Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site abnji.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!mhuxv!abnji!nyssa From: nyssa@abnji.UUCP (nyssa of traken) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: A Medal For Colonel Wilford Message-ID: <352@abnji.UUCP> Date: Thu, 21-Feb-85 07:37:37 EST Article-I.D.: abnji.352 Posted: Thu Feb 21 07:37:37 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 26-Feb-85 04:06:43 EST References: <8255@watarts.UUCP> Organization: Terminus Hospital, Incorporated Lines: 80 [Note that net.flame has been edited from the posting.] >> >> Just watch the U.K. for the next couple of years, and you may >> see it happen. >> >> Whatever other criticism you may/may not level at Margaret Thatcher's >> government, who can deny that it has been divisive? >> With the sole exception of the tiny Kent coalfield, the Miner's >> strike has been a conflict between the South and the rest of >> Britain( ie the wealthy, employed South vs the others). >> It never used to be like that. >> >> There already exist Irish, Welsh, and Scottish Nationalist Armies. >> I wonder whether we will see Northumbrian or Cumbrian ones. There exists a Cornish Separatist Movement! >> I am speaking as a WASP, English Southerner, who voted for her >> in the last election. >> >> >> >> Nigel Gale > >As a Canadian born from Northern English parents, I hasten to tell >the Southernor that people in the North have long resented the >South. It's just that now the politics have increased the resentment >to boiling point. > > Sincerely yours, > > Dave Brown > P.S. I didn't think there were any coalfields in Cumbria? Yes, there are. There are something like 150 pits in all of Britain. Many are just small pits. The biggest reasons for Maggie's re-election are 1. Alot of money has been given to the Conservative Party and 2. Her opposition is divided. 1. The Conservative Party has started doing what American politicians have been doing since 1960. They have had alot of money to flood the people with advertising (Saatchi & Saatchi are her marketers) to tell their side of the story and gloss over or ignore any problems. Labour did not have that kind of funding in 1983. (I believe the Tories raised 3-4 times as much as Labour did!) The campaign became one of "what are the flaws in the opposition" as opposed to a legitimate examination of what the Tories did in their 4 years. Coming out near the election were full details of the sinking of General Belgrano. Unemployment was around 3,000,000. Student grants were being cut and places in higher education were being cut, primarily in the sciences and technical fields (Does Salford still have a University?) In short, her policies were not working for the majority of Britons. Yet all this was ignored in the campaign. 2. The formation of the SDP removed a moderating influence from the Labour Party. This helped cause one of the most radical programs to be presented to the British people. People afraid of that, yet disliking Maggie, then voted for the Alliance candidate in their constituency (The Alliance was an alliance between the Liberal Party and the Social Democrat Party). The Conservative Party's share of the votes in 1983 was actually lower than in 1979. The opposition was almost evenly split between Labour and Alliance, so the Tories were reelected with a much larger majority. (The actual votes were something like C 42% L 28% Lib/SDP 25% Others 5%) A note to American readers: Mrs. Thatcher is not elected Prime Minister in a nation wide election. She is elected only by her constituency as the member of parliament. Parliament then (officially) elects her to be the Prime Minister, in fact that is decided in party conferences. MP's almost always follow their party line when voting in parliament, although from what I've read, there have been Tory MP's voting against Maggie on several key issues. Not only has she divided Britain, but she has divided her party! From a person who worked for Labour in Scotland in 1983: -- James C Armstrong, Jnr. { ihnp4 || allegra || mcnc || cbosgb } !abnji!jca "You said you came from Fulham." "Griffiths, when I look at you, I wonder why your ancestors bothered to climb out of the primordial slime."