The SNP MP for Scotland’s National Mining Museum has invited Boris Johnson to return to Scotland to visit a local mining community – so he can apologise in person for his offensive comments praising Thatcher’s decision to close the mines.
Owen Thompson MP, who represents former mining communities in Midlothian, has written to the Prime Minister urging him to accompany the MP to the National Mining Museum Scotland, and visit former miners and their families, so he can apologise in person and see first hand the devastation caused by Thatcher’s industrial policies.
Recent polling by Ipsos MORI has found people in Scotland view Boris Johnson more unfavourably than anywhere else in Britain. Three quarters of Scots have an ‘unfavourable’ opinion of Johnson (75%), think he is doing ‘badly’ at running the country (74%), and think the UK is ‘heading in the wrong direction’ (71%). A majority of Scots also think Johnson has done a bad job on the Brexit deal (72%), the NHS (69%), the economy (56%), reducing crime (55%), improving living standards (72%), reducing inequality (61%) and social divisions (66%).
Commenting, Owen Thompson MP said:
“Boris Johnson’s offensive comments have gone down like a cup of cold sick in communities across Scotland, who have suffered decades of pain as a result of Thatcher’s cruel Tory cuts.
“The Prime Minister should have the decency to book a return ticket to Scotland, so he can visit our local mining communities to apologise in person and see first-hand the devastation caused.
“These are the same communities that are being hit hard by Johnson’s Tory austerity cuts, with the £1040 cut to Universal Credit slashing the incomes of families across Scotland.
“Perhaps Mr Johnson could even find the time to meet with Scotland’s First Minister and discuss covid recovery plans instead of scuttling off to botched photo ops with his Tory colleagues.
“Johnson’s flying visit has been a disaster. His declining approval ratings were already at rock bottom in Scotland, where the overwhelming majority think he is doing a bad job. This bungled PR exercise has only served to reinforce how arrogant, patronising, out of touch he is.”
Owen Thompson MP’s letter to Boris Johnson: https://mcusercontent.com/4fae14f57a18ee08253ffc251/files/d1de2c5f-821a-0760-833c-ca748a9c639b/BJMinersLetterAug6.pdf
Scotland’s National Mining museum is located in Newtongrange, Midlothian: https://nationalminingmuseum.com/
Ipsos MORI
Sample: 1,009 UK adults aged 18+
Fieldwork: Online from 23–26 July 2021
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Frankly , what good would an apology from this serial liar accomplish ? WE know and HE knows that he would not mean a word of it .
In fact the gibberish that we would have to endure as he fnaughed and huphmmed in a language of his own devising would be intolerable and and actually demean any apology .
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Yes but, the letter highlights the fact that Johnson actually laughed at the terrible devastation wrought on the people of Scotland, (and the rUK) by Thatcher, she wrecked lives, families, and whole communities. She really meant it when she said ‘there is no such thing as society’, that was her ‘agenda’ and she succeeded in many ways. Hopefully she is rotting in hell in permanent agony, writhing, screaming, helpless. I know but it makes me feel better thinking that.
If my dear dad was around now, I don’t think he could be held responsible for any actions he might take against the little fascist Johnson. Having worked from age 10 during WW2, then he served in the army in Malayia, and then served his time in horrible rubber factories, then, evil Thatcher took his job away and his self esteem, it almost destroyed him not being able to earn for the family, to put food on the table. How dare Johnson laugh, I really really hope the laugh comes back on him and that karma is a thing I really do, may he rot in hell.
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mission accomplished! We’re talking about this and letting him off the hook for greater crimes and sins. Dead Cat
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Indeed well said, aside the carefully choreographed photo-ops, this appears to have been the only obvious objective, diversion…
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Revenge is best served cold
Deliver a massive Yes Majority at the Indy ref.2
No need to ask for a apology whatsoever
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hurry back Bozo.
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Hahaha–just because Maggie destroyed the economic wellbeing of a million people; making a wasteland of whole geographic areas; wrecking the life chances of generations of children; a playground (in more than one sense) for drug dealers.
“C’mon! Cant yer take a joke”? “Lie on the beach at Mustique and forget it”?
“In the Bullingdon Club we did this kind of thing every day, and Pater always picked up the tab”!
“DRossie and the House Jock Tories with the tame “journalists” all laughed”, why cant you?
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Hypothetically, but if I could get hold of them they’d be crying not laughing, utter lowlife jobsworths.
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Regrettably this is an old and still too relevant a tale! Kind of summed up in an article (by Matt Breunig) in The Atlantic way back in 2013: ‘What Thatcher Didn’t Understand: Inequality Hurts the Rich and Poor Alike.’
He makes extensive reference to research published here: Wilkinson and Pickett (2011) The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger. Bloomsbury, London
‘In The Spirit Level, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett draw upon decades of research to show that, among rich countries, high levels of inequality correlate with lower levels of social cohesion and social mobility, worse mental and physical health, and higher levels of crime, violence, drug use, and imprisonment.
‘These problems do not merely afflict the poor. Rather, they touch people across the social spectrum. The implication is that large income gaps, by themselves, are significant contributors to these particular sources of human misery.’
The origins of many of the decades long and present ills in the UK are therefore traced back to Thatcher’s policies – economic and social. And once set, the consequential outcomes are hard to shift without sustained, radical actions – and of course this is predicated on having control of the policy levers to take radical action when and where needed as well as the will to act.
Radicalism has been in short supply in UK governments since the demise of Thatcher. A situation which the electorate in much of the UK seems to be content with.
And today, where is the great hope for change to be found – in Starmer and Sarwar’s Labour Unionist Party? Hardly. We can do and need to do so much better for Scotland’s people and soon!
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AS The SAYIN GOES
YOU WILL BE GOT WAITIN FOR THIS TORY SCUM TO APPOLOGISE
HE COULD NOT EVEN APOLOGISE TO HIS FIRST WIFE AND KIDS
FOR DUMPING THEM
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