His many affairs with teenagers disqualify him surely?
Margaret Thatcher
- Thread starter Team Brian GB
- Start date
His many affairs with teenagers disqualify him surely?
Thatcher promoted selfishness and division. A class warrior who believed it was time to put the lower orders in their place and didn't care what it cost to do so.
The thing she is usually given credit for is defeating the unions.
No matter that unions like Aslef and the BMA are stronger now than they ever were. That the unions that have disappeared, in heavy industry and even more in textiles, would have done so whoever was prime minister, because their work is now done more cheaply in other countries, or been overtaken by technology. That so much of what unions have fought has been won, and is now enshrined in British and European law, so that the usual recourse of a union is now through the courts rather than industrial action. I do think most people would support her laws against intimidating secondary picketing and her new regulations on strike ballots, but Labour had plans to do that also had they won in '79, their time had come.
Thatcher, right or wrong, is just too hated, and I mean truly hated, by too large a proportion of the country to be called great.
I can't argue against Lloyd George, but I would like to put a word in for Attlee. The disentanglement from empire under him was astonishing. Had the opposition been in power at that time they would have fought to keep large parts of it, and our bankrupt country would have been involved in expensive and terribly costly, in human terms, wars that we would have been doomed to lose. God knows the empire was so utterly massive that mistakes were made, but by and large most former colonies joined the commonwealth and retained good relations with Britain. Astonishing.
The thing she is usually given credit for is defeating the unions.
No matter that unions like Aslef and the BMA are stronger now than they ever were. That the unions that have disappeared, in heavy industry and even more in textiles, would have done so whoever was prime minister, because their work is now done more cheaply in other countries, or been overtaken by technology. That so much of what unions have fought has been won, and is now enshrined in British and European law, so that the usual recourse of a union is now through the courts rather than industrial action. I do think most people would support her laws against intimidating secondary picketing and her new regulations on strike ballots, but Labour had plans to do that also had they won in '79, their time had come.
Thatcher, right or wrong, is just too hated, and I mean truly hated, by too large a proportion of the country to be called great.
I can't argue against Lloyd George, but I would like to put a word in for Attlee. The disentanglement from empire under him was astonishing. Had the opposition been in power at that time they would have fought to keep large parts of it, and our bankrupt country would have been involved in expensive and terribly costly, in human terms, wars that we would have been doomed to lose. God knows the empire was so utterly massive that mistakes were made, but by and large most former colonies joined the commonwealth and retained good relations with Britain. Astonishing.
sounds like he'd fit in very wellYou'd do well on RAWK mate - they are desperate for posters like you
The day she resigned was the only time I've seen Londoners actually acknowledging each other as fellow humans on the streets, well not counting knifing each other. A cheer went up at the 144 bus stop and we were all shaking hands.
It was like feckin D-Day, only with less bunting and screwing American soldiers.
It was like feckin D-Day, only with less bunting and screwing American soldiers.
I worked in London then - I don't remember it that way at all, although I may have had a different perspective in Wimpole Street
Yes I suspect there was less jubiliation in Wimpole Street, not counting those on morphine
This threads a bit screwy - it claims to have a 4th page, but I can't get to it. Or is that just me?
I blame the unions.
I blame the unions.
The trouble with threads like this, most are not old enough to have lived during the Thatcher era and are basically parroting anecdotes or getting their info from blogs and old stories, what Thatcher policies or incidences specifically are people dissatisfied with, good or bad, I see a lot of fluff in here with no meat
Really? I think the majority who are bothering with the thread are.
Ever heard that old cliché which states that only history will judge politicians? Well it very much holds up here too, and frankly history hasn't been kind to Thatcher on issues of poverty, welfare and unions to name a few. So really I'd say that the present provides a more accurate reflection on her term in office instead of during the period itself.
Really, what for?
I was 6 when the milk suddenly went missing from school. I was 12 when she started selling off the 'family silver' BT 1982.
I was 14 when she was wiping out whole communities shutting down the pits and the whole 'feck you we're alright here down south' attitude that came with it.
I've no idea on the specifics mate.
still not seeing any specifics
Poll tax
yes, that was very unpopular
There we go, hope that assuages your fear of all fluff and no substance
There we go, hope that assuages your fear of all fluff and no substance
1 example?.... not really
I remember the years before she took over - the Wilson Callaghan years - they were pretty grim and strange none of the Maggie bashers seems to recall those unhappy times - funny that
Yet in France and the rest of Europe people were stunned and the TV's was full of astonishment and amazement that this had happened. This is the France and the Europe that hated Maggie but at the same time respected her
The reaction in London highlights how stupid Britains electorate can be - short and selective memories a problem too. Pletch give us your critique of where Britain was heading in the Callaghan years in power and where it would have ended if he had continued in power
Has she died yet?
Bitch. Enough said.
I really quite like milk.
Not sure I'm the best person to ask, I was two when Callaghan lost power.
I'm not denying the country was in a mess at that point though. Politics isn't binary, if you dislike a politician or party you don't have to have a rose-tinted view of everything that came before them.
If only you had included Heath as well.
But you didn't, so it's just another polarised post, aint' it?
Poor Comrade Pete, we should all watch our backs now.
It should be a national holiday the day this bint snuffs it.
Mess is putting it mildly Pletch but I still never wished death on that idiot Callaghan or those then libertarians Scargill, Precott et al. Which a lot of people here have wished for Thatcher without knowing or wanting to know the appalling mess that she inherited and what forced her to do what she did.
Something that the cojonesless Wilson Callaghan and Heath would never do
For any of you too young to remember the elation and despair of 1989, this sums it all up:
As the Berlin Wall was being torn down, a wall in England bore the slogan, "Thatcher out". To which someone had added, "lbw b Alderman".
As the Berlin Wall was being torn down, a wall in England bore the slogan, "Thatcher out". To which someone had added, "lbw b Alderman".
Burn the Witch!
She still did not have to introduce section 28 though. That was the major (no pun intended) policy I despised, especially as it affected me directly. She was a strong leader though, even if she did nick my milk.
I still hate her.
I was 14 when she came to power, there may be things I miss.
Poll tax. (the Scots where going to love it she thought )
Housing, right to buy. ( money wasted, social housing ruined, house price bubbles, cost of living increase, birth of buy to let)
Energy policy.( Burnt our gas and oil away, destroyed the coal mining industry and we are no longer energy self sufficient )
Railway privatisation. ( what a mess she has left us with)
Transport policy in general ( seems to have been along the lines of get a car you loser or get on your bike you loser)
Telecoms privatised. ( Bt and regulators, anyone want to defend them?)
Health service. Ruined and staff demoralised to the point of collapse.
Policy on Unions. Much needed reform of strike balloting.
Trade and industry. ( We don't need any manufacturing or dirty heavy industry, do we? EU treaty signer.
Education. Lots of testing,League tables to show up poor schools, No chance of getting your kids into any other school though.
Society. There isn't one apparently.
Media. Rupert fecking Murdock.
P. R. Advertisers as campaign managers started the whole no.10 spin machine idea.
Defence. Let down our guard which started a war with Argentina. Rode around in a tank for a bit after we won the war. Bribed Arab sheiks to buy our tanks.
Haha, she didn't let her guard down, it was a sting!
British diplomats had been trying to get rid of those islands in a face-saving way for about fifty years, but she was the most unpopular British PM since polling began, and saw an opportunity. Up went her numbers, rejoice rejoice, she never looked back.
Right to buy I'm not so sure about. In principle giving some of the poorest people in the country the opportunity to own valuable property was progressive.
She also gave us Mohammed Al Fayed. That's not a good thing.
Not when you don't replenish the social housing stock it isn't. It only serves to accentuate the gap between the bottom decile and the second/third bottom, which is the most damaging inequality, the abject poverty.
Only if the money raised was ring fenced for more social housing. Otherwise as we see now the next generation of working poor can't afford a house to live in and that can't be a progressive effect.
Agreed, it wasn't either conceived or managed well. But it's an example of how Thatcherism was a completely different ideological beast from traditional Toryism, which is less an ideology than a political defence of the status quo. Although she decimated working-class industries I don't think she had a class agenda - or she did in the sense that she wanted working-class people to be able to turn themselves into a wealthy, productive, property owning bourgoisie.
I still think there's an argument for that kind of massive giveaway, if it could be done without destroying social provisions for those still impoverished. It's intrinsically unfair but it's unfair in the right direction, like Mike Riley.
I still think there's an argument for that kind of massive giveaway, if it could be done without destroying social provisions for those still impoverished. It's intrinsically unfair but it's unfair in the right direction, like Mike Riley.