"British Steel was crap"
That is a total distortion of the position Britissh steel was the best in the world until the Tories started to reverse steel nationalisation
A summing up of what happened to the Steel industry in Britain -
"nationalisation was reversed by the Conservative government after 1952. The industry was again nationalised in 1967 under another Labour government. But by then twenty years of political manipulation had left companies such as British Steel with serious problems: a complacency with existing equipment, plants operating below full capacity (hence with low efficiency), poor-quality assets, outdated technology, government price controls, higher coal and oil costs, lack of funds for capital improvement, and increasing competition in the world market."
British Steel was sabotaged by the Conservatives because there was more investment profit in buying abroad.
The same went for the Coal industry - cheaper to buy Polish coal than to continue mining our own.
The "inferiority" of the product was a blatant lie put about by the Thatcher regime - they also argued at one stage that pits were being closed out of concern for the miners' health
You really have swallowed the Tory gospel, haven't you?
The trades Unions never attempted to "run the country" - another piece of Thatcher dogma - they did their job in protecting their members.
The rise in unemployment figures under Thatcher, directly effercted by her systematic destruction og British industry - for profit - vindicates the steps the Unions took in offsetting Tory vandalism - "Labour isn't working" - whoops - one million plus on the dole.
She was a right wing thus who would have echoed the actions of her friend Pinochet if she though she could have got away with it.
Jim Carroll