Don’t knock the 70s, an era of equality the Tories love to loathe
CALL me a militant dinosaur but I loved living in the much-derided 1970s.
There was a strong sense of community, investment in public services, free education, houses for the young, workers grafted for fewer hours in more secure jobs, and the music and football were class. Plus, 1976 was officially the year when incomes in this country were most equal.
Tories love the 1970s too, but for different reasons. Today it allows them to conjure up a post-apocalyptic fantasy world of super-rats feasting on unburied corpses, homes permanently lit by candles, and people communicating through tin cans and string because it took so long to get a phone installed.
Which was all down to Marxist trade unions making Britain the Sick Man of Europe, apparently. Yet, weirdly, nothing to do with years of manufacturing underinvestment, poor management, a global oil crisis and shrinking postEmpire markets.
They’re currently taking another trip down Dystopia Lane all because railway workers are exercising their democratic right to strike in protest at job cuts and a pay offer 7% below inflation. Bloody Bolsheviks.
The good news is that, as workers see their incomes plummet while the rich keep getting richer, most of us put Britain’s sickness down to a very rich elite gorging on more and more of the
nation’s wealth.
That’s why the Tories were handed their backsides in Thursday’s by-elections, just as media interviewers trying to portray RMT leader Mick Lynch as a Marxist revolutionary were handed theirs.
His calm demeanour and honest answers have convinced many that he is not trying to bring Britain to its knees but get low-paid workers off theirs by winning for them a fairer share of the wealth that flows unceasingly into the pockets of their company’s bosses and shareholders.
Despite most people’s living standards yet to recover from a decade of austerity, the combined wealth of Britain’s 177 billionaires rose last year by £55.8billion to £653.1billion. And while public sector pay in the UK rose by 1.5% last year, City bonuses grew by 27.9%, with HSBC speculators each scooping £596k and Barclays’ bonus pool hitting £1.9billion.
The Tories held their annual party this week at which donors paid for access to ministers. One forked out £120,000 for the privilege of having dinner with Boris Johnson, David Cameron and Theresa May (God knows how dire the consolation prize must have been).
I’m guessing plenty of others topped up the party coffers as a thanks for all the kickbacks they got during Covid.
Reports claim Downing Street now wants to ease restrictions on City bosses’ pay to attract more firms to the UK. Meanwhile, they’re telling public service workers who saw us through Covid to take effective pay cuts. Which made their crocodile tears about the rail strike stopping NHS staff getting to work even more comical. Maybe they thought giving them a clap would suffice.
A major reason for today’s dire pay disparities is that in the 80s Margaret Thatcher deliberately rigged the market in favour of a small minority at the top. And she did so by smashing the unions.
It’s why Tories are desperate for you to believe all our problems are down to people like Mick Lynch, not incompetent No10 stooges who serve their interests.
That’s why they malign the 70s so much and warn us not to go back. Because they couldn’t bear the country being so equal again.
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It was a time of investment in public services, and class music and football