I REFER to recent letters concerning Margaret Thatcher’s reign (Thatcher – best or most beastly?, March 12, Mighty Margaret, March 16).

It is easy to see readers Glasby and Ryder have, more than likely, lived in York all their lives, as both display complete ignorance of what life was like in the industrial towns and villages before the lady, whom they worship, destroyed their basic industries.

T J Ryder refers to the tendency to strike in the pre-Thatcher days. At least the trade unions still had industries, which led to disputes with poor management who had to be challenged when necessary. It is ironic that the lady was credited with hog-tying the unions when, with the exception of the miners, they had little left about which to strike. Her handling of the miners’ strike was little short of criminal, just as was her withdrawal of the gunboats prior to the Falklands catastrophe (mentioned by one of the readers).

As one who worked in several different industries in various locations in Yorkshire, I can assure your correspondents that only those who have lived under those conditions are able to comment upon the permanent damage done to our position in the industrial world.

York, with much of its economy based upon the chocolate business, a small part of the railway administration and carriage building, hardly qualifies under the heading of heavy industry. Believe me, York was, during that period, smugly isolated from the real world and was blissfully unaware of the harsh life but unique camaraderie of such environments as those of the steelworks and mines.

I am afraid, except in the unlikely event of someone inventing something akin to the computer or splitting the atom, our industry will continue to founder, as we have nothing other than pop music to export. In any case we don’t train scientists and engineers now; most degrees are in media studies, whatever that means.

J McCrae
Fulford Road, York.



• I support Cynthia Glasby’s views on Margaret Thatcher (Mighty Margaret, March 16).

As a former miner of many years and as a union official I, like many other miners, disagreed with Arthur Scargill’s views during the 1970s. The strike he called in 1984 was in total contradiction of the ballot against industrial action in 1983, in which the miners voted 61.5 per cent against.

C R Catherall
Bridle Walk, Selby.



• Having just read Coun Sandy Fraser’s letter (Fawning Thatcherite, March 17) concerning the Thatcherite era I have been moved to write in response.

As usual, the subject of Mrs Thatcher is one which creates strong emotions, both from those who largely or selectively admire her achievements, and those to whom she and her policies are absolute anathema.

Coun Fraser’s view that the Thatcher Government was solely responsible for the industrial relations crisis of the early 1980s is arrant nonsense.

It is notable that after 12 years of a truly disastorous “New Labour” Government probably the best thing you can say about them is that they haven’t repealed the basic trade union legislation of the Thatcher years.

If you really wish to confer “disaster” status on a Government then let’s start by analysing the “achievements” of New Labour.

The ruination of the best pension system in the world, record knife crime, uncontrolled immigration, the highest teenage pregnancy rate per capita in the western world, a massive benefit dependency culture, sleaze, and yet more sleaze.

Add to this the illegal war in Iraq, compounded by sending our troops to war with inadequate equipment, and even more inadequate care for the injured or true honouring of our war dead.

The epitaph for the Blair/Brown years will not be “education, education, education, it will be spin, and anything for a “good day to bury bad news”.

That is truly the legacy of these “locust” years from which we may never as a nation recover.

As for Gordon Brown,he is now the prisoner of his many slogans and as so wonderfully summarised by Vince Cable: “From Stalin to Mr Bean in a week”, further transcended by his claim to be “saving the world”.

I am absolutely confident that history will be much kinder to Mrs Thatcher than either Blair or “Superman” Brown.

Martin Smith
Main Street, Elvington, York.