"JD Cooper"
sour.net> wrote in message
news:U82dnXjNz-2llV3VnZ2dnUVZ_hudnZ2d@texas.net...> John E wrote:
>
>> "JD Cooper"
sour.net> wrote in message
>> news:KJGdnf-8DYwnnl3VnZ2dnUVZ_sWdnZ2d@texas.net...
>>>>> John E wrote:
>>>
>>>> "Séimí mac Liam"
comcast.nospam.net> wrote in message
>>>> news:Xns9B0F50FABB535Sim@216.196.97.136...
>>>>>>>>>> John Podhoretz
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> One of the responses to the above article, which I thought apropos:
>>>>> Herbert Rubin, M.D. Says:
>>>>>
>>>>> September 4th, 2008 at 9:37 AM
>>>>> Please, no more intellectuals. The last thing this country needs is an
>>>>> over-educated empty suit.
>>>>>
>>>>> This is the Real American, the "fly-over" American, completely unknown
>>>>> to
>>>>> the bi-coastal cosmopolitans. The yeoman America that does the work
>>>>> and
>>>>> defends us from enemies. The common sense adult. The best citizens
>>>>> held
>>>>> in contempt by the "elite effete".
>>>>>
>>>>> No Liberal has ever met one of this species. They have no idea what
>>>>> their
>>>>> up against.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Saint Séimí mac Liam
>>>>> Carriagemaker to the court of Queen Maeve
>>>>> Prophet of The Great Tagger
>>>>> Canonized December '99
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hello Seimi,
>>>>
>>>> You are mistaken.
>>>>
>>>> As a liberal in the UK, I have a complete understanding of the kind of
>>>> person the beautiful "Palin" lady represents. We had one here,
>>>> remember, called Margaret Thatcher. She managed to devastate our
>>>> country. I hope yours is less destructive of your country. Of course,
>>>> you may prefer destruction.
>>>>
>>>> John
>>>
>>>
>>> odd... everything I have read about Thatcher is that per policies
>>> literally salvaged your little island from absolute financial disaster.
>>>
>>> JD
>>>
>> Well, that is one view, yes. People in Corby might have a different view,
>> but they do not have a voice on CNN - or anywhere else, now their
>> community has been destroyed.
>>
>> John
>
> this?
>
> In 1967 the British steel industry was nationalised and the Stewarts &
> Lloyds steel tube works at Corby became part of British Steel. In 1973 the
> government approved a strategy of consolidating steel making in five main
> areas: South Wales, Sheffield, Scunthorpe, Teesside and Scotland, several
> of which are coastal sites with access to economic supplies of iron rich
> imported ores, and in 1975 the government agreed a programme that would
> lead to the phasing-out of steel making in Corby.[5] In November 1979 the
> end of iron and steel making in Corby was formally announced. By the end
> of 1981 over 5,000 jobs had been lost from British Steel in Corby, and
> further job losses took the total loss to 11,000 jobs, leading to an
> unemployment rate of over 30%%.[6][7] Steel tube making continued,
> initially being supplied with steel by rail from Teesside and now from
> South Wales.
>
> New industry was subsequently attracted to the town and by 1991
> unemployment had returned to the national average.[8] The recovery of
> Corby was explained in 1990 by John Redwood, then a junior minister in the
> Department of Trade and Industry, as being a result of the establishment
> of an Enterprise Zone, the promotion of Corby by the government, the work
> of private investors and the skills of the work force. Others believe the
> town's recovery was significantly assisted by its central location and
> substantial grants from the EU.[
>
>
We were talking about Thatcherism, not the 1990s. As you didn't seem to
notice the link in my reply, here it is in full:
"I grew up there, moving down from Newcastle with my family in 1964 and
living there until I went off to university in 1979. I watched the town grow
and prosper, as an industrial centre. And I watched the Thatcher government
rip its heart out by giving British Steel license to close down the blast
furnaces and throw most of the working men out of work.
The town, populated by workers from Glasgow and Coatbridge who had moved
south in the 1950's after Stewarts and Lloyd's closed down their steelworks
in Scotland and offered them jobs and homes and a good life in the
Northamptonshire new town, was never a garden city or centre of culture, but
while I was at school my sister and I went to see productions of 'Waiting
for Godot' at the Festival Theatre, attended orchestral concerts, went to
the cinema and enjoyed the swimming pool and sports fields.
It was built on a single industry, the steel works having effective veto
over the arrival of any other heavy industry in the town, so when they went
there was nothing for the highly skilled work force to do, nothing for the
dads in almost every house to do. I was lucky - my dad had already left, so
our family didn't rely on the works, and I was off to university as the
disaster unfolded. My friends weren't.
I can't speak for the town now, and I know that on my last visit there a
year or so ago it was depressing to see the empty shops, boarded up houses
and lack of hope that came through so clearly. But we should never forget
that this was not our fault, that all of us living in Corby were betrayed
and ruined by a government that did not care, did not think we mattered, and
was willing to let our communities fall apart for the sake of a flawed and
ill-considered economic policy.
And nor should we forget that in the ten years since the Tories were kicked
out, New Labour has completely failed to right that wrong or improve the lot
of my old friends and schoolmates, those who stayed behind when I got out."
I have had colleagues who taught in Corby, and absolutely confirm the
content of this blog. Children from broken families, whose fathers had been
unemployed for years following the destruction of the steel industry in the
town. It was a destroyed community. All for the sake of a political idea. I
hope you don't have to suffer the same destruction in the USA because of a
politician with ideals.
John
