You're right of course. It has nothing to do with a financial crisis brought about by financial institutions that had been deregulated many decades ago.
Daily commutes to london can hardly be compared to working so far from your home that it is more economical to stay there for 4 nights rather than come home. Also, all the people I know that work in London didn't do so because that's where the jobs were, they did so because you earn more there...
Fair play for digging those up but they don't necessarily give all the reasons for the emigration nor give any indication as to whether the professional jobs are being taken up by equally talented overseas applicants. A quick google searched revealed the following from the Telegraph...
So just remind us exactly what Derek Hatton did in the pre Thatcher days? However, whilst action had to be taken against the unions, I agree with your comments that it went too far. However, ludicrous to compare us to a third world country when even at that time we had the 6th largest economy...