On January 23, 1979, a concerned Mancunian acerbically addressed British Prime Minister James Callaghan in the Manchester Evening News. In the letter ‘Hardly all mod cons, but […] HOW ABOUT A STAY UP HERE JIM?’ the author extends a dubious invitation to share the author's view of Manchester's local factories, which are supposedly empty due to strikes. Seizing upon the frigid scene of the city weeks after experiencing its worst blizzard since the First World War, the author warns of ice-covered roads, but sarcastically concedes that, ‘I believe we do have a plentiful supply of grit and sand in Manchester – we just can't find anybody to put it down for us,’ because of widespread industrial action. The sardonic tone reaches a fever pitch as the writer explains, ‘Guests are respectfully requested not to become ill during their stay, as transportation to the hospitals that are open is limited,’ again apparently as the result of the industrial disputes.

That same day, ‘Working Woman from Wythenshawe,’ takes a more optimistic and historic view of the situation. She implores readers to understand the current round of strikes in the context of workers’ struggles in the 1870s and ‘80s. She further encourages readers to remember their forbearers: ‘Because of these people [union activists] our kith and kin – we have the right to vote and put our problems to government.’ Published on the same day, one letter depicts a Britain steeped in an ungovernable crisis, while the other recounts the same actions as part of a broader arc of noble trade union activism.

Almost a decade later, perspectives on this series of strikes were similarly bifurcated. In her 1985 speech to the Conservative Party Conference, Margaret Thatcher evoked a dismal spectre of the Winter of Discontent:

Regional NUPE officer Frank Huff and NUPE shop steward Jamie Morris, however, summon up a memory of the Winter of Discontent in an entirely different light.