Considering the state of the UK, "The Sick Man of Europe", during the 1970s the Ridley Plan made perfect sense then and still does.

The Unions did have to much power in the 70s, but the response created similar problems elsewhere. And the Financial Services Industry has proven to be a pretty crappy antidote.

Instead of Unions "holding the country to ransom", we now have empowered bankers doing the same.

Instead of "hard working taxpayers" propping up the coal and steel industries, they are now propping up the banks.

Instead of decent living wages (helped by union clout) we now have public consumer spending largely dependent on credit.

Instead of industrial related diseases, we now have alcohol and drug addiction.

Thatcher gets the credit for "transforming the economy", yet it's almost universally overlooked that much of this short-fused "boom" was possible by the great oil sell-off  Norway resisted in doing the same and guess what?

By the IMF’s own calculations, Norway’s public savings exceed public debts by 160% of GDP.

No kidding: In the IMF’s tables, Norway’s “net debt” figure comes up with a big minus sign. Nowhere else comes close.

The reason for this miracle? Norway has a ton of North Sea oil. But instead of blowing its oil windfall on tax cuts and a housing bubble, like any normal country, Norwegians decided to save for a rainy day.

They’ve diverted their oil revenues into the Government Pension Fund Global, which the Ministry of Finance invests in a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds — outside the country.

The fund is now worth $512 billion, making it the second-largest sovereign-wealth fund in the world

http://articles.marketwatch.com/2011-04-13/commentary/30759988_1_national-debt-north-sea-oil-finances

Murdoch and Dacre's nodding dogs often regurgitate "Brown sold our gold" but nothing comes even close to "what could have been" regarding our oil reserves.