In suggesting that Liverpool wanted to “engineer” confrontation with the government in the 1980s,after he praises Kinnock’s mendacious (deceptive) attack on the council in 1985, David Brindle (Report, or 11 November) regurgitates the childish notion of so many detractors that Liverpool really didn’t face a crisis but that the “Militant council” just fancied a joust with Thatcher. The reality is different.
In 1983,Liverpool Labour inherited an appalling social and financial crisis. The defeated Liberal-Tory alliance had budgeted for 2000 redundancies and unallocated cuts of £10m, approximately £25m in today’s money. Between 1977 and 1983, and 60% of Liverpools manufacturing was destroyed; the docks industry had halved; council rents were the highest in the UK external London. Heseltine had slashed 100m in grants from the council budget; 30000 families were on the housing waiting list; not a single house for rent had been built by the council in the previous two years.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com