The number of telephones • disconnected due to payment of telephone bills has increased by over 60 per cent since 1979 - around 147,000 disconnections 1979 compared with around 237,000 in 1982.
Telephone terminations are also believed to have risen - from around 33,000 in 1979 to an estimated 60,000 in 1982.
In the first three years of government, court orders for recovery of rents rose by 847 per cent to 2,253, evictions rose by 19 per cent 19,072 residential property possession orders rose by 26 per cent to 88,000 (1981 figures). Schools 582: state schools, including 135 secondary schools, were approved for closure by the Thatcher government in the three years 1980-2. Falling school rolls are not the only factor. Government cuts are a major cause.
Spending cuts are also having a serious effect on standards in schools. 1980, the government Inspectorate found four LEAs in breach of their minimum statutory duties as set out in the 1944 Education Act. In 1981, the inspectors reported a reduction in levels of provision in 71 LEAs (almost three-quarters) compared with 1980 ...an widening gap in provisions between LEAs.
The Tories have not made actual cuts in health service expenditure. But they have connon- general taxation ability to provide good quality, comprehensive care and treatment for all. in threatening the NHS's ability they now require those who • The NHS is the country's biggest employer, employing about one million people. In earned less than the government's 'poverty line'. • Over the Tories' first two years, health workers' wages relative to other public sector workers. In 1980, nurses accepted a 13 per cent rise when inflation was 18 per cent; in 1981, they were awarded 6 risen 12 per cent. The 1982. pay settlement forced upon the health workers will mean a further reduction in their standard of living.
Housing in Britain improved steadily over the years. Slums Local authorities built up a In stock of homes allocated to meet needs. New houses were built faster than old decayed. Homes amenities were That was until the took over. Since 1979: • Housebuilding has fallen to its lowest level since the 1920s - except for the war ever- and immediately while nearly 400,000 building workers are on the dole. • Housing is not being properly maintained blems are being stored up for the future. • Council rents have more than doubled sidies to home-owners have increased fectively ended. been set up, drastically cut, is in tatters. proaches 40 per cent. last fifty were cleared. Defence ones without improved.
Tories reassuring the after pro- while sub• Talks between the British and Irish governments on closer co-operation between Britain and Ireland have efmade towards the establishment of an agreed devolved • A toothless Assembly has boycotted by representatives of the minority community. This is lowering respect for constitutional unemployment over 20 pe from 10.7 per cent to 20.6 per cent. In some all households, powers, such as the PrevenEmergency Provisions Act, have restricted civil liberties and proved largely ineffec• Since 1979, seven people, including four children under the age of sixteen, have been sanctioned by the governunemployment.
The Tories have taken crucial decisions which will turn Britain into the densest nuclear from making Britain safer, brought war closer. Far from out of ten people now believe nuclear war to be possible where four out of ten did on• Britain spends more of its income on war and preparing for war than any major country apart from the USA and the USSR: 5.3 per cent compared with 4.1 per cent in France, 3.4 per cent in Germany and 2.6 per cent in Ita• This year, the Tories plar to spend £16,000 million or the military - f20 a week for every family of four. • The Tories are spending 33 per cent more on defence than'on education - under Labour more was spent on education than on defence. • In five years, the Tories will have upped real military spending by 23.3 per cent. At the same time, they have cut spending on housing by 55 per cent, on education by 6 per cent, on overseas aid by 20 percent, and they have over the biggest in output for. sixty sion I don't think that mothers have the same right to work as fathers. If the good Lord had intended us to have equal rights to go out to work, he have created man Secretary of State 'Man Alive', October 1979 rights has been largely won. Margaret Thatcher speaking to women in London, Though the Tory 'model' family with Dad as breadwinner and Mum'at home lookcounts for only 5 per cent of policies are based on the view cept for the privileged few like Margaret Thatcher have no right to paid employment. So the married women who make up one-quarter of the labour force and especially those — about half - who are caring for at least one dependent child have done particularly badly in Thatcher's Britain. They have had unemployment is well over claiming unemployment benfit. Mothers must show they arrangements for children while work before they are eligible. • A worsening in pay commade as a result of Labour's Women's earnings as a percentage of men's rose from 63.1 per cent in 1970 to then fell back to 73.9 per cent three-quarters of the Black people People really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture. People are going to react and be rather hostile to those coming in.?
Margaret Thatcher, giving the green light to the racists, 30 January 1978 Four years of the Tories have meant: • Worse unemployment. In 1981, when per cent of white people were out of work, joblessness among non-white groups was twice as high, at 17 per cent. A recent survey by the Commisfor Racial Equality found that 53 per cent of teenagers of West Indian origin compared with 37 per cent of white teenagers are now out of work in inner-city • Continuing disadvantage in jobs, housing and schooling. Black applicants for white-collar jobs are less likely to be qualifications. In many local societies are more reluctant to lend to black people minorities do their full potential in schools.
eliminate racial inequality. • Harassment with official approval. New NHS charges that 'foreign-looking people are asked to prove they are eligible for free treatment. Police raids in search of illegal immigrants have led to the detention of lawfully setdivided. The Rules and the 1981 Nationalihusbands from wives, children from parents and elderly citizens who came to Britain before 1973 no longer automatically acquire British citizenship. They must apply through an expensive procedure. Wives of British citizens and children born in the UK are also deprived of automatic citizenship. People who previously had rights as 'citizens of the UK and col onies' but who were not classified as 'patrials' have had most of these rights taken away. Some 1½ million people, now given 'third-class' British overseas citizenship, are left effectively stateless - they have no legal right to live anywhere. Socialist Action 13 May 1983
Socialist Action 13 May 1983 AcTion DE
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Onto the streets
Health as a privilege
Crisis in housing