Any suggestions? Student doing a 5000 word report on Thatcher.

I appreciate the pragmatism, but Corbyn convinced more people to vote for him than anybody since Blair, and that included new voters who might not come out for Starmer. The electorate is slowly changing, and I think in a decade or so he'll be looked back on as a missed opportunity. If and when we make it to 2030, I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't Starmer's appeal to the right wing oldies which is really seen as the nail in Labour's coffin. The demographic changes are clear.

 

The student can have a look at her views on state and society which led to many painful changes for the less well heeled of us.

https://newlearningonline.com/new-l...aret-thatcher-theres-no-such-thing-as-society

Scargill on Thatcher

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22079887

Another Scargill v Thatcher article

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/03/arthur-scargill-miners-strike-thatcher

 

Thank you everyone, this is fantastic!

 

I take it they live in Leeds? Worth looking at local newspapers too.

 

I'm increasingly thinking Johnson will get back in in 2024. For sure, Starmer will only get one shot at it - Durham Constabulary permitting.

 

Sadly i 100% agree.


Look at London. He got in as mayor a few times (2?) before many Londoners found out/realised what he is all about.

 

We still had milk at junior school from 1980 to 1982. I can't remember before that, but definitely for those years - the first two I lived in Barnsley.

 

Thatcher's assault on the unions didn't start with the miners. The 1980 Steel Strike might be a good place to start the investigation. That was the catalyst that caused us to move from Scunthorpe back to Barnsley (dad's home town) for a secure job...

 

Did you have to pay for it though?

 

I used have milk at primary school in the mid 80s and fairly sure it wasn't paid for. That was in Huddersfield.

 

Also, its a work of fiction but this is an incredible book about the strike - Gb84 by David Peace.

 

Could quite easily use the words, bstard n bitch for 3000 of the words.

 

Brave student to take that one on.

As Kettlewell said it’s a poor question - the didn’t destroy the working class maybe It’s also a loaded question that she set out to destroy. That may or may not be true. but the question closes off other interpretations.

Can’t add to the various sources that have been posted. Your student will have bash through all that but I’d bear one thing in mind. History isn’t the preserve of historians. The most valuable thing they could do is to show they’ve done their own research and gone back to original sources - talk to people who were there at the time. In this case they could do that relatively easily.

A letter to the Chronicle would do it. You could do something at the library- a poster saying the student would be in for a day and would like to talk to anyone about their memories.You could always get folk on here to contribute a piece on their experiences. They might get something useful they might not but it’s always worth a try.

Showing you've done your own research puts you well ahead I reckon.

 

Just had a look and it looks like she stopped milk for over 7s, so I probably had free milk until I went into year 3.

It was minging anyway, put me off drinking milk neat for life as they used to leave it out and it'd go warm.

 

I hated it and can’t bear milk now. I had to beg my mam to stop paying for it for me as it was disgusting. Even thinking about those bottles makes me gip (genuinely).

 

We had a little conservatory thing at our school and they would be left there in the sun all morning, couldn't stand the smell! I will have it in coffees and cereal but couldn't drink it by itself.

 

Of course, don’t forget the hated Poll Tax & consequent “riots”/protests

 

Besides the defeat of ghe Miners in 1985, the trade unions suffered 2 other major defeats under Thatcher.
The steel workers 1980
The Wapping dispute 1986.
Before that the trade unions lost the 1976-78 Grunwick dispute

 

Two important pieces of legislation that helped Thatcher were the Employment Acts of 1980 and 1982

 

But was it free for everyone?