Old folk don't remember the tory 3-day week!

[JohnD]

Amazingly, there are old conservative supporters who have forgotten the 3-day week under Conservative prime minister Edward Heath.

Some of these old duffers will be saying next they don't remember Thatcher's Poll Tax shambles.

 

[transam]

Enlighten every one as to the full facts of the 3 day week

Or will we get the JD edited version

 

[bernardgreen]

the 3-day week under Conservative prime minister Edward Heath.

I am "old" and remember the three day week and more importantly I remember why it had to happen.

There was a shortage of fuel for generating electricity. Oil was in short supply due to OPEC and coal for power stations was in short supply due to the action of the trade unions affiliated to the Labour party and its socialist aims.

http://www.newhistorian.com/looking-back-three-day-week/2405/

 

[Gerrydelasel]

It wasn't a Tory 3-day week per se, it was a government bodge to fix another bad government idea, namely state management of the coal and electricity pay/supply. With public sector workers being paid too much tax money, to produce too little product, the writing was on the wall. Heath could see it, and did his little best. His primacy didn't last, Labour dragged on the socialist policy for a little while longer until, predictably, it collapsed under its own weight cultimating in the winter of discontent. When the government is in a sinking ship like socialism it will chuck anything at the wall to keep it afloat. For Heath it was a 3 day week, for Wilson it was more tax money. It's an old story. Eventually the answer was to abandon the ship altogether.

 

[IWalkLikeHimaMartian]

It wasn't a Tory 3-day week per se, it was a government bodge to fix another bad government idea, namely state management of the coal and electricity pay/supply. With public sector workers being paid too much tax money, to produce too little product, the writing was on the wall. Heath could see it, and did his little best. His primacy didn't last, Labour dragged on the socialist policy for a little while longer until, predictably, it collapsed under its own weight cultimating in the winter of discontent. When the government is in a sinking ship like socialism it will chuck anything at the wall to keep it afloat. For Heath it was a 3 day week, for Wilson it was more tax money. It's an old story. Eventually the answer was to abandon the ship altogether.

So if Mrs May and her crew screw up Brexit, it will be the socialists fault?

Was this Labour's policy:

To tackle this, the government capped public sector pay rises and publicly promoted a clear capped level to the private sector.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Day_Week

The strike began officially on 5 February and, two days later, Heath called the February 1974 general election ....Heath believed that the public sided with the Conservatives on the issues of strikes and union power.

Perhaps Mrs May was his pupil

The election resulted in a hung parliament: the Conservative Party took the largest share of the vote, but lost its majority, with Labour having a plurality in the House of Commons. In the ensuing talks, Heath failed to secure enough parliamentary support from Liberal and Ulster Unionist MPs

He should have taken a lesson from Mrs May and tried bribed the DUP

The normal working week was restored on 8 March,......

One week after the election, bearing in mind Heath tried to form a coalition first, then Wilson had to do the same.

The new Labour government increased miners' wages by 35% immediately after the February 1974 election.

 

[Notch7]

I can remember my Dad telling me how difficult it was in business in the 70's with inflation at almost 25%

He was then a financial director for a manufacturing company. He said the sales department could only give 7 day price guarantee on quotes.

Wages rises could not keep up with inflation

militant trade unions

and of course later on into the 1980s, Arthur Scargill who was instrumental in ending the mining industry in this country.

 

[JohnD]

Arthur Scargill who was instrumental in ending the mining industry in this country.

Arthur Scargill was attacked and ridiculed in the right-wing media for saying that Thatcher's objective was to destroy the British coal industry.

But he was right.

 

[Doug99]

Arthur Scargill was attacked and ridiculed in the right-wing media for saying that Thatcher's objective was to destroy the British coal industry.

But he was right.

Media's fault again?

 

[JohnD]

which of my two statements do you want to try and disprove?

 

[Judy in the sky]

Amazingly, there are old conservative supporters who have forgotten the 3-day week under Conservative prime minister Edward Heath.

My dad has an even longer memory johnny boy. That's when Harold Wilson got in (around 1964 ish?) First thing the Labour government did was to impose a wage freeze... (on the other hand,,, they gave everyone on benefits an increase) Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Arthur Scargill was attacked and ridiculed in the right-wing media for saying that Thatcher's objective was to destroy the British coal industry.

But he was right.

Sadly there was no one to blame for the demise of the coal industry but the miners who followed their glorious leader and went on strike. Tell me Johnny boy, did Arthur's union wages stop when the miners were out on strike? Last I heard of Scargill, the NUM were trying to evict him from his union paid home in the Barbican.

 

[JohnD]

a wage freeze

Like the one public sector workers are in today? to punish them for causing the global financial crisis that tipped us into the biggest ever debt? Or was it the bankers I'm thinking of, who've been getting generous pay rises?

Anyone else off the hook?

Oh yes.

This determination to reduce the pay of public sector workers does not, needless to say, apply to those public sector workers who sit in the House of Commons. MPs saw a massive 10% increase in their pay in 2015, followed by a further 1.4% in April this year, taking their pay to over £76,000 a year. Theresa May had nothing to say about this, but her spokesman said that it was ‘a matter for MPs’. Indeed.

Clinical support staff, on wages of around £17,000, have lost some £1,807 a year after taking inflation into account. The average NHS worker’s pay is now £3,800 a year lower than it would have been had it risen in line with inflation.

There’s little sign of sympathy from the government for the plight of these essential workers, who are being forced to pay the price for the financial crash of 2008. Recently, Chancellor Philip Hammond was reported to have said that public sector workers were ‘overpaid’ – when confronted with this claim on the Andrew Marr show, he failed to deny it, saying only that,

“I’m not going to talk about what was or wasn’t said in a cabinet meeting”

 

[Gerrydelasel]

So if Mrs May and her crew screw up Brexit, it will be the socialists fault?

No it will be the government's fault, as I explained. The government is a wonderfully rich source of bad ideas, and endless fixes for those bad ideas. The EU was a bad idea. Joining it was a fix for various bad ideas. Leaving it is a new fix for various other bad ideas. It is a rich tapestry of bas ideas. Tomorrow there will be a new one.

 

[IWalkLikeHimaMartian]

No it will be the government's fault, as I explained. .

And Mrs May, as the current leader of the government, the one who is supposed to be strong and stable, who took us into this mess, is entirely blameless?
You do talk some twaddle sometimes.

 

[Gerrydelasel]

And Mrs May, as the current leader of the government, is entirely blameless?

May is not a dictator. She is not solely responsible for everything the behemoth of the state does over the course of history. She will be heavily to blame for a few things, sharing a little blame for others, and not at all to blame for most, like any public servant in a democracy. Only someone with the reasoning of a child would try to 'blame Brexit' on one particular prime minister.

 

[IWalkLikeHimaMartian]

Only someone with the reasoning of a child would try to 'blame Brexit' on one particular prime minister.

Then I guess the future electorate will all be children.

So it was not Blair's fault that we went to war in Iraq?
The Suez crisis was not Eden's fault?
The three day week was not Heath's fault?

As leaders of the government they could have taken different decisions. They did not!

You do say some daft things.