Thank you, George. A very gracious apology and nice turn of argument.

I do believe we are still seeing the effects of union greed but let me offer my reasons.

By allowing themselves to be be seen as greedy and as using big brother or bullying tactics to get their own way the unions paved the way for, what I believe, was the most damaging western government of recent times. The conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher.

The unions handed the right wing press, on a plate, the monster they could use to damage the Labour party. The press used the tales of union harrasment, mis-management and greed to stir up anti-labour feelings to such an extent that the the tory party landslide victory was inevitable.

We then suffered years of tory mis-management and almost complete erosion of workers rights. Everyone became so frightened of loosing their jobs that they no longer had the means, or nerve, to fight back.

It haunts us still and the proof of that is currently in office at Westminster. The left wing labour of old with the likes of Tony Benn, Denis Skinner and even Michael Foot is now a thing to be feared and reviled. Even the labour party has admitted this - Why else choose the phrase 'New Labour' and then change their policies to such an extent that there seems to be little difference between left and right?

Had the left wing militants not given the right wing militants the perfect opportunity to gain such power we would still have full workers rights. We would still have genuine choice in who we vote for and we would still lead the world in enlightened democratic government.

So, did the unions near ruin the economy? Yes, by allowing the Thatcher regime to come to power. Are we still suffering the consequences? Yes, we no loger have democratic choice.

QED!

You can of course argue that it was the greedy employers that caused the unions to behave in such a way in the first place but, as I said, there are two sides to every argument. Nothing is in perfect back and white and there are more shades of grey now than ever before.

I must away now - my employers are one of the new enlightened breed but I don't want to push it too far;-)

Hope you found this more enjoyable than an off-hand dismissal and that you may now, at least, tell me I am talking crap because you know my genuine views.

Or do you.....?

Cheers

Dave the philosophical Gnome