Sponsored by
Letter: Misery of the Thatcher years
RE Estelle D Davis’s letter of February 6, I can sympathise up to a point, as I agree that there were and still are many injustices caused by governments of all parties.
However, as a mother of teenage children leaving school during the ‘reign’ of Margaret Thatcher, I have to say that these were the unhappiest years of my life.
My son wanted an apprenticeship when he left school but because she took a sledge hammer to close down our manufacturing industries all he could get was the YTS – Youth Training Scheme – which was anything but a training scheme.
Our kids were basically used as free labour with nothing at the end of it. By the time this country started getting back on its feet it was too late for him and countless others as there were no apprentice schemes to be had for the many who would have acquired the skills so badly needed in today’s Britain.
Obviously one man’s meat is another man’s poison!
Valerie Jackson, Leeds 15
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Leeds
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
Comments
There are 5 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
leedsman
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 02:13 PMI can't pin down where I heard about Mrs.T's accepance of making mistakes. I do remember though one of her colleagues saying that they should have supported manufacturing more but they thought that in our type of economy the service sector would be more important. The trouble is that these days politicians have never had to live in the real world and rely on a wage every week to get by.Mostly they are lawyers or such who have gone early into politics and really "don't have a clue".
Val Jackson
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 07:36 PMMmmmmh! I must have missed something over the years but I can't remember for the life of me Maggie Thatcher ever admitting to making mistakes. Perhaps I blinked at the time and missed it!
leedsman
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 04:01 PMtothepoint5, if you are too young to remember the Thatcher years then you are obviously too young to know the mess created by her predecessors. We were known as the sick man of Europe and with just cause ,when miners, dockers, car workers etc went on strike over nothing and the economy was crippled. Mrs.T made mistakes, something which she later admitted, but I hate to think of what we would be like if the Labour Party had been re-elected in 1978. Like Greece perhaps?
ILCAPA
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 04:31 PMI was one of 15 employees who were finished and replaced by YTS kids in the Thatcher years.Anyone who thought she was a good PM did not live up North I can tell you.The woman is an evil person and I and millions more will be glad to see the back of her.
tothepoint5
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 03:57 PMI was born too late to "enjoy" Thatcher's policies, but my elders tell me what life was like under her with clenched fists, gritted teeth and a mountain of swear words. Now that we've got Thatcher reincarnated as a shiny faced Etonian millionaire I'm seeing for myself what life is like under a tory government and it's not a pleasant experience.
Page 1 of 1
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.