I left the UK in the dark days of Harold Wilson\u2019s tenure as Prime Minister: the era when the country was run \u2013 more accurately ruined – by trade unions. During my early years in Canada, it was with considerable relish that I followed Thatcher\u2019s battle with the thuggish UK unions.<\/p>\n
As Mark Steyn notes<\/a>:<\/p>\n That\u2019s to say, she understood that the biggest threat to any viable future for Britain was a unionized public sector that had awarded itself a lifestyle it wasn\u2019t willing to earn. So she picked a fight with it, and made sure she won. In the pre-Thatcher era, union leaders were household names, mainly because they were responsible for everything your household lacked. Britain\u2019s system of government was summed up in the unlovely phrase \u201cbeer and sandwiches at Number Ten\u201d \u2014 which meant union grandees showing up at Downing Street to discuss what it would take to persuade them not to go on strike, and being plied with the aforementioned refreshments by a prime minister reduced to the proprietor of a seedy pub, with the Cabinet as his barmaids.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Living through the Harold Wilson years provided me more than sufficient empirical evidence that Socialism doesn\u2019t work. It is a lazy form of Communism, lacking Communism’s demonic fervour but immersed in the same blinkered utopianism: Communism for dilettantes. Ironically, in Canada, socialism is now the official religion of the Anglican Church; it is enthusiastically embraced by witless Anglican clergy willing to try anything to avoid the embarrassment of reciting Creeds in which they no longer believe.<\/p>\n As expected, the left, ever caring, tolerant and inclusive, is indulging in an orgy of rejoicing<\/a>:<\/p>\n MP George Galloway led the way with a crass tweet\u2026. ‘Tramp the dirt down.’\u2026\u2026 \u2018May she burn in the hellfires.\u2019\u2026.<\/p>\n Colchester Labour councillor Tina Bourne posted a photo of a bottle of Bollinger on Twitter with the accompanying message: ‘Chin chin everyone.’\u2026..<\/p>\n A Facebook campaign has been launched to take Judy Garland song ‘Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead’ to number one following Margaret Thatcher’s death.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I left the UK in the dark days of Harold Wilson\u2019s tenure as Prime Minister: the era when the country was run \u2013 more accurately ruined – by trade unions. During my early years in Canada, it was with considerable … Continue reading