bad?

One of Margaret Thatcher's greatest victories apart from the Falklands conflict was "handbagging" Europe and getting our money back. She certainly did this but what is unoticed is that she appealed to Europe for a handout because over 20% of poverty in Europe was in Britain due to the recession of 1980-1983 which led to four million unemployed. Europe were embarrassed in taking our money when alarge chunk of our citizens were living in poverty. Maggies legacy in Europe was the signing of the Single European Act which is the forerunner of the single integrated market and joining the forerunner of the single currency, the European Exchange Rate Mechanism,(ERM)which ended in "black Friday2 of 1992 when Britain had to leave the ERM and put up it interest rates from 7% to 15% and it led to tens of thousands of homeowners to have their homes repossessed due to the 1992 recession. Clearly John Major had to clear up the economic mess left by Maggie.

Margaret Thatcher was also attributed to have said "A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure". This comment was in reply to her support for a car owning democracy which was hugely promoted by her government in the building of motorways such as the M25. Whilst understanding and acknowledging the liberating role of the car it is a negative legacy of Margaret Thatcher to denergrate public transport which is now a stigma for many in Britain.

As you can see my politics and life is clearly influenced by the Thatcher years and my political activism is as a result of her tenure. Yes I agree it is good to have principles and conviction but at what cost when negotiation and consensus could have created a win win. The cost is extensive, to communities, nations and individuals at Maggies ideology of there is no such thing as society just men and women and their families. Surely it is not about private versus public but harnassing the skills built up to better society and giving people hope to aspire and to co-operate for the good of all and not just a few.