3rd of May, 1979 - The day a dark cloud descended on the UK

The first time I ever noticed a politician that wasn't a Mike Yarwood impression was the day that Thatcher became Prime Minister and stood in Downing Street quoting Francis of Assisi; 'where there is discord ...may we bring harmony'.  What followed for the next ten years or so was most definitely not harmony, what followed was ten years of misery, unemployment, riots and the decimation of heavy industries.  Industries in which hundreds of thousands of people, whole communities, were once employed.

I started secondary school in Sepember 1978.  We had one text book between two in most classes, tired looking gym equpitment and a future that, at the very least, had a job at the end of our school days.

By the time we returned to school after the summer holidays of 1979 the Tory cuts had kicked in and for the following four years we had one text book between three, over 30 kids in a class, missing teachers and a canteen style lunch hour that had replaced large portioned cooked food with pizzas and chips.  We were still ,making do with the same gym equiptment when I left in 1983 as we'd started with in 1978.  Musical instruments weren't replaced and music lessons were only available to those who could pay for them.

In the wider world by 1983 we'd had riots in all of our cities, 4,000,000 unemployed, ship yard and steel works closures and no real jobs to go to after school.  Work for a 16 year old was based on poor replacements for apprenticeships such as YTS.  These schemes did little more than help massage unemployment figures and hide the lack of real opportunities for school leavers who wanted to work.  Those that went to college and university found that upon leaving Further and Higher Education in the 80s that they were no better off job wise than those who'd left at 16.

Still to come after 1983 was the spectre of pit closures, the miners' strike, where Thatcher and her bandit like cabinet described the miners as the 'enemy within', more inner city riots and more unemployment.

Added to these assaults on ordinairy working people, whose main suffering was caused by a Tory instinct to cut, cut and cut again on public spending, was a rise in VAT from 12% to 17.5%, VAT added to fuel and the final attack, the Poll Tax.  A tax that a senior Tory attempted to defend by asking 'why should a Duke pay more than a dustman'?

There are many reasons why we should all use our vote on Thursday May 6th, 2010.  Not least because of the Suffragettes, Chartists and others who sacrificed so much to enable the people of today to enjoy universal suffrage.  Not least because if we don't then parties such as the BNP could sneak election victories that are based on them winning with only 20% of the potential vote.  Not least because the vote could easily be removed. Not least because the 1980s will be repeated if the Tories win.

Cameron and Osborne would atempt to slash the budget deficit at the expense of public spending, yet the only reason we have come out of recession and never went into a depression is because of public spending.  Tory cuts will result in higher unemployment, low wages, higher taxes for those who can afford them the least and decisions based on populist and lowest common denominator political concerns,

My son is just finishing the first year of seconadary school.  In an uncanny and scary parallel to the 1979 election he could return to school in the September of 2010 to be faced with the results of Conservative spending cuts; lack of books, outdated computers, no time or money for art, sport and music equiptment and, this is the scary parallel, massive unemployment, riots, industries closing and no real prospects regardless of qualifications and intelligence.

It is not my intention to tell someone who they should vote for, I'm as disenchanted with NEW Labour as are most people.  But, use your vote, don't waste it, vote tactically to stop Tory cuts and to prevent BNP and UKIP gaining ground with their bigotry and hatred.

Cameron and Osbourne, two public school pygmies, do not have to live in the same world as us or our childre, our old folk and our neighbours.  Don't let them return us to the bigotry, fear, and dark days of the Tory 1980s.