Bowden Guy, thank you for a diplomacy which does you credit and in the dark hours of the night I was only too aware that you are absolutely right, that I had swooped to Duke’s level and that an apology is in order.
Oi, stoop to your own level, mine is just fine.
Duke’s comment from a while ago about people from the Heatons that may well have been said with his tongue in his cheek but the patronising attitude of Duke brings back memories about a small minority from Marple who I dealt with during the Thatcher years who found it inconceivable that they should be on the dole and treated the Benefit Office staff as if was the Benefit Office and not Thatcher who were responsible for them being out of work. Such arrogance is not forgotten and sadly may bring out the worst in others born in other areas of Stockport thinking that Duke is an official spokesman for Marple when he is nothing of the sort.
My comment was a little tongue in cheek but given that I lived in Heaton Moor, I think I can make a little joke. I do think that Labour voters tend to be a little less aware of the issues in economics and stats show they tend to be more likely to be racist, poorly educated and low-achievers. i grew up in the south and although my Father was a good socialist, in an area that adapted well from 1970's Labour to Thatcher's conservatives, in an area with an enterprising culture, you didn't get too many Labour voters.
Simone statesYou wouldn’t forget so readily if you had lived in Marple during the Thatcher years, lost your job or left school/university and after a couple years sunk into a despair that no matter how hard you tried that the future in the north of England offered nothing other than a life on benefits or worthless job schemes. Thatcher was the mother of the professional benefit claimants. Pre-Thatcher there was always a small number of work-shy malingers but there was a job for everyone willing to work (with the shortfall in required labour being made up by immigrants). If you did not work without good reason you were looked upon by all in society, rich or poor, as a parasitic malingerer. The Thatcher years spawned a whole new psychology about unemployment: it was impossible to get an unskilled job because Britain’s manufacturing base had been undermined by a government which rightly or wrongly said ‘No more subsidisation of inefficient British industry, pay unemployment benefits instead, raise unemployment levels to effectively destroy the unions which had been holding the economy to ransom and import goods which can be produced more cheaply and shipped from the other side of the world’.
It wasn't just Thatcher that said we can't carry on subsidising and nationalising, it was the IMF.
Furthermore, there are plenty jobs about, nobody who tries hard needs to spend a life in the dole.
An unfortunate result was that a lifetime on benefits became a norm so when the Tories were eventually kicked out and the economy began to recover life on benefits was seen by some no longer as the norm but as a right and we still have a legacy of people who scream when Polish people who aim to do nothing but work hard for a living come to fill the hotel and catering and agricultural jobs (paying British taxes while they are here) because the local unemployed now say that they will not take the jobs because the hours are too long and that they are better off on benefits.
You see there is a bit of blame game, Britain became uncompetitive pre-Thatcher and that was the fault of the workers / management. Rather than blame Thatcher, maybe those who lost their jobs should have looked at themselves and took a little self-responsibility.
If Poles are taking jobs in a nation of non-polish speakers, I think it says more about those being pushed out than the immigrants or government.
Anyway, Seasons Greetings and for those on the left of the discussion, I hope the State brings you everything you think you are entitled to.
