Former UNISON President, Dave Anderson MP explains to Parliament how Thatcher is viewed in former mining communities

http://m.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2013/apr/10/margaret-thatcher-mps-pay-tribute-live



Lady Thatcher came to power promising to bring harmony, he says. But, in the mining communities, she achieved the opposite.



The British coal industry was deemed uneconomic because it had high safety standards, he says.



After the pit closed in his community the burglary rate went up, he says. He says people discovered what it was like to be burgled by the child of a friend.



That is why mining communities feel so strongly about Thatcher, he says.



A lot has been said over the last 48 hours of the harsh nature of some of the responses to the news of Mrs Thatcher's death. This House needs to understand the reason for that, because before, during and ever since the attack on the coal industry, and the people in it, the government ignored the impact of that policy ... Mrs Thatcher's lack of empathy, her intransigence, her failure to see the other side, her refusal to even look at the other side has left [mining communities] bitter and resentful ... Her accusation that the enemy within was in the mining areas of this country still rankles with with people.

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