Sitting Of The House debate: Labour MP Dennis Skinner on Margaret Thatcher.

Recorded from
BBC Parliament, 16 April 2013. Written transcript is below. Please note the written transcript
isn’t from the BBC, it is from a third party and is not from a news channel.

Dennis Skinner’s Speech.

‘’It’s almost like history coming back again! In the mid 70’s. I came down on the train and my
whip told me that there would be a few tributes to Anthony Eaden and then the house would
finish for the day, and I thought ‘’surely that’s not fair?’’ We are actually packing up because
Anthony Eaden was living in the Caribbean, had died, and therefore the tributes would be paid,
and then the house would finish for the rest of the day.

So, I had an argument with the Labour whip, and then I went in for the tributes. I’m not so sure I
thought at the time, it would be a good idea, for me to say anything, because it sure a night full of
day had day of done. A lot of people were going to make these tributes to Anthony, some of
them who that had I never hadn’t seen,

So, it’s not like this thing has not happened before, and I had actually proclaimed having being a
minor for twenty odd years, I said. ‘’When I worked around down the Pitt, and somebody died
when, what happened was, was that four people took him on a trolley along the rails, and they
were allowed to go home, and the rest of the Pitt continued to work.’’ Because people like us,
had managed to secure a tiny agreement with the coal board to get 250 pound with the minors
widow. So on that basis the rest of us were allowed to go back to work.

What I am trying to convey, just as then then as now. For the people out there, that are having
to suffer the austerity that who are having to suffer the austerity, and the benefit cuts, and the
increasing costs for their own funeral, there are the people that concern me. Just like in those the
days in 1975. It was the minors that had left behind, to speak for them in parliament. And I
remember then All of the Tories walking out the moment I made this type of criticism. I’m
suppose it’s an indication of the split of the Tory party today that some of them have stayed
today because, they had not followed the leader, and the leader hasn’t ordered them out. That is
what it is.
Let’s not kid ourselves, we are here talking about the thing that we sometimes suggest has gone
away, class, that’s what it is! it’s about class! And It’s about the fact that people out there have
to live their lives in a different way and there is one. There is living lives in a different way, and
there’s one rule for those at the top and there is another for those at the bottom, it has never
changed, I wish it had, but it hasn’t. So, when I heard the chain of events, because that’s what it
was, it seemed to grow like top seed, first of all there was going to be some type of ceremonial
funeral, then the next thing Mr. speaker, I have to say it to you, you told us the chimes of the Big
Ben are going to stop, and then we hear the fact that we are going to have to abandon prime
ministers question time. I mean, What’s it all about? That’s why the people out there are angry, a
lot of them. I am not suggesting for a minute that there is a majority. I never have. But I do
believe that this government is out of touch with the people out there, and on a big scale, the
people that are suffering, even in the same week benefits were cut again! So, I think we should
have prime ministers question time, of course! we got number 13! And in the absence in that list.
I have about fifteen in my pocket to ask, of course we should have that, and the people out there
would want us to put the case about how they are managed to make ends meet.

Those people who that commit suicide, because they are up to their neck in debt, because they
have so many callers knocking on the door, first it’s Wonga, then it’s one of god knows how
many of the others. That’s what’s happening in our society amongst the working class. I don’t
think there wasn’t any doubt that, whatever we think, that Mrs. Thatcher was a divisive
character. I am, but I am not prime minister. But I know, that there is within a lot of us, the desire
to fight at the edgeth. To take extra parliamentary action, and all the rest of it where all the rest of
it. What is wrong of that? Let’s not give the impression that Margaret thatcher was different!
That she was cool with everybody! She had an agenda the moment she got in. She actually got in
on my birthday. Way back.

I am just making a statement about the fact, that during over the course of her parliamentary
time, especially when she was Prime Minister. For what she did, first of all she was divisive in
the sense, she got rid of the wet soil, then she was concerned about her agenda, there is no
question at all. I know it has nothing to do with the question time being abandoned. Mr Speaker.

You know I don’t need any lectures about from Tories, about what they do to Mrs Thatcher.
Because I remember that night, and that following day, when she stood there, she had not had a
night’s sleep. She was making the final speech in parliament. And why was she making the final
speech in parliament? Not because the Labour MP’s had put a knife in her back! No question
about that. A succession of Tory MPs had gone to her during the night, said ‘’I don’t think you
should again for the second ballot.’’ I mean what I am saying today does not compare to the fact
that the women who had won three elections in a row, then suffered the indignity, being kicked
out like a dog in the night, by her own members of parliament. That’s the truth of it. And so
whatever I say today, is minimal as compared to that. So yes, I would like to have question time
tomorrow, course, that’s why I have got a few prepared. So, I would like to ask the leader of the
house when he winds up.

He might answer, one of them undoubtedly is get rid of the bedroom tax. I also want to say to
him, it wouldn’t be a bad idea, if we did something about agency workers. There is all this talk
about immigration, when the real problem in our society, the real problem, is the is the fact that
the majority of foreign people that come to this country are now being dictated to by agencies.
It’s time we got rid of them, they are undercutting the indigenous workers. I worked with Poles
in 1948 down the pit and why there was no rows? Why did nobody give get worked up. Why to
the misplaced person? Because they were with the unions with us, and they also paid the same
wages. And there wasn’t an agency in sight. That is another question we could have put
tomorrow. We can put a question, about doing something now the countries skint, like we did in
1945. It was caused by that great economic tsunami that swept across the world, and why did it
sweep across the world? Because in 1999 Mrs Thatcher in one of her last acts talked about the
brave casino economy and the Big Bang in the city and the deregulation. That was the moment it
began!

We never knew the time when it would turn into a recession. But we knew that somehow or
other. That system, that social society of instant gratification would cause a recession at some
time. That is when it all began, just like the shareholding democracy. We could have discussed
that tomorrow, the shareholding democracy, when she sold off all the public utilities, this non-
divisive character. Who said we would sell off the public utilities? Gas electricity, and all the
rest, and everybody will have shares, you will buy them off Sid. You would be part of that Great
British Share holding Shareholding democracy. What happened to that? What happened to the
Share Holding Democracy.

EDF is now owned by French electricity.

So, who owns Orange and Mobile? Have a guess! France and Germany. Who owns Selmer 02?
Spain, who owns Arriva busses? German Deutsche Bahn. Yeah I will give way.

Gatwick is owned by south caree. Cadburys is owned by the United States USA. The M6 tolls is
owned by Australia’s Mc Quarry bank. On and on it goes. So we can talk about bringing back
the public utilities into public ownership, I mean the whole concept of thatcher was to divide and
rule. She was also, the one who said. ’’There was no such thing as society. ‘It is probably the
most. Yes, I know you like it, I know you like it, that is why you are a thorn aside, in the tory
party now. So, I am Pleased that you are falling out. So, what I am saying is.

It’s important to remember that the people out there, know where Thatcher stood, they have not
forgot and in those communities where the ship building was destroyed, in the early 80’s. Then
in the steel industry in places, that were smashed, when she brought McGregor in. Then when
she brought Mcgreor back and paid him a million and a half transfer fee to Lazard’s banks, it
ordered to shut down twenty to thirty pits. What happened in practice? We had a hundred and
fifty pits, at the 1985 Pitts strike, and when thatcher went 30 left. That’s why people out there are
angry, that is why the demand of us, a few of us, to speak the truth of their behalf. That’s why I
am in favor of question time, because I have a list of them, I would like to ask every single week.

So, thanks Mr. Speaker for giving me the chance, to talk about this issue. Coming to talk about
the issue, it’s not about personalities, it’s all about the fact, it’s all about class. We must never
forget that. When we hear, we should remember where we come from. I remember my own
family. 9 kids, hadn’t got two 8 bits to rub together. It’s still embedded in my soul. And that’s
why I speak how I do, and I, don’t want to change, and never will. It won’t get my hands on the
dispatch box. But that’s not a luxury that has ever bothered me. It’s important to remember. That
these words of mine don’t come out of my mouth because of envy, because of greed, it’s because
I believe that we have to look after those people who haven’t got two 8 bits to rub together. That
should be what motivates us. Every day of the week, including Prime Ministers question time,
and when the Labor Party understands that, like we do here today, it will be better for it, thank
you very much.’’

End of Speech.