What did maggie do?

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Rob from the poor to give to the rich.. yep that sounds like Maggie's redistributive policies.

It's funny that the more time that passes since her political demise, the more rosed tinted people's glasses become about her. It's especially amusing people who are only kids now wanting her back - they were in nappies in the 80s.
 
The feeling of hate towards Margaret Thatcher when she was prime minister was far greater in this country than the feeling towards Tony Blair is now.

Many (but not all) of the complaints which are now made against Tony Blair, and which I see frequently in this forum and elsewhere, could equally have been levelled against Margaret Thatcher in her time, and would have been far more justified.

She was confident she was right, even when she was clearly wrong. No cabinet minister dared to speak a word against her, for fear of getting replaced. Those who did were quickly removed. The Spitting Image view of Margaret Thatcher and her vegetables was, IMO, an accurate one.
 
She did some great things, she did some awful things and she stayed in power for far too long. Most people in this thread will either love her and post about the great things she did, or loathe her and post about the bad stuff. To get an informed view you are better having a trawl through websites yourself or get a book or two out of the library.
 
She militarised the police & introduced legislation which essentially made them her boot boys.

She led the most corrupt government we've EVER had (two of her ministers did time).

She ran down the NHS & social sevices to the point of collapse.

And her 'greed is good' policy is arguably the root cause of the bling laiden hoodies that are now scratching your car.

An utterly awful woman whose legacy is the millstone which has made the Conservatives unfit to even produce a viable opposition even a decade later.
 
I'm old enough to remember it all too ..... as already posted, some things were very good, some things were very bad; what I will never ever forgive her for is fostering selfish, money grabbing, **** you, Im all right! attitudes that we're seeing as the norm today.
I've skimmed a few posts recentlythat exhibit this fine attitude of ............... "if it doesn't hurt/affect me, I don't care what people do".

Oh, nearly forgot 15% + interest rates ...... think about how you'd manage ...... :(
 
"You suck like a leech, you want everyone to act like you. Kiss ass while you bitch so you can rich while your boss gets richer off you."

Thatcher didn't have the general populace in mind when she was in power. She had her friends and cronies in industry and the upper echelons in mind.

You should always vote for the individual who represents best both your personal views and your own economic and social background.

*n
 
dirtydog said:
It's funny that the more time that passes since her political demise, the more rosed tinted people's glasses become about her. It's especially amusing people who are only kids now wanting her back - they were in nappies in the 80s.
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No one gave me my rose tinted glasses I'm very pleased to say.
 
With Thatcher it was a case of the electorate needing to have been more careful what it wished for. Unions led by people masquerading as socialists interested in protecting workers' rights were dictating their terms to the Government and to the organisations they supposedly worked for. Britain's reputation was suffering at home and abroad. Strikes, poor quality and poor output were all part of the British disease at the time and we were in serious trouble. Maggie took the unions on and beat them, it's that simple. She made Britain work again and completely revolutionised the image of women in politics. She also made a number of mistakes but then again, the results she achieved couldn't happen without some pain and people have long memories. To destroy the unions' grip on the country many people lost well-paid and supposedly well-protected jobs. The idea of a "job for life" became a distant memory and kids all over Britain lamented the loss of free milk. High interest rates were a criticism though some would argue that at least (some) people now had money in their pockets and at the time it's important to remember that countries across Europe were suffering similarly, a fact that few critics of Maggie will mention. She did some terrible things including the way she allowed and encouraged the Police to behave but she also did some amazing things as I hope I've explained. I wouldn't vote for her now by any means, but back then she was the unpleasant medicine the Doctor ordered...
 
When asked the question during the Falklands Conflict in 1982, when stating she was sending a task force to re-take the islands ....

' Prime Minister, what if the Task Force is sunk ? '

' We'll build another ' :cool:

She had her detractors, but she had balls that were in the Churchill mould, and I still believe today, that had she been PM during the first Gulf War, she would have had the influence over President Bush Snr to finish the job then and take out Saddam Hussein when it should have been done.
 
if you live in the south and had money then hey thatcher was superb.

if didnt then you were stuffed. im from the north east and her reign still hurts. it wasnt just about the jobs, its the community after community that was broken up. no one knows anyone now and its all about looking after number 1. the comments a lot of people have made on here are very hurtful
 
I can see what you mean VP .... I work in County Durham and I know it was once a thriving pit community, where there was almost full employment. Once the pits closed, the rot set in and communities shattered, allowing social decay to set in and all the associated problems. Easington district is one of the most socially deprived areas in western Europe, and it is a tragedy and a lot of people in County Durham will dance the day she departs the Earth.

She was not perfect, her government did not do a great deal for the north east, but it is a fact that the market and economic reforms she started and her grabbing union power by the balls and squeezing until the weasel went pop is why this country has such a healthy economy now, when others struggle.

Not so long back, you had the likes of British Leyland going on strike because the canteen changed cake supplier .... that was not on and was rightly stamped on. There are pros and cons and also winners and losers from Thatcherism, just as there is today.
 
thebrasso said:
... shaft as many people out of money through various taxes as possible. She represented rich people and the aristorcracy and looked down upon ordinary Britons. She wanted a virtual police state where any criticism of her government could be supressed ...
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Apart from the difference in gender, pray tell how Blair and his cronies are so very different? A friend of mine who is a dyed-in-the-wool Labourite once gave Maggie the best possible compliment - albeit a backhanded one - when he described Blair as "Thatcher in a suit".

It's a shame we'll never see Thatcher going up against Blair in the House of Commons - she exposed that windbag Kinnock as the verbose buffoon that he was - and I honestly believe that she would mete out similar treatment to the vacuous, slimy individual currently infesting Downing Street.
 
Sequoia said:
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quality post sir :D

of course it is much easier to simply paint her as a wicked witch,and blame her for all our current woes (even bling laiden hoodies :rolleyes: :D ) but that simply fails to take into account that this country was on its knees when she took over,and comparing the troubles we have now to what the country was like then is laughable tbh.
Same goes for the privitisation of the nationalized industries.They were useless monstrosities at the time,that had no comprehension of the word 'service'.
I remember us once being without a telephone for 6 months,simply because they couldn't be bothered to fix it - it was always someone elses department.
Same mentality applied to all the other services.Now i would have preffered it if she had kept them all 'in-house' and sorted out their ridiculous management/union practices but she chose the option of getting rid and letting someone else sort the sorry mess out.
Now we might all complain about our utility bills now,but they are much cheaper relatively now than they ever were then,and the service we receive is immeasurably better.
 
Von Smallhausen said:
I can see what you mean VP .... I work in County Durham and I know it was once a thriving pit community, where there was almost full employment. Once the pits closed, the rot set in and communities shattered, allowing social decay to set in and all the associated problems. Easington district is one of the most socially deprived areas in western Europe, and it is a tragedy and a lot of people in County Durham will dance the day she departs the Earth.

She was not perfect, her government did not do a great deal for the north east, but it is a fact that the market and economic reforms she started and her grabbing union power by the balls and squeezing until the weasel went pop is why this country has such a healthy economy now, when others struggle.

Not so long back, you had the likes of British Leyland going on strike because the canteen changed cake supplier .... that was not on and was rightly stamped on. There are pros and cons and also winners and losers from Thatcherism, just as there is today.
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i still dont buy that to be honest, the BL problems still carried on long into rover now, the workforce was just lacklustre and lazy.

she also took away a lot of power from all unions not just the rowdy ones. as for a healthy economy now, where is it? a load of call centers half of which are on their way to india :p

people have already stated it and yourself, i think she started the social disease thats ruined this country. we read posts all the time now of rude behavior, damage to property, crap service, rip off britian etc etc and she started it all in my eyes.

in her eyes you were only british if your money was good enough, when she does snuff it i hope she burns where she belongs! :o
 
thebrasso said:
She wanted to scrap the right for workers to go on strike, and shaft as many people out of money through various taxes as possible. She represented rich people and the aristorcracy and looked down upon ordinary Britons. She wanted a virtual police state where any criticism of her government could be supressed. There are places in the midlands where the Metropolitan police killed people during the miners strikes, riding into crowds on horseback and beating the **** out of them.

I wasn't around at the time but thats my impression and why I'd never vote conservative.

Watch the 'Boys from the black stuff' and you may gain an impression of how bleak things were under Thatcher.

Edit: My dad said the same. The under Thatcher the rich became richer and the poor got poorer.
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How very true ;)

I can still remember the day the torys got in power :eek: I was 19 at the time and it was the first time I could vote. My god, what a mess she made of the country.

Regarding the Falklands, the goverment didnt class it as a war but a conflict, just so they didnt have to pay the members of the armed forces extra money for being on active service in a war zone. If the argies had also waited a few months before thay invaded the falklands, we would have had a much harder time(if not a near imposible task)to retake the falklands back, because the landing ships were due to be mothballed/sold & one of our carriers had actually been sold, but not yet handed over ;)

I dont see how any 'working class' person can actually vote for the tory party.
 
Adnams Drinker said:
Apart from the difference in gender, pray tell how Blair and his cronies are so very different? A friend of mine who is a dyed-in-the-wool Labourite once gave Maggie the best possible compliment - albeit a backhanded one - when he described Blair as "Thatcher in a suit".

It's a shame we'll never see Thatcher going up against Blair in the House of Commons - she exposed that windbag Kinnock as the verbose buffoon that he was - and I honestly believe that she would mete out similar treatment to the vacuous, slimy individual currently infesting Downing Street.
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You're right. They get more similar by the day.

So similar, in fact, that if they were put up against each other in the commons, it could well be Tony Blair who exposes that "slimy individual who infested Downing Street" in the late 70s and most of the 80s, rather than the other way round
 
UOcUK Poopscoop said:
The only good thing she did was make the Unions more democratic.

Against:

She turned us from a manufacturing country into a service provider. It would have happened anyway but she sped it up.

She created a culture of greed and "I'm alright Jack" mentality.

She helped shut the mines so we can now import it instead.

She made millions unemployed.

She sold industries we already owned back to "us". Actually meaning that the rich got even fatter.

I could go on.
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Interestingly market forces resulted in a lack of demand for overpriced coal and steel.
At the time many people were employed by the state, industries such as coal and steel were Government owned. A Govt that finds that it can buy coal in from abroad more cheaply than it can pay its own people to produce has a serious problem.
Coal mines that cost more to run than they produce are a problem.
So she looked into cutting costs.

For years the unions had forced labour prices up and up, refusla to bow to union pressure and raise wahes led to strikes. When one lot went on strike the rest came out in support, hardly anyone worked at all but all demanded higher wages.

Higher wages led to inflation leading to higher prices which led to yet higher wage claims supported by , you guessed it, the unions which led to higher prices which led to higher wage demands which led to .......

So she took the unions on and beat them down, closed loss making industries and eventually finally after many years our economy righted itself, inflation fell, wages became competitive people started to feel good about the economy. Then they voted in Labour. Goodbye Economy, mark my words the mass redundancies are around the corner.
 
vanpeebles said:
if you live in the south and had money then hey thatcher was superb.

if didnt then you were stuffed. im from the north east and her reign still hurts. it wasnt just about the jobs, its the community after community that was broken up. no one knows anyone now and its all about looking after number 1. the comments a lot of people have made on here are very hurtful
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It was the greed of the people in those industries that caused the infaltion that led to the need for higher wages and so on and so on.
I think economics should be compulsory to A level for all students so that they can see the mechanisms for an economy to spiral into decay.
 
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