Dear oh dear, this has caused some grief:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NWB5wdDAyQ&feature=fvw
The Thick Of It page were kind enough to post a link to the video on Facebook and I've seen a suprising number of people comment making coments ranging from "very disrespectful," "It was a long time ago, leave it alone," and "Thatcher was a hero!"
Now I don't pretend that I know much about Margret Thatcher and her government that hasn't been taught to me by my decidedly left-wing family, and granted I'm a bit too young to really know what I'm talking about so my attitude towards the conservative government is essentially prejudice. I don't particularly like that idea, but the plain fact of the matter is that by the time I was old enough to care about the reasons why, Round Oak Steelworks had been, gone, and been replaced by Merry Hill, and Dudley Town Centre was descending into the desolate wasteland that I recognise today.
But I'm guessing that the people who are saying that these attitudes and videos and other propaganda are disrespectful weren't the ones picketing the mines 25 years ago, desperately trying to hold on to their jobs and their livelihoods. They weren't running the steel mills that were forced into closure, or any of the supporting businesses that relied on them. They didn't lose their full-time salaries to find them replaced with part-time jobs that couldn't support a family. They didn't live in the areas that eventually became ghost towns because they'd lost their economic infrastructure as well as their jobs. They weren't the people who were unable to claim the support from the so-called 'welfare state' because they had been on strike.
This being said, it's saddening that those on the 'other side' can't respond with anything more imaginitive than "Tory C***s!" Come on guys, we can do better than this...
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