MARGARET THATCHER DIDN'T SAVE THE COUNTRY - SHE RUINED IT

NOW that the hyperbole surrounding Margaret Thatcher’s funeral has calmed down, we can perhaps examine her legacy more objectively.  Contrary to David Cameron’s overblown assertion, Margaret Thatcher did not save the country; she ruined it.

The impact of her government’s ill judged and damaging policies were felt particularly acutely in Derby and Derbyshire.
 

It was Margaret Thatcher’s obsession with deregulation, privatisation and tax handouts to the rich that heralded widening inequality and mass unemployment.  In short, the poor got poorer and the already wealthy got even wealthier.

Her dogmatic fixation resulted in crushing deindustrialisation, disastrous financial services deregulation and made a virtue of selfishness and greed.  The rich and powerful saw unearned income rocket, while the share of national income going to employees was slashed as a result of her relentless assault on trade unions. 

Her flawed ideology obliterated Derbyshire’s coalfields and wiped out much of the county’s manufacturing industry.  Her addiction to privatisation saw Derby’s railway loco and carriage & wagon works sold off. 

Tens of thousands of local people used to work there and thousands more worked in Derbyshire’s coal industry.  Nowadays Bombardier’s workforce is a fraction of those who used to build trains in the city and there are now no Derbyshire miners left. 

But it wasn’t just miners and railway engineers that bore the brunt of Mrs Thatcher’s doctrine.  Whole swathes of manufacturing jobs throughout Derbyshire were laid waste. 

None of the pain she inflicted was necessary.  She inherited a North Sea oil bonanza amounting to 16 per cent of the UK’s GDP.

Instead of using it to modernise British industry, she squandered it on tax cuts for the wealthy and unemployment benefit for people who had needlessly lost their jobs. 

Even with the gargantuan North Sea oil revenues flowing into the exchequer, economic growth during her period in office was no better than the 1970s and lower than the 1960s. 

Furthermore, her decision to join President Reagan in deregulating the financial services sector on both sides of the Atlantic led directly to the banking crash of 2008.

Today’s housing crisis can also be traced back to the decisions her government made.  She sold off council houses, penalising any local authority that built replacements and deregulated private rented housing, using taxpayers money to subsidise landlords who cashed in charging ever increasing rents.

She sold off our utilities claiming it would create a share owning democracy, but consumers are now paying exorbitant bills to companies that are mainly in foreign hands.  And the energy giant npower hasn’t paid any corporation tax in the last three years.

She was gripped by a fanatical desire to undermine the role of the state and told us there was “no such thing as society”.  She trashed our public services, devalued our public sector workers, undermined their terms and conditions through measures like compulsory competitive tendering and brought our NHS to its knees.

In truth, she was an ideologue who divided the nation economically, geographically and philosophically.  Baroness Thatcher may have died, but Britain won’t prosper as one nation until Thatcherism has finally been laid to rest.

ECONOMY CONTINUES TO FLATLINE

THE GDP figures, published by the ONS, show that the UK economy only grew by 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the previous quarter. Furthermore, the economy has only grown by 0.6 per cent in the last year.

Construction fared much worse, declining by 2.5 per cent quarter-on- quarter and 5.9 per cent year-on-year and manufacturing also declined. In fact both construction and manufacturing are smaller than when this government came to power.

But the part time chancellor says the latest GDP figures provide evidence that the Tory-Lib Dem Coalition Government's policies are helping to “build an economy fit for the future”. George Osborne is seriously deluded if he genuinely believes that.

The Economics Director at the Construction Products Association, Noble Francis, says the fall in construction was the biggest of all the major sectors and marks the lowest output since 1999.

He said: “Had construction output merely been flat quarter-on-quarter, GDP growth would have increased to 0.5 per cent.”

The construction industry’s main concern is the government’s slow pace of delivery on its policies, which is hindering real activity on the ground. Ministers announced a £4.69 billion capital investment ‘boost’ in Autumn Statement 2011 and a further £5.5 billion in December. But talk is cheap and there has been very little action on the ground.

Noble Francis claims the government could add an additional 0.8% to GDP if ministers’ actions matched their rhetoric on infrastructure and other building programmes.

As a former bricklayer myself, and the son of a plasterer who benefited from a boost to construction in the 1930s, I know the construction industry can support a sustained recovery.

The truth is both construction and manufacturing are essential cornerstones of economic recovery which have been betrayed by the Bullingdon ideologues running this Government.

A couple of years ago, George Osborne said: “We want the words made in Britain, created in Britain, designed in Britain, invented in Britain to drive our nation forward. A Britain carried aloft by the march of the makers.” Three months later the £1.4bn Thameslink train building contract went to Germany instead of Derby.

Now he claims he’s taking steps to boost construction when the reality is screaming at him that he is killing the construction sector.

George Osborne’s stewardship of our economy will be remembered and defined by incompetence, intransigence and lies. The General election in two years time can’t come soon enough to give the British people the chance to rid themselves of these useless, bungling ideological zealots who are ruining our country.

THE WILL OF THE VENEZUELAN PEOPLE AT TODAY’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION MUST BE RESPECTED

Today, following the sad death of Hugo Chavez from cancer, Venezuelans will be voting to elect their next President.This will be Venezuela’s 17th national electoral process since 1998, when Hugo Chavez was first elected to the presidency. That is more elections than were held in the previous 40 years in Venezuela and more elections than nearly any other country in the world in that period.

All have been certified as free and fair by respected international bodies with former US President, Jimmy Carter, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on democracy promotion, last year stating that “of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored, I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.”

In these elections, time and time again the majority of Venezuelans cast their vote for Hugo Chavez and his coalition of supporters, who won all but one of these contests. Most recently President Chavez was re-elected last October in a landslide victory with a record 8.6 million votes whilst last December pro-Chavez candidates won in 20 of 23 governorship elections and 22 out of 23 local legislative assemblies.

This expansion of democratic participation, and the regular endorsement of the Chavez government’s policies, was closely linked to the transformation of the living standards of the majority of Venezuelans through social programmes that have delivered free healthcare for millions, eradicated illiteracy and lifted millions out of poverty.

At April’s election, seven candidates will stand for the Presidency with the front runners being Nicolas Maduro, a Vice President under Hugo Chavez, and Henrique Capriles Radonski, the candidate of the right-wing M.U.D coalition who stood and lost at last year’s Presidential election.

We believe it is for the Venezuelan people alone to decide their next president. Yet in the past Venezuela has been subject to external intervention in its politics seeking to overturn and undermine the democratic will. The US backed coup in April 2002 that temporarily ousted the Hugo Chávez government and closed down all democratic institutions was followed by millions of dollars of US government funding to Venezuela's right-wing opposition movements allocated through the National Endowment for Democracy, International Republican Institute and USAID.

Concerns have been expressed that given the likelihood of a victory for Nicolas Maduro, some sections of the right-wing opposition movements may not recognise the outcome of the forthcoming election, instead engaging in boycott or non-recognition of the results in an orchestrated attempt to discredit the outcome and to isolate Venezuela internationally.

But it is for the Venezuelan people alone to choose their next government, free from any external intervention and that governments around the world should respect the official results.

GEORGE OSBORNE’S PHILPOTT COMMENTS: WICKED AND UTTERLY DISHONEST

George Osborne’s attempt to use the deaths of the six Philpott children to further his desire to undermine the welfare state was wicked and utterly dishonest.

The fact that these children died in a horrific fire didn’t seem to trouble him.  How does he sleep at night?

The Chancellor implied that the dysfunctional Philpott family were typical of people claiming social security benefits, but he knows that’s simply not true. 

To start with, how many families have 17 children in this day and age?

If he really wants to reduce the social security bill he should be kick-starting the economy to stimulate jobs and growth, which would in turn reduce unemployment.

He could also increase the minimum wage thereby reducing the state subsidy of low paid employment. 

And he could do something about the inadequate supply of genuinely affordable housing to reduce the scandalously high rents many working families are forced to pay.

But instead he prefers to give massive tax cuts to millionaires while pickpocketing people on low and middle incomes. 

George Osborne is Robin Hood’s alter ego stealing from the poor to give to the rich. That’s why we must vote him out in 2015 – along with his Tory and Lib Dem cohorts.