'Thatcher's to blame'

27/02/2009

Norman Tebbit admits economic focus during miners' strike sowed the seeds for 'broken Britain'

By Jasper Hamill
Margaret Thatcher’s policies are to blame for the current crisis in “broken Britain,” her former ally Norman Tebbit has told The Big Issue.

In an exclusive interview, he said anti-social yobbish behaviour, endemic unemployment and a society crippled by fear of crime have their roots in the economic policies relentlessly pursued during the Thatcher government.

A key player during the Iron Lady’s tenure at 10 Downing Street, as employment secretary Tebbit was in the frontline during the 1984 showdown between the National Union of Miners and the government. He said Thatcher’s obsession with the country’s economic situation during the period of mass social upheaval caused her to ignore the corrosive trends that were starting to erode society, and have directly contributed to a selfish Britain riven with fear of crime and devoid of community spirit.
 
Describing himself as a “black-hearted old Tory”, Tebbit, 77, who infamously told unemployed people to get “on their bike” and look for work, said: “Because we were so preoccupied with the economic problems – and they were quite severe – I don’t think we had the time or the people to deal with the social problems which were beginning to grow then and which have, in the past 10 years, got so very much worse. 

“It breaks my heart to see the number of kids in families who have never worked and, because they are very poorly educated, will probably never work.”
 
Tebbit’s opinions reinforce the image of post-Thatcher Britain as a grim country where even Harriet Harman, deputy leader of the Labour party, is too scared to walk the streets without a stab-proof vest.

“I grew up in north-east London, on the working class streets, when there wasn’t a fear of crime. Even during the war, in the blackout, my parents didn’t worry about the fact I was walking back home. That is unthinkable now,” said Tebbit. “I was discussing this with Trevor Phillips [chair of the equality and human rights commission] and we agreed that this [fear of crime] is leaving people very much less free than when I was a kid.”

As the nation looks back on 25 years since the National Union Miners’ strike was called by Arthur Scargill, on March 12, 1984, Thatcher’s legacy is coming under the microscope. The former PM’s influence has been identified as the root of today’s individualistic society, slammed in the National Children’s Report earlier this month, while Gordon Brown has characterised children born under Thatcher “a lost generation” mired in stagnating social mobility. 

Teachers’ unions blamed her for children’s violent behaviour, with Bruce Garvey, president of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, commenting that kids now had an “I’m all right Jack” attitude, which has led directly to irresponsible and selfish behaviour.

The consequence of this individualism is a UK where “trust and belonging” are the lowest in Europe, according to a recent report from the New Economics Foundation think-tank. Thatcher’s on-the-record opinions have done little to contradict this view. 

The ex-PM is famous for stating there is no society. “I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand, ‘I have a problem, it is the government’s job to cope with it’. They are casting their problems on society. But who is society? There is no such thing,” she said in 1987.

“There are individual men and women and there are families, and no government can do anything except through people – and people look to themselves first.”

But Tebbit has claimed the collapse of inter-dependent social structures was particularly felt in the communities scarred by the collapse of the mining industry. He told The Big Issue: “Black-hearted old Tory that I am, I recognise that in those mining towns and villages crime was very low, as was school truancy and yobbish behaviour, because here there was a close-knit social structure in which there was a great deal of social stability.

“The rapid collapse of the coal mining industry did break up those communities in a terrible manner. I think it was a contributory factor to what was going on in society and the change in a lot of our old inner cities, where once, even if you were Norman Tebbit, you could walk safely through the streets, and now, even if you’re home secretary, you’re scared at night out on your own.” 

Although the rundown of the mining industry was inevitable, it was the strike led by Arthur Scargill’s “political ambition” that caused it to catastrophically collapse, said Tebbit. Both he and Thatcher saw their combative stance on the strike as an attempt to preserve democracy – which Tebbit said had been circumvented by the strikes that brought down the Ted Heath and James Callaghan governments. “Scargill and the NUM were the nuclear weapons of the politically motivated trade unions, or trade union leaders,” said Tebbit. “They exploded the nuclear weapon and at the end of it Thatcher was still there, and Scargill was gone. 

“She saw strong action on the strike as an effort to turn over the 1979 election by industrial action. Now you can agree with her or not, but I hope people would think the right way to get rid of a government is by the ballot box, not the picket line.”

Lord Tebbit also tried to explode suggestions the miners’ strike was a class war, pitting “mad Marxists” against Tory overlords. As a working class boy made good, he said he felt “twinges” of his background during the year-long strike. 

Tebbit personally went to meet the picketing miners, who were not “frothing at the mouth” but reasonable people, concerned about their own situation.

However, he suggested even this solidarity has disappeared. “I remember the Welsh valley ethics of hard work at school, education, straight living. I’m absolutely with that and it makes me sad to see that old working class ethic has broken down,” said Tebbit.

The 25th anniversary of the miners’ strikes is on March 12. The Big Issue has features from the frontline this week and next.