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working classes. To a man, they were idle, shiftless, useless: too demoralised by welfare and socialism to be any good for anything.
They arrived at the car, which had a very flat tyre. Neither of them had a clue what to do. Fortunately, a passing member of the working class observed their plight and changed the tyre. He departed. Perry waited for a change of tone: in vain. Sherman merely continued: “As I was saying, absolutely no good, the whole lot of them.”
Doesn’t this just confirm our predjudices? That Thatcherism wasn’t about free market ideas at all, but merely an exercise in class hatred?
Well yes, this particular story does, and indeed, as the article states, Sherman was a nasty piece of work – but though I liked the story mainly for that reason, and because it’s funny, it is I’ll admit a little unfair to pull it out of the context of the article as a whole. Anderson makes a good case for thinking that Thatcher used him more than he used her. Basically I think she did believe in market ideas, but wasn’t above a bit of class hatred when it suited.
I guess it likelier that any Thatcher “hatred” was better directed than to anything so vague and huge as The Workers. Loathing the NUM, and its leadership in particular, would be not only likelier, but entirely reasonable.
Rubbish, dearieme, the vast majority of the workers she kicked on the dole were non-unionised. I should know, I was one of them. However she did me a favour by encouraging me to emigrate. I now live a pleasant “middle-class” existence and rather enjoy watching from afar the Southern B*stards suffering from the consequences of their 1980’s greed and shortsightedness. Despite living on the world’s dryest continent I have not had to ration my water yet. Roll on the standpipes!
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