1.18 - Privatization in Britain

[HBomb2323]

The UK government massively subsidises private industry.

Local authorities give money to transport companies to run empty buses, central government subsidise the nuclear industry and “working tax credit” subsidises low rates of pay offered by private industry.

The cost of administering and paying out “benefits” to the people who lost their jobs through “value engineering” or the “free market economy” (British companies selling out their work forces & relocating their manufacturing base).

[TheRacketBoss]

she was a fucking bitch!, sold this country away to the rich businessmen, competition in the market doesnt drive prices down!!, look at the railways for one.. privitisation has ultimately failed. plus we dont export anymore, we dont make anything!, thatcher caused the state we are in now, a country that doesnt make any money for itself in manufacture and industry.

[parrotcar]

As for no longer needing coal, that isnt true. We still ship in millions of tonnes from China, Europe, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa etc. And why should old people be freezing in their homes when there is so much home coal that could be put to use and provide employment without having to be sent over on vastly ungreen ships and mined by children and workers for pennies abroad.

[parrotcar]

MINES AND INDUSTRY WENT, HEROIN AND UNCONTROLLED IMMIGRATION CAME WITH DELIBERATE MEDIA/POLICY RACIAL STIR UP. Now everything is to be privatised, have a look around your towns schools, hospitals, council depots, waste dumps, construction areas etc. You will see names such as Carilion, Viridor, Veolia. Even council housing is private, even the job centre is privatising dole with all these leeching "employment training providers". EVEN PUBS LIKE THE ONE IN THIS VIDEO ARE GONE.

[Sleck06]

Another thing people watching this video should really ask themselves, do you believe the role of the economy is to provide employment or just be efficient and profitable

[Sleck06]

no matter how you view privatization what occurred during the thatcher regime was unemployment skyrocketed the gap between rich and poor quadrupled and privatizing parts of government social care has not proved to be any more efficient but has proven to be a lot more expensive

[MrBillcale]

what many successful european nations in northern europe have done like germany netherlands denmark sweden have done is make their economies more market flexible and maintain a generous welfare state and they seem to be thriving.. flexicurity

[58robbo]

Bring back Mrs Thatcher!

[delavalmilker]

Coal mining employment went from 180,000 to less than 3,000? Incredible!

[showofshame]

Those union thugs are whining about getting paid 4x what they were worth. Then they started rioting and causing trouble because their charade had ended. The mafia doesn't like being cracked down on either.

[drwhatson]

@stevehwan FUCK the Thatcher bitch and all of her greedy, stinking descendants!

[stevehwan]

May God bless the Iron Lady!!!

[cjhmmp]

yeah fuck the working class or what we would in future call the unemployed oh wait that's happening now

[ThePyro3825]

Here in the US, the subsidized failure known as AmTrak has a government-sanctioned monopoly on inter-city passenger rail. It's inherently bad service is the reason rail travel is no longer taken seriously in this country. The free market would either let it die in the ditch where it belongs, or an entrepreneur would fix it.

[adi87tya]

@ThePyro3825 Well that's the problem with us. Govt-made monopolies and corporatism caused by government subsidies and lobbying. It's not true capitalism and never will be unless the government gets smaller.

[StephenHP62]

Thatcher is so widely admired by Americans because she reflects back to them their own image. This so-called documentary typifies the narcissism of American "public affairs" programmes. 

[Runesocesius]

Brilliant.

[Nintendomanwill]

'Who would rule Britain'

LAW would rule Britain not various persons forcing us to pay for their jobs. Not that I support violent police action against miners, but those subhuman pieces of shit were attacking strikebreakers

Thatcher didn't go far enough in comprehending the problems of socialism. One intervention leads to another by the problems each create. You either destroy the Central Banking system or you maintain unemployment by continuous investment wherever inflation drives up returns

[sessiegirl26]

socialism and Christianity DO NOT WORK TOGETHER. If you are a Christian, you do not steal from others. If you are a socialist, you believe in STEALING tax payers money and spending how you feel fit. And then add corruption to the mix. Sounds awful to me!

[LunarEcli]

@sessiegirl26 Jesus was a Socialist. He believed we should all help each other, and that if people have exuberant wealth and choose not to use it to help people, they will burn in hell (see the story of Lazarus).

[sessiegirl26]

@LunarEcli I see how you would think that. But those big terrible ppl who make all that money, they create an immense amount of jobs and work for those with less thus helping others out so they to can be successful. Once the corrupt government puts their hands in to the mix is when you see ppl choosing not to help their fellow man out. In the end your beliefs and my beliefs are very, very different. I am a wonderful caring christian that will help out a foe or friend and I am a libertarian.

[sessiegirl26]

@LunarEcli Also in countries that have used Socialistic ideaology in the history of the world that is recorded with a great amount of docuementation, please tell how they behaved as Christians. All I see is people starving to death, murder, rape, poor, jobless, depression filled, miserable countries. I would also like to know which country has been successful in creating a prosperous, giving and loving environment for their ppl.

[LunarEcli]

@sessiegirl26 Post-war Britain didn't involve much murder and rape.

Clement Attlee nationalised 20% of major industry, gave independence to the majority of our empire.

In 2004 a poll of 139 professors voted him as the greatest British prime minister of the 20th century.

[Invilidity]

@sessiegirl26

Not a capitalist one, and not the ones in your beorgoisie, daddys-credit-card-filled delusions. I would personally send you to a DPRK-state-owned mental hospital just so you can experience all these things you describe, because you deserve it for espousing an ideology which hypocritically promotes all you describe, and that ideology's name is capitalism.

[Myndir]

@LunarEcli There is a difference between using YOUR money to help someone else and taking SOMEONE ELSE'S money to help someone.

[Invilidity]

@Myndir

Money is inherently worthless and the people connected to it have only put their own, subjective value onto it, artificially increasing the clout of the markets when there should be none. People are inherently delusional, unempirical, and can't be trusted. We must be harder on capitalists like you, it is the only solution to giving employment and dignity to those who deserve it back; the coal miners and their generations of children who have lost perspective and livelihood.

[daconqueror101]

@LunarEcli Then let the burn in hell. If that's what they want, then that's what they get. Stop trying to force them to go to heaven if they don't want to. That's called Liberty.

[LunarEcli]

@daconqueror101 i think you're missing the point. i'm not religious at all. i was just trying to prove how jesus was a socialist.

society is not free unless everyone in it is free. When some enjoy enormous wealth and some languish in poverty, we are not free

[pazzerhead]

it was all about (and still is) foreign workers in foreign lands willing to work for a dollar a day,the left wing millitant unions did'nt understand we no longer had an empire we could engineer our manufactering through,so everybody buys british-unless you all want to work for a dollar a day yourselves in the rice paddy fields while the chinese are the ones with playstaion 3,i-pod,mobile phones and favourable exchange rates when they go abroad on holidy.

[LARRSON77]

Check out ( JOHN MCCULLAGH "ILL DANCE ON YOUR GRAVE MRS THATCHER".........on youtube or myspace,well worth a listen

[rodjames98]

And we got a lot out of it all did'nt we. Highest energy bills of any western'ised nation. Most expensive rail fares anywhere on the planet lack of proper maintainence on our railway infrastructure, private buses which should have been scrapped 20 years ago. Privatisation do'nt make me laugh.

[TheWilliamcale]

It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.

Deng Xiaoping

[Vidcar1]

Lol.....................

[TheWilliamcale]

it saved britian

britian in 1979 had an economy more smilair to east germany than

west germany

thatcher went a bit to far but blair and his third way /centrist was probably

a good compromise for the UK

[Elysiumboy1]

Government sold public property to the corporate sector and they gobbled us up with ease. The only thing left British are the people and multiculturalism is working on that.

Privatization does what it always has - gives an initial boost of finance to the seller, but leaves them without the assets. When that comes down to essential times like this it shows we are in an awful lot of trouble in this country because we are governed by the conditions of international investors who don't give a hoot.

[overcoatman]

don't talk like a twat

[billyysands]

the mines were bleeding the british economy dry

[Elcristoph]

well said

[Invilidity]

@billyysands

Thatcher was bleeding the working class dry.

I don't see why sacrifising the mines just to profit the beorgoisie and create a whole new hyper-class overpopulated with let's-suck-on-the-dick-of-dadd­y-for-his-credit-card types to distract those on the edge of the working class from revolting was any more profitable than letting the proletariat remain dignified in their efforts.

[pimpUK1]

@Invilidity We didn't need so much coal being produced, especially at a over inflated price. Coal use has deiclined in the UK thanks to the use of desiel engined trains and ships, the end of coal being burnt to produce gas in the gasworks and the decline of households using fire places as a sole source of heat. The obvious solution was to reduce the number of mines,especially those that didn't make a profit. Don't try and run a company if you think theses anything bad about that!!

[socialist123]

@Invilidity i agree with you. the whole thing was about crushing the socialists

[billyysands]

go to the pbs website this is an amazing series

[billyysands]

this is amazing!

[nonameposter]

England would need a real socialist movement...

[billyysands]

very sorry it didnt work

[billyysands]

Although the government's privatization work in past years has been very successful, it still operates some firms, state monopolies, utilities, and services. The new government has presented an ambitious privatization program, which, if implemented, will considerably reduce government participation in the economy. Austria enjoys well-developed industry, banking, transportation, services, and commercial facilities

[nonameposter]

It is so crazy but most of the English still believe Privatisation was a good idea!! (although the public transport is a real desaster. I was there last summer. You have to pay more than 3 pounds for one ticket!!!..completly sick..)

[billyysands]

i was there in 1984 nothing worked britian was still a basket case now its an economic powerhouse , is Socialist Austria?

[nonameposter]

Economic powerhouse? Jesus, you think the anglo-saxon way of regulation did work? I fear that especially Britain will have to pay for what market extremists have done to their society/economy.

The Ausrian housing market for instance has not been affected (in contrary to GB, Esp..) by the crisis due to a more socialist approach on that area of politics.

[billyysands]

Austria's economic freedom score is 71.2, making its economy the 23rd freest in the 2009 Index. Its score remains essentially unchanged from last year. Austria is ranked 11th out of 43 countries in the Europe region, and its overall score is well above the regional average.

[billyysands]

Population: 8.3 million GDP (PPP): $298.5 billion 3.3% growth in 2006 1.9% 5-year compound annual growth $36,049 per capita Unemployment: 4.4% Inflation (CPI): 2.2% FDI Inflow: $248.4 million

[billyysands]

Austria has a very high income tax rate and a moderate corporate tax rate. The top income tax rate is 50 percent, and the top corporate tax rate is 25 percent. Other taxes include a value-added tax (VAT) and a tax on insurance contracts. In the most recent year, overall tax revenue as a percentage of GDP remained very high at 43.4 percent

[billyysands]

Total government expenditures, including consumption and transfer payments, are very high. In 2004, government spending equaled 49.3 percent of GDP. With a limited deficit, Austria's government finances are in better shape than those of some other euro zone economies.

[billyysands]

Private property is very secure. Contractual agreements are enforced, and the protection of private property and intellectual property is well established and effective. There is a long-standing tradition of respect for the rule of law, and the judiciary is independent.

[billyysands]

hm you must give me a minute to analyse data.you may have something

unemployment relatively low stable growth.yeah but when was the last time the socialists were in power? research data needed moment

[billyysands]

On 11 January 2007, the Gusenbauer cabinet (a grand coalition of SPÖ and ÖVP) was sworn into office. The newly formed government was criticised from the beginning from parts of the opposition and left-wing circles in the SPÖ for having failed to push through in the coalition negotiations most of the pledges and promises made in the election campaign

[billyysands]

Werner Faymann (born May 4, 1960) is an Austrian politician, and the current Chancellor of Austria/As head of the the largest party in the National Council of Austria, Faymann was asked by Federal President Heinz Fischer on October 8 to form a new Government.

A coalition was agreed upon on 23 November 2008, between the SPÖ and the ÖVP and it was sworn in on 2 December 2008.

[billyysands]

The economy of the Republic of Austria may be characterised as a social market economy similar in structure with that of Germany.

[billyysands]

Growth has been steady in recent years 2002-2006 pendling between 1 and 3.3 %. Because of its position in central Europe it has gained significance as a gateway to the new EU memberstates

[billyysands]

Austria has a strong labour movement. The Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) comprises constituent unions with a total membership of about 1.5 million--more than half the country's wage and salary earners. Since 1945, the ÖGB has pursued a moderate, consensus-oriented wage policy, cooperating with industry, agriculture, and the government on a broad range of social and economic issues in what is known as Austria's "social partnership."

[billyysands]

you know you may well have a point here

you have a well run mixed economy, however its hardly "communist" thank you for the input of data

[nonameposter]

One remarkable time for the Left in Austria was the success of the "Red Vienna" "das Rote Wien"until 1934 when the Austrofashists smashed democracy - the nazis followed 4 years later. Look it up. That was some kind of socialism and it did really work. Even more important was the great Kreisky in the 80s, (free university, schools, healthcare,...)

my parents for instance (working class) were able to study at university -> the social democrats managed to build up the middle class

[billyysands]

yeah and hitler sent stukas to bomb the sh*t out of you. look all the revoltuioons in the world can burn and kill and create rivers of blood. show me how your

paradigm your plan for the world will feed people give them homes and schools and hosptials. capitalims creates these things. and the secret to the future is finding a way to maximize this productive capaicity to benifit everyone

[billyysands]

Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain.

John Stuart Mill

[billyysands]

Many of the country's largest firms were nationalized in the early post-war period to protect them from Soviet takeover as war reparations. For many years, the government and its state-owned industries conglomerate played a very important role in the Austrian economy. However, starting in the early 1990s, the group was broken apart, state-owned firms started to operate largely as private businesses, and a great number of these firms were wholly or partially privatized

[thatcheritescot]

best pm ever

[idlevice066]

'socialism and christianity' two things that should be seperate from government.

[Scotish223332]

@idlevice066 Socialism yes. . . .religion some what. . . .it's more vice versa really :3

[ZWNeimi]

evil woman.

[KarlBonner1982]

The fundamental problem with Thatcher is that she didn't offer redevelopment projects for the old mining communities to help them develop a post-mining economy. This would have included education, training, and special grants to establish new companies in these towns. Instead she just left the miners and their communities out in the cold. So much for her legacy...

[felixfaster]

I think her whole point was to get away from government "solutions"

[oscarcitosoria]

my God! Gordon Brown in the interview! another face, another speech!

[scottishlowoflow]

new labour is following thatcher, even the public services such as the NHS and schools are having anything they possibly can sold off, the cleaning,cooking the actual buildings

[ozzlefozzle]

stupid fucking socialist pigs

[matmilne]

the government should be between the markets and the workers, to make as much available as possible for the goods, without allowing the market to cause mass unemployment and deprevation. at the same time the government must make sure that the workers aren't allowed to bring down the market for their own goods, by limiting the powers of collectivism just as it should capitalism. It should be a mediating force to keep the playing field level, so people can have a job and the country, an economy.

[jacktindale]

We need another Atlee. Even Thatcher considered him to br our best ever PM.

Nationalised Industry doesn't work? France seems to manage well enough and they have far less poverty and a smaller wealth gap than the UK.

The miners did the right thing. Under my hometown there are millions of tonnes of coal, they will open when the oil starts to run out again. But perhaps this is the evil Marxist-Leninist in me talking.

[billydeeuk]

Oh yes. The wonders of Privatisation! Now that we have that in the UK, the trains all run on time, customer services have become increasingly efficent, and gas and telecommunication companies shave their profits down to the wire in a competative market to vie for our custom.

Oh, no wait.....

[LibertarianEurope]

Thatcher forever!!

FREEDOM AND POPULAR CAPITALISM!

[opinionater]

SOCIALISM -the true victory of the common people over rich capitalist individualists

[LibertarianEurope]

Socialism and Fascism is for already rich people

Capitalism is for poor people. Read some of economics dude. And study please lol

The problem with Thatcher is that she wasnt enough libertarian capitalism. More than 99% of State and public property is absurd and create poverty.

FREEDOM!!!!

[Bigmartinno1]

Idiot, lunatic.

Libertarianism is a cloak for class warfare perpetrated by the rich on the poor.

Problem with Thatcher is the IRA missed in 1984

[Ikazi]

Bigmartinno, the problem with Thatcher is she didn't just invade Ireland and annex them.

[Bigmartinno1]

Can you imagine what would happen had Britain annexed? Britain couldnt contain the IRA as it was, plus there would be a lot of angry Irish-Americans, the French are always willing to get one up on the Brits too, so arms wouldnt be a problem.I hear Thatcher was very lucky to catch the eksund. An all round lucky woman. Came to power on an economic upswing(almost fucked it up, reelected because of war etc etc

The problem with Thatcher is she was an evil cunt I don't think this fact can be disputed

[Ikazi]

Evil? She made life better for most of Britain. And the British Armed Forces could of easily taken Ireland.

[Bigmartinno1]

Did she really. She's probably the most unpopular politician of the modern era! She created the British underclass, the debt society.....

The British couldnt quell Irish resistance the whole 800 years they were there and were finally kicked out in 1921 with partition being a sop to unionists (Israeli settlers + time)in the North. Britain doesnt have much luck with the partition policy- India, Middle East, Ireland. Britain couldnt control the IRA in the North nevermind the South

[Ikazi]

I disagree with you. I assume you've heard of the term "sick man of Europe"? Well after her 11 years, she was successfully able to remove that slanderous title from the British Isles. That in itself says she was successful. And for you to call her the most unpopular politician is a paradox in itself. Being she won every general election she contended.

[Bigmartinno1]

Thatcher didnt do anything. She came to power on an economic upswing, Callaghan had inflation largely under control. Still her monetarist policies and later industrial barbarism in effect killed off British industry. British wealth now largely is garnered from financial speculations benefiting only the already rich. Consequently she presided over a huge increase in poverty, highest rate in western europe, an explosion of homelessness, vast disparitities in income, the debt society....

[Bigmartinno1]

privatisation which meant that the family silver was sold of at a snip and that goods and services are more expensive dspite still being subsidised.......I hate her bloody accent as well, goes right through me, strange accent for a grocers daughter, uppity cow

ON her unpopularity stop look listen look around you

[Ikazi]

Privatization benefits the citizens of a country. When Thatcher came to power, 4-5% of the country had shares or bonds. When she left, 20-25% had shares and bonds. During her time, more people became homeowners than ever before. And highest poverty rate in Europe? I think not. And finally let me clarify something with you on her popularity. If she never lost an election and she contended quite a few. How do you come to the assumption that she was the most unpopular politician of her time.

[Bigmartinno1]

privatisation only benefited a few, now all these services are more expensive, despite the fact thqt they are subsidised, & are totally unaccountable to the public. Thatcher merely attempted to buy off some with their few grains of sand so they wouldnt question underlying inequities. Her housing policies made rent go up for those unable to buy for themselves, homelessness shot up.

The percentage of Germans owning their own home is very low are they worse off? Highest poverty in europe, yes

[Bigmartinno1]

On Thatchers popularity, George w won 2 elections yet is the most unpopular president in a long long time. He woon every election he stood for.

Thatcher aint so popular outside middle england circles. Ask scousers, scots, yorkshiremen, irish, cockneys, welsh.

interstingly certainpolls have her as one of the worst brits in history

[Ikazi]

She won landslides in every election. However you don't seem to understand that privatization make sure companies are removed from the treasury funds. Lets sum this up, All of Thatchers policies were made to encourage work, and if you didn't work, you found out what your true value was to society. And the only official poll I've ever seen was "Was Thatchers time in power good for the country?" And she got 60% with 9% saying they were unsure. It was conducted by the BBC, feel free to look it up.

[Bigmartinno1]

Thatchers highest command of the pop vote in any election was 43%, hardly landslide, but such is the first past the post system. If it wasn't for those SDP fuckwits who knows. Also, legend has it Thatcher was saved from the scrapheap of history by recourse to a bit of argey-bargey.

What you don't seem to realise is that most of these privatised companies still have access to the treasury funds, are more expensive and any profits derived do not go back into the treasury......

[Bigmartinno1]

If Thatchers policies were designed to make people work why did she remove the goal of full employment from economic policy? Why did she decimate industry?

Feel free to look up channel 4 worst britons in history. Apparently Browns government is now as unpopular as Thatchers government before she was ousted

[duncan36]

Its a very simple cold, inhuman way to rule. Look at 'inefficincies' in the system. Dont try to improve them. Just cut them out with a hacksaw, no matter the human cost. Put the sufferers on the dole to stop outright revolt. When the political and social structure of these people breaks down in the future. Then you attack the people as lazy scoundrels sucking off public assistance and take it away. Thatcherism = violence.

[colonelcronin]

If Thatcher's ideas are so unpopular, why has the UK had a Labour Government for 11 years and they have not rolled back any of her reforms? With Blair's majorities he could have easily taken the UK back the policies of Callaghan, Wilson, and Benn. But he didn't. Why not? Could it be that the policies of Thatcher worked and are popular?

[Bigmartinno1]

Blair, is not or was never true labour and was never going to role back those policies. The labour party was essentially hijacked, and Blair was never one for listening to his grass roots, its one of the major complaints against him, from all sides. As Benn has said, the shift from "Stalinism to Blairism is not much".

The UK has not had a labour govt for 11 years thats why. The red tories were voted in under a false flag

[colonelcronin]

So if the majority of Labour party members feel as you do, then why was he party leader for so long? Why didn't members in the party, the trade unions, challenge him? Why was Brown made his successor? It seems to me that a large number of party members and the country in general agreed with Blair, and wanted to keep a good portion of the Thatcher reforms in place. And that if Blair had moved to undo her reforms it would have been a political nightmare for Labour.

[Ikazi]

Colonelcronin, I've spent weeks arguing with this guy. He doesn't seem to understand that Thatchers policies were continued under Labor, because she had good policies and was possibly the greatest post-war primeminister we'll ever have.

[colonelcronin]

Have you ever read the book "The Writing on the Wall"? It is about the UK in the 1970's and a good reminder of why we need these reforms.

[williamastanier]

Thatcher was an evil bastard

[yiyobori]

now who the hell are the miners so that they get subsidized? what makes them different so that they get taxpayers money? just like there is a law of gravity and motion there is a law for markets. you cant expect to break that law and expect things to go your way. WHAT GOES UP, MUST GO DOWN, and that my friends has no exceptions.

[Advocate1234]

I could subsidize 1000 people to snap their fingers; it doesn't make it a good idea.

[KevvyT89]

'It was taxpayers money'

And who the hell did she think was working in the pits?

[thedarkknight111]

In the end liberty won and the Marxist, anti-freedom - the state controls everything in your life - lost,

[peppermintjohn666]

a great big fuck you to thatcherites ands socialists. your both wrong. our industries were losing because we were to scared to stop the flood of cheap coal and other foreign goods. this killed our indusry and our economy. all you traitorous bastards sold your country amd countrymen down the line.

[RobNewall]

God bless Maggie-you are very much loved!!xx

[axisboldas]

Thatcher made a decision that overall was better for the economy, but she also screwed up culture and values leading to the yob today. Thats how I see it anyway.

[toryboi]

Yes thankyou Mrs. Thatcher! Pipe down you underachieving layabouts..and stop complaining as if you are entitled to your jobs. Go get pissed of your dole money.

[peppermintjohn666]

tonight i shall pray you get cancer.

[russ399]

Our country is f**ked! Thanks to the tory bastards and now labour are doing even worse! Who do you trust? NO ONE!

[repeatuk]

Yeah mate, its a real easy job running the country isnt it, as the world is changing it is harder for politicians to make decisions based on past events. So sure a few mistakes have been made, but does Joe public really know all the facts? do you not think that the best people who could run this country are doing so, if not then step up sonny jim see how far you get in an election with an argument like that you ignorant bellend.

[guitaralica123]

dude go home and dream..... and keep dreaming

[arygirolamo]

The Almighty Brazilian Empire of God will invade and take over and control and rules and conquer and invade again and command and take over BRITAIN with EASE! Yeah! Brazil is MUCH better and MUCH powerful than England, you surrender without fight. Brazil will invade London TEN times before you can say: "God save the Queen".

Be humble and repeat this sentence below:

" I swear fidelity to the Greatest Nation of this planet: The Amazing Brazil!"

Have a nice day.

[kmarkymark]

lol dream on

[messruth]

i had a brazilian, didnt suit me tho

[Kalydosos]

Haa ahaa aaaah!

[rodjames98]

mines losing money ? screammac do you know anything about how capitalism works?? All of these things are public utilities! it does'nt matter that they lose money? these are industries which provided for its people! please do'nt be under any dillusions that in this age just because we closed our pits that we are'nt importing any coal!! jobs? where do you get your assumptions from?

[rodjames98]

and the antedote to nationalisation has worked has it? try telling that to railtrack and countless other utilities we have paid our taxes to support over the the decades only to be sold shares in the same !!

[Kalydosos]

I'm applauding you mate well said.

[screammac]

what did she do creat jobs the damge was done by uinis she fixed that so lear what you say be fore you sayit

[screammac]

it wasnt a mater of govermeant the minds were losing money and lost there jobs even more then going on strick im not old consertive im new consertive but the mater is globel worming is here a magen how bad it would be if they had not closed the minds well in my viewe globle warming would be here now it was not govermeant they werent making profit thats way they closed

[patarciepaul]

thatcher is so smug about it, it's as if she enjoyed ruining peoples lively hoods. she closed the pits but carried on subsidising farms. many people in mining communities would have preferred to see her hang rather than saddam hussein and i'm not surprised.

[Mounthooly]

i have traveled round the world 3 times and spent a year traveling throughout America but there is no place i would rather live than right here in SCOTLAND, albiet under the rule of the english and Westminster.

[glx001]

"why Britain has the highest taxation in the world."

I prefer being a taxpayer in Britain rather than in France or (worst!) denmark!

[alanheath]

UK taxation (including indirect taxation such as VAT and what I call invisible indirect taxation which is the cost of calculating it) is very low in comparison to other countries.

Income tax may be lower elsewhere but it is the indirect taxation which is usually much higher.

[hess6wi]

"75% were losing money." This means that 25% was making money. So why is there virtually no coal industry in the entire of the UK today or indeed by the early 1990s?

[howardmalpas]

Britain has mainly service industry now, the question we must ask is what and who is paying for this industry, the answer is the taxpayer, that is why Britain has the highest taxation in the world. We need real industry back, but its cheaper labour in China and other countries. If they lowered taxation we would be cheap too.

[SpeedFreakJive]

Thatcher and her supporters are so full of shit! Theres still a mine going in Wales which is owned totally by the workers and is making a lot of money!

One day she and her lot will die and Britian and the unions will be a lot better for it!

[PsychoPunk1965]

Great Britain was better off when the SOCIALIST British Labour Party government of Prime Minister Clement Atlee came into power. They modernized Britain after World War II. The global economy was the problem in the 1970s, not the trade unions in the UK itself. Margaret Thatcher did not provide solutions; she provided additional problems.

[worldoffreeaccess]

Nationalisation is state run capitalism,steel gas coal etc where all run as profit making enterprises.More mines closed under labour than tory goverments.Shipyards and steelworks that could not compete in the world market closed down,long before thatcher.

[Ikazi]

Joekid33, Russia was not a socialist serfom, it was an Absolute Monarchy with a large conservative base aristocracy and autocracy. Which is linked closely to Capitalism with a conservative view.

[gizmosells]

Thacther did in the 1980s most politicans would not dare do take on Coal Miner unions. We have taconite mines here, and the local polticains will rig it to keep the workers on the job even if tax payer subidizing thier work. Gotta give Thacther credit for taking them dead on

[gizmosells]

Time for farm subidies next?

[alanheath]

Yes absolutely! These farm subsidies are totally anti free market and destroy markets in countries in Africa and elsewhere which cannot afford the subsidies.

This should be part of foreign aid and help to poorer countries.

[spinozacelt]

capatilism/communism....2 different sides of the same coin.............MONEY/POWER.

[alanheath]

Excellent documenatary. Nationalisation and socialism kills the economy. If parasites like Scargill paid for the pits then I say good luck but no, it is paid by for by working people. If - as is claimed in this video by the socialist interviewed - there is enough coal in his pit they why does not he organise an investor to dig it out?

[adi87tya]

that's because he doesn't own the pit...nobody owns it anymore...if they had privatized the operation, that would have been different, but they simply closed it

[alanheath]

If someone had come forward and said that they would buy the pit (probably for GBP1) then it would have been sold. No investors came forward. In the case of the town I come from, there was a group of people who wanted to buy the steel works but for some reason the deal did not go through. Why did not Scargill or the NUM take the pits? The government would have given them to them!

[ukmaxi]

No one can buy the pits anymore.... They would have all been flooded by now, and too expensive to extract out the mines again. We had enough coal in the isles, to last us another 500 years! But now we have to rely on other countries for the coal.

[alanheath]

They could have been bought but the NUM effectively stopped it.

I do not know if they have been flooded - maybe yes, maybe no.

I would rather pay for cheaper foreign coal than expensive British coal but then I am not a nationalist.

[thailegend]

scargill was the problem as was the NUM,thatcher wanted to get them, it was them she was after, the pits were not losing money, it cost more to ship it in, this was not an econmic problem it was a political one because she felt they had to much power and scargill was proved right in everything he said

[Kalydosos]

I agree I think thatcher destroyed the working classes in Britain. I grew up during those days in a mixed part of Britain and I can tell you. Arther Scargil was respected by every black,Asian,white in our part of town.

[lallyforpresident]

Scargil was the reason the mining industry failed under Thatcher. Essentially it was as a result of Scargils extremism that provoked thatcher into an out and out 'power war' against the socialist aims of miners nationally because of her misrepresentation of the miners by a man corrupted by his own political ambitions.

[opinionater]

you tories are deluded. why is it tories always call known socialists extremeists?, Extremism?, he organised protests against privitisation, capitalism, individualism and big business and stood up for the common worker and man against a government that detested them completely. it was thatcher who destroyed the mining industry not scargil the workers were standing up for their right to have a job and a decent wage and she ordered police to crack their sculls open.

[opinionater]

all because they were exercising their democratic right to protest. tories brand everything socialist extremism because it stands up against their ogliarchy individualist greed and their belief that the individual is more important than society as a whole.

[cruickofmongoose]

Rubbish, Communism has never been tried because it is an Ideal that can NEVER be achived. Human Nature and the greed of mankind would prevail. Why should a surgeon earn the same as an unskilled worker. an unskilled worker who because he is guranteed the same as everyone else does not bother to work anymore or try to better himself. Communism does not work with human nature.. it is a dreamt up idealistic world.

[SPGB52claphamhighst]

At least no more generations of young men will have to spend their lives down a dirty stinking coal mine.Workers of the world unite,Labour liberal tory its the same old pathetic capitalist story.

[worldoffreeaccess]

Nationalisation is only state run capitalism.What collapsed in the old soviet union was State Capitalism.Socialsim/communism has not failed its never been tried.Workers of all lands unite for a society of genuine common ownership with production for human need.Abolish the Wages System

[Myndir]

A classic Marxist ad hoc argument. When the USSR was doing well and censoring the truth of Marxist totalitarianism, it was held up by Marxists as good. Now, like rats leaving a stinking ship, the Marxists have tried to drop the legacy of their past. The common working man sees through such deception, and as such Marxism is as dead as Marx himself.

[worldoffreeaccess]

Myndir shows his/her ignorance,the soviet union was never socialist/communist.The socialist party exposed this myth in the 1920s.The workers in the soviet union where still wage slaves selling their labour power in return for a salary.That is capitalism buddy.

[robertwilki]

Thatcher raped this country and left it with no future for unskilled members of society. Keynesianism only failed because it was not implemented properly, monetarist policies not only created massive unemployment, it didn't work in the long run creating an unstable economy of boom and bust. Now Brown has returned to the Keynesian model of fiscal economy we have seen not only a massive fall in unemployment but also the strongest economy since the days of the empire.

[robtuk31]

we have also seen the worst house price increase under him as well. whats the point of having a strong economy if you cant afford a house to live in and benefit from it.

[chinsup]

nah ask the EU why they put such heavey restrictions on the greenbelt, the economys in great shape for housing but not enough can be built a year thx to restrictions on planning permission, they are talking about relaxing restrictions which is something im in favor for

[adi87tya]

yes but won't the deficit balloon?

[117wolf]

The US had nothing to do with the reason the Soviet economy collapsed, they only hastened it. The Soviet economy was already collapsing from within after the government stopped using Stalinist terror tactics to force people to work. I would like to point out that the US government spent a lot of money on weapons and the people still had high income and were able to but things that they wanted, unlike the soviets that ran out of money and the people didn't get paid.

[117wolf]

Thatcher and her party actually saved the British economy from being dragged down by those poor companies that would in a few years have fail completely in the world market. China and eastern companies could do what the British were doing for cheaper, and faster.

[supaowl]

What have we got now? shit jobs! shit wages! no skills! no future! no heavy manufacturing industries! no coal! no steel! no car industry! never mind we can all work in shops or call centres.

Thatcher and the Tories have killed Britain and the working man.

[117wolf]

why gov't funded programs don't work.

[eaglepies]

Nonesense, the Soviet Union is an exellent example that shows how they can work, and how they can create prosperity and wealth, and also see that this wealth is MUCH more fairly distributed.

[117wolf]

If by work you mean fail miserably at everything but sucking then yes you would be right. The Soviet Union did such a good job managing its economy it drove it off a cliff on fire into the depth of economic collapse. Distributing so much wealth so equally that you had to wait years to buy an overpriced sad excuse of a car, which was declared an environmental disaster on wheals and was a deathtrap.

[eaglepies]

The Soviet Economy could have been fine, had leaders not been pushed by the USA (Reagan in particular) into bulding more and more weapons. Had they focused spending on increasing life standards, and not attempted Perestroika, the Union might still be here today.

[lookathatrug]

millions who perished by starvation would not have under capitalism

[eaglepies]

It's impossible to say that, who knows what would have happened if capitalism had been installed instead of communism after 1917 revolution? Things would ceratinly have been much worse in WWII without the Five Year Plans that modernised USSR industry.

[lookathatrug]

i think it is safe to say starvation under communism > starvation under capitalism. it's safe to say in my opinion, that communism made the USSR much poorer, just see "The Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism in Russia, 1917-1991" by Martin Malia

[ANTIDALLARD]

millions who perished by starvation would not have under capitalism . ? you cannot be serious. Pre revolutionary russia was in constant, partial famine

[tickertape82]

Well-balanced.