InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Sweet Loki in a bottle!"

babydraco (babydraco) wrote,
@ 2008-08-29 23:13:00

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PBS is airing this totally random documentary on Britain in the 1970s.

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	threeoranges 2008-08-30 04:24 am UTC (link)
	Great place to be, wasn't it? :( I hate Margaret Thatcher, but when you see the footage of the "Winter of Discontent" (the country-wide strikes which led to rubbish going uncollected, dead bodies left unburied, etc.) I can grudgingly understand why the public voted her in to crush the unions. (Reply to this) (Thread)

babydraco
2008-08-31 12:09 pm UTC (link)

The thing about protesting is that you can only take it so far before the average person just starts to get more upset with *you* than whatever you'r protesting because what people really want is for things to keep going as they always do. Whether it's unions or wanting your own country back, once it starts to inconvience people who don't see themselves as being able to do anything about it *anyway* and meanwhile they have to get to work, yeah...it could be seen as doing more harm than good.

I wish it wasn't that way, but people often underestimate the sheer stubborn desire of the general public for the trains to run on time.

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threeoranges
2008-09-02 09:10 am UTC (link)

It's so true - PLUS, the general consensus was that the miners, lorry drivers etc. were just holding everyone to ransom because they could, not because they were in genuine need.

You see it with London Transport today: they're famous for having the cushiest jobs in the capital (30K, plus free travel for self and partner which probably equals another 8K!) yet they frequently hold everything up at the drop of a hat. (See this video, which has non-worksafe lyrics but expresses the frustration of London commuters vividly.)

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