Margaret Thatcher is dead

[Bazj]

Margaret Thatcher is dead

[Evil Sid]

Love her or hate her she certainly left her mark on the history of this country. R.I.P.

[asperity]

One of a kind. R.I.P.

 

Now let's see the haters come out of the woodwork.

[Davy51]

Margaret Thatcher did some amazing things in terms of refusing to let Europe completely overwhelm the UK but in other respects she caused a lot of unrest such as her obsession with destroying the unions by taking away their members employers ,namely the Coal Board, British Steel & the gas & electricity  suppliers who when privatised were supposed to drive down prices through competition but instead collectively thought about nothing more than creating obscene profits for their parent companies.The Falklands War could possibly also have been avoided if warnings had been heeded & the garrison beefed up to deter invaders. I am sure she meant well but her policies were not always the best for the people of Britain & the legacy of Thatcherism has been the broken society that we now live in with its stagnant manufacturing base .

 

R.I.P.

[Nick Tessla]

One of a kind. R.I.P.

 

 

If only.

 

I accept it is wrong to gloat over anyone's death - but I certainly won't grieve for her.

[fugtifino]

Now let's see the haters come out of the woodwork.

 

<Raises hand>

 

Don't think I or any of the others kept it a secret though.

 

And, what Nick said.

[wolfie]

To quote Thatcher herself.

 

: "Just rejoice at that news."

 

Still you should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good. Margaret Thatcher is dead. Good.

[Lt Kije]

What Nick and Wolfie said.

[robocop]

For those of you who speak ill of the dead shame on you.

[fugtifino]

Well, I spoke quite a lot worse than that about her when she was alive, it'd be hypocritical of me to do otherwise now.

[asperity]

Margaret Thatcher did some amazing things in terms of refusing to let Europe completely overwhelm the UK but in other respects she caused a lot of unrest such as her obsession with destroying the unions by taking away their members employers ,namely the Coal Board, British Steel & the gas & electricity  suppliers who when privatised were supposed to drive down prices through competition but instead collectively thought about nothing more than creating obscene profits for their parent companies.The Falklands War could possibly also have been avoided if warnings had been heeded & the garrison beefed up to deter invaders. I am sure she meant well but her policies were not always the best for the people of Britain & the legacy of Thatcherism has been the broken society that we now live in with its stagnant manufacturing base .

 

R.I.P.

I'm afraid that the romantic idea of the Unions fighting for workers rights were certainly outdated by the 1970's when they had become, not a force for good but, a force for the greed of a minority not unlike the greed of a minority people complain about today. There has been a lot more damage done to Britain's manufacturing industry by the governments following her resignation in 1990, not least Blair and Brown.

[Lt Kije]

Complete crap Asp, She started the love affair with the city!!!, come out from the rose tinted tear soaked glasses!!

[Nick Tessla]

For those of you who speak ill of the dead shame on you.

 

That would make History forums pretty tricky, in fact anything to do with history - text books, TV documentaries, academic courses etc .

[wolfie]

For those of you who speak ill of the dead shame on you.

What's Makaton for 'good riddance'.

[fugtifino]

She created today's housing crisis. She created the banking crisis. And she created the benefits crisis. It was her government that started putting people on incapacity benefit rather than register them as unemployed because the Britain she inherited was broadly full employment. She decided when she wrote off our manufacturing industry that she could live with two or three million unemployed, and the benefits bill, the legacy of that, we are struggling with today. In actual fact, every real problem we face today is the legacy of the fact that she was fundamentally wrong.

 

Ken Livingstone.

[asperity]

And no government in the 23 years that have elapsed since she left 10 Downing Street has been able to do anything about it! Wow! Some powerful woman! Total claptrap, you Thatcher haters just need a scapegoat to hang your frustrations on instead of trying to bring today's politicians to account. She didn't make the miners strike, the union leadership did that. The country didn't need their overpriced product as it was available cheaper elsewhere. And why anybody should think that propping up loss making steel and car industries with public funds was a good idea is beyond me I'm afraid. What's that you say? They provided employment? Might as well pay people to sit at home rather than make something nobody wants to buy.

[Lt Kije]

That's what she did ,she put them on sickness benefit, then lied and said we had full employment, She destroyed, and made the greed is good concept the acceptable face of the UK.

[observer]

The only good thing I can say, is that she had conviction and balls; unlike her contempories. Pity she squandered our North Sea oil on funding the unemployment caused by wholesale de-industrialisation,, then transferred it to incapacity benefit to hide the unemployment figures; which subsequently developed into the so-called benefit dependency culture.

[asperity]

Again I have to ask, has the world stood still for the last 23 years? Have politicians blindly followed the policies of the Thatcher government? If everything she did was to the detriment of us all then why haven't subsequent governments reversed them?

[Bazj]

She created today's housing crisis. She created the banking crisis. And she created the benefits crisis. It was her government that started putting people on incapacity benefit rather than register them as unemployed because the Britain she inherited was broadly full employment. She decided when she wrote off our manufacturing industry that she could live with two or three million unemployed, and the benefits bill, the legacy of that, we are struggling with today. In actual fact, every real problem we face today is the legacy of the fact that she was fundamentally wrong.

 

Ken Livingstone.

 

ah Ken Livingstone said it.... good job you put that so we didn't get mixed up with Peter Kay or John Bishop or any other comedian for that matter|!

[wolfie]

 "People praising Thatcher's legacy should show some respect for her victims"

[Lt Kije]

To answer your question Asp, has any government reversed everything the previous government dd?

[P J]

Is  she being cremated, just to be on the safe side??   We should all get a day off to celebrate.  

 

P.S.  I find myself in some unusual company but perhaps that's her real legacy, bringing together folk that hated her

 

even her own party saw the light and shat upon her (thank you Heseltine, Major et al)

[algy]

Love her or hate her, she had more 'balls' than any Prime Minister than the males that have followed her! RIP. Maggie.

[Davy51]

I'm afraid that the romantic idea of the Unions fighting for workers rights were certainly outdated by the 1970's when they had become, not a force for good but, a force for the greed of a minority not unlike the greed of a minority people complain about today. There has been a lot more damage done to Britain's manufacturing industry by the governments following her resignation in 1990, not least Blair and Brown.

 

The unions did need taking down a peg or two i agree , but it isn't good business to put so many people out of work virtually overnight ...taxpayers suddenly turned into benefit claimants & Blair & Brown have been leading followers of Thatcherism . Like the problems that Dave sees with the welfare state,the idea of  moving people from unemployment pay to sick pay was brought in by one of the Thatcher governments to hide the true unemployment figures.