Vent Your Spleen

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), August 5, 2008

Mrs Thatcher sold everything there was to sell and that is why we are in this shambolic mess today

I AM sick and tired of reading about Mrs Thatcher being made a scapegoat for all of Britain's past industrial problems. Some people have got a short memory.

In the history of the shipyards, between 1959 and 1962, pounds 80m worth of orders were lost to Germany. Why? Because the so-called workers wouldn't work. Someone had served their tea the wrong way or cut five minutes from their cigarette break.

At least when Mrs Thatcher was in power she stuck up for Britain in the world. There is no need to blame Mrs Thatcher for everything, because that's a load of rubbish.

Mrs Thatcher did a lot of good for this country. Some people haven't got a clue about industrial relations. Mrs Thatcher was not to blame for everything. As I said, the so-called workers would not work.

CL, Sandyford.

TO THE stupid woman in Tesco this morning. Please be a bit more grateful when someone tells you that your child is putting a plastic bag over his head.

EL, Kenton.

HA HA, JS of Walkerdene. When the Tories were rightly kicked out by New Labour we had working pits in the North East. Now, I believe, there are none.

It's amazing. Tories close pits, but under Labour they are just run down. Rover cars were making quality motors until five years ago. Closing down had nothing to do with Michael Edwards as that was more than 20 years ago. It is Thatcher's government that brought Nissan to Sunderland.

Regarding sell-offs: how much would we be paying the nationalised industries that were so highly inefficient today? My telephone bills are cheaper now than pre sell-off all those years ago. I could also get seen without any problems by an NHS dentist. Gordon Brown has decimated mine and lots of other people's private pensions. Students did not pay tuition fees.

This Government has imposed pounds 3,000 per year on students. Good old Labour. Born free, taxed to death.

AM, Whitley Bay.

I AGREE with those correspondents who say Thatcher sold off industries to make the rich even richer. Mrs Thatcher sold everything there was to sell and that is why we are in this shambolic mess today. Ifs a good job pensioners have been given free bus travel and winter fuel payments by this Labour Government.

If the Tories had still been in office they would have been trapped in poverty.

JD, Birtley.

A pounds 400m grant for the refurbishment of the Metro is good news. But the proposal to move towards the privatisation of the Metro is not. The privatisation of Britain's railway system, with its fragmented ownership, has been a disaster. If a thing ain't broke, don't fix it is a sound policy.

AP, Gosforth

AFTER reading in Friday's Evening Chronicle that Labour ministers have opened the door to selling off the Metro, can they not remember what happened to gas, water, electricy and North Sea oil when they were sold off to private companies? Every Labour minister and Labour MP should hang their heads in shame. Of course there will be more votes lost

JW, Benton,

I SEE that a lot of people's names are coming up in the media as suggestions for who should succeed Gordon Brown. Why don't they do the thing properly and have a General Election and see who the people want to lead the country?

Let the people decide.

ANON.

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