Comfy Myths

Here's an interesting article by Alan Cochrane - Scottish editor of The Telegraph newspaper.

Now Alan is one of a rare breed in Scotland - a high-profile journalist and media commentator, one with a sense of humour and common touch, a staunch supporter of traditional Conservative ideals - which sometimes extends to support for the Tory Party itself.

So I enjoyed his piece about the state of Scotland pre-1979 and the subsequent Thatcher Effect.

Because it does puncture a few myths about the extent to which home-grown Scottish politicians were willing and able - to confront the challenges facing the Scottish economy in the late 1970s. 

Scottish critics are sheltering behind a comfy myth

It's time to drop the deluded image held by many north of the Border of a pre-1979 Caledonian land of milk and honey that was destroyed by the iniquities of Thatcherism

By Alan Cochrane

Prior to 1979, Scotland was a glorious country. Its level of industrial production was the envy of the Western world. Its steel industry was the epitome of efficiency and productivity and made a fortune.

The hugely profitable shipbuilding yards on the Clyde were constructing vessels for every country under the sun. And so harmonious were its industrial relations, that strikes were unheard of.

On a personal level, its population was entirely content to live in rented accommodation – mostly of the municipal variety – and had no wish to get on to the property ladder.

They were happy, too, to allow British Telecom to decide what phone they could have, always provided they filled in the correct form.

After 1979, however, things changed dramatically: the Scottish people existed in what was little better than a chain-gang, downtrodden and cruelly treated by an alien regime. Their hugely successful industries were wrecked and their whole lives destroyed.

Recognise these descriptions? If you don't, you've clearly not been listening to the litany of complaints from the hordes who appear to have lived in the industrial and social paradise that was Scotland pre-1979 and for days now have been moaning on the nation's airwaves and in our newspapers about the Thatcher Effect.

They are entirely within their democratic rights to disagree with, even to demonise, Maggie and I've no real objection to those who've celebrated her death, no matter how distasteful their behaviour has appeared to many. That's the price we pay in this country for our vibrant democracy.

However, it would be preferable if those who have attacked her had actually based their criticisms on what actually happened and not myths. There are very few in this country who are interested in the truth about how the world, or at least Scotland, looked in the years BT (Before Thatcher). They were well to the fore yesterday in opposing the recall of parliament, her ceremonial funeral and the tributes being made to her life and work.

And to listen to some of her Scottish critics it would be easy to imagine that she'd wrecked some hugely successful economy, where its industries were making money hand over fist.

Instead, as Prof Tom Devine, arguably our greatest historian, reminded us the other day, by 1979 many of Scotland's biggest industrial concerns were on virtual life support systems.

How long governments of any hue could have supported them with the millions upon millions of government cash that they required on an almost daily basis is, of course, unknown.

But it fell to Margaret Thatcher to call a halt to this, just as it was her who had to explain finally to the people of Britain that there was no such thing as "government cash"; it all belongs to those who pay taxes. Regrettably, it is a message that much of Scotland still doesn't get.

Sad, too, is the pathetic perversity abroad in Scotland that seeks to portray Margaret Thatcher as the wrecker of some Caledonian idyll, while most of the rest of the world honours her memory.

It's nonsense, of course, as is her supposed greatest "crime" – imposing the poll tax on Scotland 12 months before the rest of the UK.

The truth is that the Scottish Tories, in response to urgent requests from businesses who feared a huge rates increase, pleaded with the cabinet to let Scotland bring in the new tax early. So, if she is guilty on this score it was in listening to her party and to businessmen.

The poll tax was a mistake and on that issue, as well as on many others, her political opponents are entirely within their rights to criticise her record and to distance themselves from the tributes that are being currently offered up.

However, as far as Scotland is concerned their onslaught might be all the more effective if it was based on fact not folklore.