"If Margaret Thatcher is re-elected as prime minister on Thursday, I warn you.
I warn you that you will have pain–when healing and relief depend upon payment.
I warn you that you will have ignorance–when talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right.
I warn you that you will have poverty–when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a government that won’t pay in an economy that can’t pay.
I warn you that you will be cold–when fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don’t notice and the poor can’t afford.
I warn you that you must not expect work–when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don’t earn, they don’t spend. When they don’t spend, work dies.
I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in large crowds of protest in the light.
I warn you that you will be quiet–when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient.
I warn you that you will have defence of a sort–with a risk and at a price that passes all understanding.
I warn you that you will be home-bound–when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up.
I warn you that you will borrow less–when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income.
If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday–
- I warn you not to be ordinary
- I warn you not to be young
- I warn you not to fall ill
- I warn you not to get old."
Thanks for posting this, how incredibly apt.
ReplyDeleteI remember watching that speech and feeling very conflicted. Kinnock was not the right choice for us - too far left - but his predictions were so obviously wise.
ReplyDeleteI think we (collectively) thought Thatcher would set Britain back on its feet, then we could get rid of her and return to our familiar middle road. We underestimated her. She changed the very nature of politics in Britain, removing parliamentary moderates from office and systematically cutting the legs off democracy.
As well as "There is no such thing as society", she also said "I will destroy ^society^." She was successful. We, the electorate, we became the paymasters shackled by our servants.
Much of what our government's now doing is borderline illegal. And they are swiftly removing our power to challenge them. I hope people realise before it's too late! It almost is.
Too true, all too true.
ReplyDeleteKinnock's warning went unheeded. I fear that a speech along similar lines these days would also be ridiculed in the press, and characterised as alarmist. Wake up Britain!!
That actually sent a chill through me.
ReplyDeleteIt actually made me cry !
ReplyDeleteI always liked Neil Kinnock. He wasn't too left for us up in Scotland - has anyone noticed we now have twice as many pandas as Tory MPs?
ReplyDeleteIm old enough to remember life under the last Tories. Not being able to afford fod, no heat, lone parent benefits cut every year. The riots. I went to school without shoes ffs. Its all happening again.
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