In his speech to conference following his election as Labour Party leader, Cambridge educated man of the people (of Makerfield) Andy Burnham set out his vision for the future of the U.K. once he becomes Prime Minister next week.
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| We were happy because we were poor |
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After assuring us, Baldrick like, that he had a cunning plan Burnham went on to explain how his vision was for a country that represented Britain prior to Thatcherism in The 1980s. And this was supposed to fill us with hope!
Any man who claims to have been inspired by the rhetoric of the Welsh windbag Neil Kinnock has clearly got issues, but let's dig deeper into the implications of what was said.
In reality for those of us who lived through the 1960s and 1970s life wasn’t always a bed of roses. British Industry was dying on its feet due to a failure to invest and a failure to match competition from overseas. We had rampant inflation, frequent industrial action, power cuts and winters of discontent.
But, to paraphrase Monty Python, “we were happy because we were poor”.
Of course we did have good television to watch as you will know if you’ve watched anything on Channel 56 (this programme contains offensive language, outmoded sexual stereotypes and some violence). We didn’t have to worry about global warming, political correctness or two tier policing and we certainly knew what the difference between a man and woman was.
We had a reasonably decent military, we were the children of real people who had fought and won a world war, we were proud to be British. We had the Beatles. We knew our place in the world. We might not have put a man on the moon but we did have Concord, Harrier Jump Jets and Churchill tanks.
Although we were part of Europe we still sang about "hating the French" and our politicians openly referred to the French as duplicitous on BBC television. In return they burnt our sheep on lorries as they left Calais.
Most importantly we had a massive work ethic; to need to be on benefits was to be in disgrace. People went to University because we needed them to, not because it was a lifestyle choice.
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| ©Harveywetdog |
It was a different time and we were a totally different breed of people. But unfortunately it is in the nature of politicians to look back to a seemingly golden period and set their goal as recreating it in order to distract us from the realities of the present day.
No plan survives first contact with the enemy and Burnham's plan will be no different. It is just a question of how long it will last before it goes up in smoke and is committed to the bonfire of history.
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©Harveywetdog/Author - David Robinson CEng FIET
David spent approaching 50 years in Her Majesty's Electricity Supply Industry before retiring
He was part of the highly successful design team on the Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station Project before spending 25 years producing safety cases to keep our aging AGR fleet generating for the good of the nation
He is responsible for the Harveywetdog YouTube Channel which he maintains as an outlet for his creative talents
David has twice experienced blood cancer treatment but absolutely refuses to be a victim
All views are of course his own but might be influenced by the medication he's had to take
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