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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to blame social science courses for some of this hatred of MrsT

312 replies

Grinkly · 13/04/2013 13:30

I did an OU foundation social science course once. A major part was the detrimental effects of redundancy and unemployment on individuals and the community. It was interesting and spelled out how lives can be devastated by this.

The example was a Yorkshire mining town. It was a good course but I wonder if those, unlike me, who weren't around at the time of the miners' strikes have got a skewed view of why things happened.

Billy Elliot touches on the strikes too I think. But no background info is given, as far as I remember.

Am just amazed at the vitriol - especially by those not directly affected. And it was a long time ago. Don't want to start another debate unless someone has a new point to make.

OP posts:
Pandemoniaa · 13/04/2013 13:32

YABU.

LaVolcan · 13/04/2013 13:33

I can't speak for those who weren't affected but for those who lived in towns devastated by her policies it's first hand experience which had lead to the hatred, not social science courses.

JockTamsonsBairns · 13/04/2013 13:36

Yabu. Do we now have to be personally and directly affected by stuff to have an opinion on them? I detest what Thatcher did throughout the miners' strike, however I am not from a mining family

LadyBeagleEyes · 13/04/2013 13:36

But you have just started a new debate Grin
And how the fuck does anyone know whether they're making a new point or not, unless they've read every thread and newspaper and news broadcast?
So I don't think I can discuss this with you, just in case I don't make a new point.

Original poster
Grinkly · 13/04/2013 13:37

Yes but the towns devastated all those years ago don't have enough population or future generation to account for the amount of vitriol now. So what is causing it?

OP posts:
EggsEggSplat · 13/04/2013 13:37

You don't have to have studied social sciences to realise how devastating mass redundancies can be for communities. Just read a paper, watch the news, travel round the country, even watch a film like The Full Monty...

LadyBeagleEyes · 13/04/2013 13:38

LaVolcan and JockTamson those are not new points.
Tuttut.

Original poster
Grinkly · 13/04/2013 13:38

I detest what Thatcher did throughout the miners' strike, however I am not from a mining family

see what I mean?

OP posts:
notfluffy · 13/04/2013 13:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Pandemoniaa · 13/04/2013 13:40

Yes but the towns devastated all those years ago don't have enough population or future generation to account for the amount of vitriol now.

You don't need to have been alive during World War II, nor to study History at degree level in order to be able to form opinions about Hitler.

Memories are not time-limited you know.

Original poster
Grinkly · 13/04/2013 13:41

You don't have to have studied social sciences to realise how devastating mass redundancies

EXactly - this is my point - it happens all the time - our car industry disappeared decades ago (though admit the Japanese manufacturers have brought some back). The dock strikes caused Rotterdam to takeover from London as the import hub of Europe - but it's only the miners' strike that causes issues.

OP posts:
FunnyLittleFrog · 13/04/2013 13:43

YABU.

Millions of people were directly affected by her policies. And many of those who weren't have empathy for those who were.

BoneyBackJefferson · 13/04/2013 13:45

Grinkly

The miners and their community are only one aspect of what Thatcher did.

To say ALL of the hatred is due to the miners and their communities is wrong

Original poster
Grinkly · 13/04/2013 13:45

I wonder if it was the picketing and fights with the police which are still shown today which is partly to blame. There are no fights with police to any extent with any other redundancies that I can think of, except maybe some car workers, and there was a standoff over journalists and printworkers with Rupert Murdoch which went on for ages (20 years ago) - you never hear a squeak about it.

OP posts:
TidyDancer · 13/04/2013 13:46

YABU. I don't think anyone other than Thatcher is to blame for the fact that people understandably despise her.

IntheFrame · 13/04/2013 13:47

Perhaps it's because the vitriol doesn't tally with someone who was voted in twice more.

And people may well complain about the social housing situation now but then ordinary working people loved the opportunity of buying their own homes like the middle classes always could. And shares.

So yes history does get a bit skewed.

waltermittymissus · 13/04/2013 13:47

So, unless you were directly and adversely effected by WW2 for example, you shouldn't have a problem with Hitler?

cardibach · 13/04/2013 13:47

I did Social Policy (not science, but close enough I guess) as part of my degree. We studied all political viewpoints and their policies and looked at the effects those policies would have.
I hated MT before I went, though, so it can't have been that.

Original poster
Grinkly · 13/04/2013 13:48

Well, the poll tax and miners and their communities. What else of major import was there?

OP posts:
EggsEggSplat · 13/04/2013 13:49

It's the miners' strike that causes the strongest feelings, particularly in relation to Thatcher, because it was a year-long, highly public demonstration of the strength of her determination to impose her power on the unions.

Anyone who was in their teens or older in the UK at the time can remember seeing it on the news night after night: the pickets, the running battles with police, the huge public demonstrations (involving lots of people with no direct connection to mining), the appeals for money and food to support miners' families etc etc.

The running down and closure of other industries happened more gradually and with less publicity, but the impact on their workforces was equally devastating.

Pandemoniaa · 13/04/2013 13:50

Well, the poll tax and miners and their communities. What else of major import was there?

Sinking the Belgrano wasn't one of her finest moments either.

moisturiser · 13/04/2013 13:50

Possibly one of the weirdest AIBU's ever!

I think people have empathy, that's all. We have a media which is interested in getting first hand accounts, asking witnesses what they feel like to have been through something. People are educated. They read the news. It's like today's Welfare Reform. The cuts aren't affecting everyone, thankfully a lot of people feel furious on behalf of those vulnerable people who are suffering. I'm sure most of those people aren't currently or won't in future do a social science course.

HarrietSchulenberg · 13/04/2013 13:50

I have never studied social science. I do remember her only too well, which is where my vitriol comes from.

babanouche · 13/04/2013 13:50

There's a huge amount of animosity towards her in Scotland. Yes, partly in sympathy with the mining communities, but also because she used us a guinea pig for the poll tax. She knew she didn't have votes to lose here so dumped it on us. Way to alienate an entire country.

mercibucket · 13/04/2013 13:51

she hated liverpool and we reciprocated

hillsborough cover up went right to the top

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