25 years later - have we learned anything?

Today is the 25th anniversary of the UK Miners' Strike. This may not mean much to North Americans but it does to the UK and it should matter to NA. To get the background to the Strike from the most hated man of the time Arthur Scargill you should read this here In stark terms Scargill was convinced that Margaret Thatcher was determined to beat the Miners into submission, previous Conservative PMs had been beaten by the miners and she was not going to have any of it. Rather Like Bush, in creating conditions for the replacement of Sadam Hussein, Thatcher had a master plan. This plan put in the context of her ideology was designed to de-industrialise Britain. Thatcher, who believed in individualism to the nth degree, some may even call it the instutionalisation of selfishness, was determined to eliminate the class system of Britain by proving to the world that if she, the daughter of a middle class shopkeeper could become the most powerful person in Britain anybody could despite class restrictions.

For an analytical opinion about the Miners' Strike read this, it is the editorial in today's "Guardian" and it declares that no-one won the dispute.

Thatcher was successful and the Miners' lost. Britain became the hotbed of new technology and high finance. The Country's manufacturing base was decimated and "New Industry" emerged. Society became more reliant on "lifestyle" and debt. This led to the immolation of the UK as the economy based on the same shaky finances as NA and now is playing catchup, as is the rest of the world, in trying to preserve an economy and society.