COLCHESTER trades union members’ memories of Margaret Thatchers’ Government have focused on teachers’ strikes, support for miners and an increase in the price of house rent.

Each of the memories will be recorded on Colchester Trades Council’s website in a ‘book of condolences’, to show how members ‘suffered’ while Mrs Thatcher was Prime Minister.

A spokesperson for the Trades Council said: “What Thatcher’s death has highlighted is that what we think of her is dependent on our political views and our personal memories.

“The meeting recalled the 1980s as one of conflict in society, and insecurity in work.

“It was a decade that laid the foundations for many of the problems we have today.”

Members said the 1980 Housing Act meant landlords were given more protection than tenants as security of tenure was lost, which led to housing benefit bills rising.

Those who had been at school in the 1980s recalled strikes over teachers’ pay while some recalled miners from Kent and Derbyshire coming to Colchester to picket non-unionist ports at Wivenhoe and Brightlingsea.

Most of the responses were collected at the council’s meeting last Thursday.