Word: thatchers
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...been reinforced by nightly television broadcasts showing violence on the picket lines against miners who continue to work. Then there is the issue of Scargill himself. Rumored to be a member of the Communist Party, Scargill's talk of class warfare has not fallen on overly receptive ears in Thatcher's Britain...
Both these considerations have led many to believe that the strike is little more than a political power play by Scargill. Keeping the miners' 1974 victory over the Conservatives in mind, the union president may hope that a prolonged strike will give rise to doubts about Prime Minister Thatcher's ability to rule, and bring down her government. In a democracy, where people are supposed to choose their governors through the ballot box, a strike is a dubious political tool...
Bumbling inefficiency and weak management have long characterized British industry. The reason, charged Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher while running for office, was that nearly 40 years of state ownership had sapped the initiative of many of Britain's largest and best-known companies. So within months after coming to power in 1979, Thatcher and her Conservative Party took steps to sell the assets of numerous firms to private investors. About half of Britoil (1983 pretax profits: $762 million) is now in private hands, as is all of the Jaguar automobile division of BL, formerly British Leyland...
...push to "privatization," however, has been among the most controversial and difficult undertakings of the Thatcher government. Union leaders and members of the opposition Labor Party, which began the movement toward state-owned enterprises in 1946, howl that the sell-off is really a form of "piratization," which robs the British people of companies that rightfully belong to them. The critics have dubbed Norman Tebbit, Thatcher's Secretary for Trade and Industry and a key figure in the socialist selloff, the "principal gravedigger of British industry...
...life insurance companies, pension funds and banks, and chunks of the rest have not been sold. Speculation in the issues has been rampant as shareholders bought in, held briefly, then sold for a quick profit. The fact that relatively few investors have participated in ownership of the companies worries Thatcher's Conservatives. Without millions of shareholders to contend with, a new Labor government might have an easier time shifting back to state control...