Thatcher and friends!

Those in the Tory supporting media and even Tories closer to home have enjoyed going on about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown meeting Gaddafi, or as they put it being friends of Gaddafi. An example here from Tory supporting blog 'A Riverside View'.

But I was surprised that our local Tory MP, Ben Gummer even linked Blair, Brown and Gaddafi in one of his tweets,

Now all national leaders often have to meet, shake hands and discuss issues with people they would rather not even have to spend 10 seconds with. As an ex soldier I still find it hard to see politicians of all sides having to meet and talk with the likes of Gerry Adams and Gerry Kelly. But I also know by doing that it has helped cement peace in Northern Ireland.

Mrs Thatcher and General Pinochet - actually forget that she probably enjoyed meeting him (as many other Tories would) but even Ipswich Tories and Ben Gummer may not be so happy to be reminded of this photograph.

Beating Berlusconi!

On Friday night I paid a visit to the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich to watch the one man show (Paul Duckworth) - 'Beating Berlusconi!' The title and part of the play is based on the true tale of one of the many Liverpool fans who went to the Champions League Final in Istanbul in 2005.

This part of the play is hilarious but the whole play is full of comical moments but also at some points the theatre is silent as we remember the tragic events of Heysel and Hillsborough.

The play is not just about football, it is a portrayal of a city that was ravaged by Thatcher and her cronies but still survived, in part due to their own Scouse humour.

I loved every moment of it, for many reasons - as a football fan who spent many away match being treated like an animal both before and after Hillsborough dark days but also a fan who can remember watching those early European Cup finals with Liverpool in, like Rome in 1977. As a soldier, my regiment had our fair share of Scouse's, so very used to their humour and the scally in all of them. But also as Labour supporter as the story spoke of Thatcher, Hesseltine, Hatton and Kinnock.

I came home thinking how fantastic this great game of football is, the only game that a play about another team would go down as well in any city in the world not just Liverpool, but I was also worried, like the film/play 'Billy Elliot' they are great reminders of the Thatcher years, but we must never go back there, and with Cameron and their 'Big (no) Society' I am worried, and watching the video of the great Hessltine idea to rescue Merseyside - The International Garden Show in Liverpool - very worried that we are moving back towards those dark days. Where we will be at the whim of stupid plans by people who have no understanding what it is like to be poor, unemployed and in some cases desperate. Where can we sign up for 'Big society' if libraries and other community hubs are being closed down? Wonder where they will build the International Garden Show this time?

Miners strike- 25 years ago but still remembered - even in Ipswich

Last night on the BBC, 'One Show' saw the first of what will be Summer of features about the miners strike of 1984. The piece last night featured Roy Hattersley and was a good short piece that featured ex miners and an ex policemen who had been a miner before he joined the force. though 25 years has passed it is obvious from the film that the strike is far from being forgotten and in some area's- South Yorkshire - for one, there still remains bitterness. I do have a worry that many of the articles and programmes over the Summer will portray the strike in more romantic terms. A sort of 'Billy Elliot' view.


I believe the miners were right to strike and what has happened to the coal industry since has proved they were right but they were badly led by Arthur in what became a Scargill v Thatcher battle and that took away the focus from the real suffering of the miners and their families.


Of course some good came out of the strike and the efforts of the wives and mothers introduced a number of females to the Labour movement.


In Ipswich, I remember miners coming to collect money in buckets and my parents helping them on the Cornhill and putting up a number of strikers in our house. I was home a lot of that summer as I was on extended sick leave from the Army after badly breaking my leg, what I can dispel is the urban myth that soldiers helped on the picket line, I have never found any soldier who was involved. In the military hospital we did have a number of policemen as it was thought they may get a hard time from NHS staff if they went to a normal hospital.


I also remember the music of that era, Paul Weller and Billy Bragg remain my favourites from musicians who got behind the miners and who would eventually become 'Red Wedge'.


This link, takes you to a BBC site, that features a slide show of photographs from the strike with a musical backdrop featuring both Weller and Bragg. I hope we do see a number of well made programmes about the strike but let us also look at how some communities have recovered and also how some are still suffering.