Comparison with the 70's. Split from old thread

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Fred Blogs said:
It's high time we had an absolute general strike, Bring this country to it's knees and start again. Get rid of the unelected dross that is running things at the moment. My only worry in saying that is that I cannot see anyone waiting in the wings of any party that will do any better.
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That'd be going back to the 1920s.

'...The prime minister’s fresh assault on rights at work comes hurtling into parliament on Monday with proposals to impose minimum service levels on workers across England, Scotland and Wales. Ministers would be handed new powers to order compulsory “work notices” to be issued to striking workers, who could then be sacked for going on strike.

The 'Ginger Growler' writes in TheGrauniad: she goes on to say - 'This shoddy, unworkable bill is a grotesque insult to key workers. As a former union official myself, I know first-hand that taking strike action is always a last resort – not only because it involves giving up a day’s pay but because the commitment to being there for the public runs deep. But the goodwill upon which our public services have been running hit breaking point long ago. While ministers seek to foist the responsibility for crumbling services on to the shoulders of those on the frontlines, they ignore the fact that workers and their unions already shoulder responsibility, ensuring “life and limb” cover even during industrial action.
Their proposed legislation is not merely insulting, but stupid, too. Sunak’s own transport secretary has admitted the proposals would do nothing to resolve the current strikes. His own education secretary says she hopes the new law is not applied to schools. His government’s own assessments warned that the plans could lead to more strikes and staff shortages in transport, and were unnecessary in other sectors. Ministers are desperately seeking to justify the legislation by using disingenuous comparisons with France and Spain. This just won’t wash, as both lose significantly more days to strikes than the UK.

For our part, we won’t stand by and let him play politics with key workers’ lives. The right to withdraw your labour is a fundamental freedom and we will always defend it. Labour MPs will be voting against this bill today and resisting the government’s attempt to rush it through parliament without proper scrutiny. If it passes thanks to Tory votes, the next Labour government will repeal it.

Labour has a plan to make Britain work for working people by resetting industrial relations for a modern era, ensuring workplace rights fit for the 21st century, and by negotiating in good faith to reach resolution rather than escalating disputes.

Try as it might to coerce nurses on pain of the sack, it’s this clapped-out government that richly deserves its marching orders.
 
Vinty said:
At least the music was good in the 70s
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Does that include The Bay City Rollers? I like to remind my sister occasionally of her wearing a tartan scarf around her wrist and getting my mother to sew a tartan band on the bottoms of the legs of her flared jeans. She cringes about it.
Then there's Prog Rock. I remember the sixth form barclays bankers at my grammar school walking down the corridor holding copies of 'Tales of Topographic Oceans'. Oh dear.
 
I worked in the coal industry briefly as a young man. Some of the old sweats told me about Scargill. A classic thug and bully boy. He always had a crew of big hard goons around him. When the miners came off their shift and were in the showers one goon would put a ballot paper on the changing room bench for each bloke then another goon behind him would fill it in. If any of the miners dared say anything they risked having their facial features rearranged.
 
Fred Blogs said:
It's high time we had an absolute general strike, Bring this country to it's knees and start again. Get rid of the unelected dross that is running things at the moment. My only worry in saying that is that I cannot see anyone waiting in the wings of any party that will do any better.
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I've said this in other threads, it's all well and good saying we need complete reform of this that the other, however what replaces it? A utopian socialist model where everyone has the same in terms of wealth and rights? How long would that last? The old traits of a desire for power, greed, corruption etc would start to show themselves again, sooner as opposed to later I'd suggest ;)
 
When I was growing up (70's) we lived next door to an old couple. Sometimes when I went out back to play my old neighbour would be standing at the back door trying to get a breath. I can picture him now, chest heaving up and down. I can also still hear him saying the following as if it was yesterday ...

Son, if I can give you one bit of advice it would be this. Never go down the pit. Never.
 
Seafarer1966 said:
I worked in the coal industry briefly as a young man. Some of the old sweats told me about Scargill. A classic thug and bully boy. He always had a crew of big hard goons around him. When the miners came off their shift and were in the showers one goon would put a ballot paper on the changing room bench for each bloke then another goon behind him would fill it in. If any of the miners dared say anything they risked having their facial features rearranged.
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Wouldn’t surprise me.

Scargill didn’t care about miners, he only cared about power. Scargills only focus was on bringing the govt down.

What Thatcher did to the mining industry was appalling, but she outwitted Scargill. I suppose in a sense it brought an end to the Union bound industries holding back this country……rather gone the other way now, it won’t be long before we see school boys down mines, on zero hour contracts
 
Seafarer1966 said:
Does that include The Bay City Rollers? I like to remind my sister occasionally of her wearing a tartan scarf around her wrist and getting my mother to sew a tartan band on the bottoms of the legs of her flared jeans. She cringes about it.
Then there's Prog Rock. I remember the sixth form barclays bankers at my grammar school walking down the corridor holding copies of 'Tales of Topographic Oceans'. Oh dear.
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As Rick Wakeman used to call it "Tommies pornographic moped" I found a Tangerine Dream albums had more gravitas.
 
Seafarer1966 said:
I'm one of us who can remember how bad things got in the 70's. Power stations on strike so folk were using candles to light their houses (you couldn't buy a Tilley type camping light or paraffin lantern for love nor money they sold out completely).
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I was certainly there at the time and grafting hard, but oddly - I don't recall it affecting me at all, in the slightest, either at work, or at home.
 
Harry Bloomfield said:
I was certainly there at the time and grafting hard, but oddly - I don't recall it affecting me at all, in the slightest, either at work, or at home.
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I was a single teenager, still living at home with my parents and 2 sisters at the time. We played cards by the light of candles and the glow of the gas fire. Cooker was gas so we always had a hot meal and kettle was the whistling type so we had a hot drink. Getting washed was a pan of hot water in the sink. We used to laugh about it because we had moved from a slum clearance a few years before so were used to cold water, coal fires, no bathroom and a toilet outside. Even without electricity were living in the lap of luxury compared to what we used to have.
 
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