Baroness Margaret Thatcher Has Died

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You say you speak up for low paid workers, out of interest what would be the differential between a neuro surgeon and a toilet cleaner in your fair and just world then?

If I believe the toilet cleaner should be paid more, it doesn't mean I believe the neurosurgeon should be paid less.

Well avoided, I'm not saying that you believe the neuro surgeon should be paid less, are you saying that the neuro surgeon should stay on what they are currently on (let's say for argument's sake £250k PA) but that a toilet cleaner should be on say £50k per annum?

 

[Lawnmower]

 

 

Yes the country is in a fine position now...errrr

 

But at least the unions aren't in control : ) I've been a union member all my working life but it was obvious their power was getting out of control. I read somewhere than in January 1979 there were nearly as many workers on strike as in the 1926 General Strike. Don't tell me this type of action had no consequence for the future of our industries. Yep, all would have been well it only Sunny Jim had retained power. My ass.

Spot on - remember the three-day week? MT put Britain back on the path it should have been, far too many blinkered people forget the mess labour left behind in 1979 and oddly enough in 2010.

 

 

 

 

Yes the country is in a fine position now...errrr

 

But at least the unions aren't in control : ) I've been a union member all my working life but it was obvious their power was getting out of control. I read somewhere than in January 1979 there were nearly as many workers on strike as in the 1926 General Strike. Don't tell me this type of action had no consequence for the future of our industries. Yep, all would have been well it only Sunny Jim had retained power. My ass.

Spot on - remember the three-day week? MT put Britain back on the path it should have been, far too many blinkered people forget the mess labour left behind in 1979 and oddly enough in 2010.

 

Three Day Week? That was under Ted Heath - lights out, power cuts etc. Tory party, not Labour. Their nadir was the Winter of Discontent, but no Three Day Week.

[Lonan3]

RIP Lady Thatcher, good to see that she is getting a state funeral

No - it's being privatised.

[Lawnmower]

I can well remember the state of the UK in the mid 70s, planning our evenings around the power cuts, she stopped all that.

 

 

 

 

Again - the power cuts - that was under the Tories of Ted Heath - the 3 Day Week was his, not Labour.

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[Lost Login]

 

RIP Lady Thatcher, good to see that she is getting a state funeral

No - it's being privatised.

It was going to be a cremation but apparently the lady is not for burning

[Thomas Jefferson]

Three Day Week? That was under Ted Heath - lights out, power cuts etc. Tory party, not Labour. Their nadir was the Winter of Discontent, but no Three Day Week.

I know. The Government was forced to reduce the work week in order to conserve electricity, as there was a shortage due to the strikes.

[Lawnmower]

Things you may have forgotten

 

In the In/Out European Referendum - she was one of the most prominent campaigners with Harold Wilson and co to stay full members

 

She wanted a single European Market, along the lines originally envisaged, and SHE signed the Single Market Agreement

 

She opposed all Commonwealth member countries, who wanted stronger sanctions against South Africa and refused to join them stating that Mandela was a terrorist and thereby helped that apartheit regime to continue longer than it should have.

 

She sanctioned and supported Clause 28 - which probably caused misery to young people who could not talk about their sexuality

 

She set the scene for the start of the Falklands War by agreeing to withdraw the Navy Research ship from the area and allowing her ministers to openly talk about abandoning the Falklands

 

She was a friend of Pinochet, and supported his regime while he was systematically 'disappearing' most of his opponents. Ditto with Galtieri until the war.

 

She gave the Police and Army their biggest pay rise ever, just before the Miner's Strike and used the Police as a thuggish force to break the strike

 

But most of all she divided society and set up the greed culture which almost did away with socialism and left the way open for capitalism to run amok and led eventually to the Banking crisis which we are all now affected by. The greed of the Bankers, the criminality of the Bankers, the freeing up of the markets came directly from her.

[credente]

I think it's a shame that she died today - instead of in the Grand Hotel, Brighton in 1984.

[2thumbs]

What's the difference between Margaret Thatcher and Michael Jackson?

Margaret Thatcher didn't like miners.

[prism10]

When she was elected, I left Britain for the Isle of Man Then again I was only a kid at the time.

 

Thatcher did not transform the country she polarised it. She privatised the TSB which went bust a few years ago. She started the financial reforms in 1986 which led to the banking disaster of recent years and the austerity measures which we are now experiencing. Her privatisation projects led to private monopolies making big profits for its shareholders. Manufacturing declined and the much vaunted replacement of it by the service industries were short sighted.

 

Plus there were policies that were bigoted, homophobic and made caring for the next person a dirty word. Ironically she actually cared about parts of Africa and foresaw the 1984 famine many months earlier.

 

Still she clawed her way to the top of the political heap, got elected three times so she will have a place in the history books.

[slinkydevil]

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@Slinkydevil

 

+1 go Minnie McGee!!!

[Gladys]

That she was a major figure of the 20th century landscape, no one can deny. That she was true to her convictions and was a strong leader, similarly, no one can deny. That her implacable self-belief was right for the times, no one can deny.

 

She was a formidable, charismatic person and leader, but .................

 

She destroyed most of the primary industries of Britain and left it with nowt. Sure, the unions needed to be controlled, but not the industries.

 

She destroyed many communities with an almost 'let them eat cake' attitude. A generation later, they may just be getting back on their feet.

 

She sold public housing without proper provision for replacement.

 

She privatised nationalised industries which are now effectively exported.

 

She propagated a war for reasons that, even at the time, no one understood or cared about until it became a war. Most people thought the Falklands were off Scotland.

 

Worst of all, she created a culture of greed and ruthless self-satisfaction.

 

On the plus side though, her policies also created some of the finest comedians and satirists.

[thesultanofsheight]

Scouring the internet the stock response to all the heartless vitriol is that whatever people thought of her she was a mother and her children deserve consideration. Oh yes her children - one a simpering, irritating, basketcase who makes racist comments on live TV, and the other a vane greedy man who funded an attempt to overthrow an African state for money.