Thatcher legacy not all bad

Sir, – We constantly hear how the Tory Party has always been a disaster for Scotland, and many of the comments are attributed to the toxicity of Maggie Thatcher and the poll tax.

And yet, was it not Thatcher who took on the robber barons of the trades union movement and refused to tolerate the continuation of wildcat strikes and the severe disruption caused to our people and our economy?

Thatcher has been accused of destroying Scotland’s mining and shipbuilding industries when the real villains of the piece were the likes of Scargill and Scanlon.

Their activities made their industries noncompetitive, and untrustworthy, leading to the importation of coal to fuel power stations and decisions by shipowners to send their business to less Bolshie and cost-effective parts of the world.

Our shipyards today, are reduced to producing ships commissioned by the same Tory government that your correspondents constantly criticise.

Another Thatcher battle was to allow council house tenants to buy their own homes and begin to take an interest in self-sufficiency instead of a life-long dependency on state subsidies and support.

Other innovations included the introduction of “Peps” – tax-free savings now known as ISAs; the deregulation of the UK financial markets; the break-up of City of London cartels, allowing participation and share-investment by ordinary people at a capped fee-rate, and the claw-back, from the EU, in a renegotiated settlement, of substantial payments, given away by her predecessors.

All of the above were beneficial to the people of Scotland, but Maggie remains associated with the poll tax, and nothing else. The detractors of this tough and principled lady need to reread their history books.