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Think that's a bit unfair putting him in there with Blair. He lives in Brixton. An area which was absolutely toxic with anger in the 1980s. And he's probably contributed far more to the coffers than you or I.

Personally I think he offers much more value as an entrepreneurial role model (despite any personality flaws) and gives a sense of hope to kids in a deprived area. I'd rather he was living in a council flat than a gun dealer. Broken windows and all that.

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Hi Book - I'm not putting him in there with Blair, just giving some examples of how much taxpayers' money is wasted. I could also have mentioned the Bankers, and the Rover car industry, for instance.

Re his entrepeneurial role, fair point. However, a lot of families could claim the same, but are not living in subsidised housing. He's made good of his life, and fair play to him, this is to be encouraged in all sections of society. Yes Brixton was angry, but so was industrial South Wales (where I grew up).

And this is where I agree with Welsh Goddess's excellent post. The Unions have done an enormous amount of good in the past - they were absolutely necessary when the workforce was bullied and downtrodden. However, they then became the bullies. Growing up in S Wales, my Dad was a Steelworker. People were forced into joining the Unions, they had little choice, it was compulsory.

At that time of the strikes, he knew he couldn't afford to take part, but had to. The steelworkers were on strike for months (as were the miners). The mortgage and hire purchase companies had little sympathy, our car was repossessed and we ended up having to sell our house at way below the market value because he couldn't keep up the mortgage payments. I can remember my Dad watching his car being driven away, trying to contain his sobs. That memory will never leave me, and that was just the start of it. This was the power of the Unions, doing this. You couldn't break the strike, no matter what your financial situation. Our family were not the only ones, people committed suicide over similar situations. And yes, as someone also said above, blocks of stone were thrown from motorway bridges by militant striking miners. It was a horrible, horrible time. But I still am of the opinion that the Unions were holding the entire country to ransom and they were to blame for a lot of the bloodshed and heartache of that time. I actually belonged to the Socialist Worker's Party at the time, and was on our Union Committee. I changed my mind!! 😐