Thatcher

[waarigeo]

Trust many Shetland folk having a party tonight. Glasgow had one at 5pm, and there are others all over the country.

I for one find it disgusting that parties as held in Glasgow by those who are in the most part too young to even have lived when Mrs. Thatcher was PM.

To me she was the greatest leader Britain has had in the last century and had the will to see what was wrong in the UK and do something about it!

Condolences to her family. R.I.P. Mrs.T.

[EM]

Trust many Shetland folk having a party tonight.

I would have if I hadn't been on the boat. Nevertheless, I did get a cake iced to celebrate.

 

She was evil, pure and simple.

[JGHR]

 

I will show her about as much respect and decency as she showed the average working man... Next to none...

 

That's your prerogative, but it's not particularly admirable behaviour, in my opinion.

 

.. There's plenty of empty ones.

 

Just as well someone had the good sense to shut them down then.

[Rasmie]

Maggie was in our office in the seventies on her visit to Shetland. She was a courteous and interested visitor.

Peoples opinion on her during the miners strike for instance was very much split depending on their politics. Will you mourn or even discuss Arthur Scargill?

Despite the fact that she was a) English a Tory and c) a woman, she certainly put the Great back in Britain. (If she had not been in power the Falklands would certainly have been Argentinian by now.)

Tony Blair certainly tried to copy her style but lacked perhaps the integrity. I saw a discussion on Russia Today about whether he should be brought to trial as a war criminal for lying about WMD's in Iraq.

 

But like her or not she continues to stimulate debate and will without doubt be long remembered on the world stage., as well as this humble forum. What more could she ask for.

[owre-weel]

No matter who is the leader of our country they will always do things that some like and other don't. At least this woman had more balls than most of the wishy washy crowd that followed.

 

I may not agree with all her policies, but I do not agree with anyone "celebrating" anyone's death. We may at times feel little sympathy for folk and I'm all for challenging someone when they are able to be challenged, but I'm saddened to read some of the stuff being written.

[PressedCurdsOfMilk]

Top 13 anti Margaret Thatcher songs

 

I never wished for her to die but liked the song 'Margaret On The Guillotine' by Morrissey.

 

The Beats wish, 'Stand Down Margaret', came true in 1990, thankfully!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmnjL5GDbcg

[filskadacat]

No matter who is the leader of our country they will always do things that some like and other don't. At least this woman had more balls than most of the wishy washy crowd that followed.

 

I may not agree with all her policies, but I do not agree with anyone "celebrating" anyone's death. We may at times feel little sympathy for folk and I'm all for challenging someone when they are able to be challenged, but I'm saddened to read some of the stuff being written.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/willardfoxton2/100009007/how-twitter-and-facebook-forced-thatchers-adoring-fans-and-hysterical-enemies-to-face-each-other/#disqus_thread

[Mag]

parties as held in Glasgow by those who are in the most part too young to even have lived when Mrs. Thatcher was PM

Good for them for knowing their history. For those who didn't study history and are too young to remember, here's a summary from Philip Cave:

 

Margaret Thatcher was the most divisive and polarising politic leader of the last century. This is an incomplete list of why many of us fall on the side that does not regard her with anything other than odium…

 

1. She supported the retention of capital punishment

2. She destroyed the country's manufacturing industry

3. She voted against the relaxation of divorce laws

4. She abolished free milk for schoolchildren ("Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher")

5. She supported more freedom for business (and look how that turned out)

6. She gained support from the National Front in the 1979 election by pandering to the fears of immigration

7. She gerrymandered local authorities by forcing through council house sales, at the same time preventing councils from spending the money they got for selling houses on building new houses (spending on social housing dropped by 67% in her premiership)

8. She was responsible for 3.6 million unemployed - the highest figure and the highest proportion of the workforce in history and three times the previous government. Massaging of the figures means that the figure was closer to 5 million

9. She ignored intelligence about Argentinian preparations for the invasion of the Falkland Islands and scrapped the only Royal Navy presence in the islands

10. The poll tax

11. She presided over the closure of 150 coal mines; we are now crippled by the cost of energy, having to import expensive coal from abroad

12. She compared her "fight" against the miners to the Falklands War

13. She privatised state monopolies and created the corporate greed culture that we've been railing against for the last 5 years

14. She introduced the gradual privatisation of the NHS

15. She introduced financial deregulation in a way that turned city institutions into avaricious money pits

16. She pioneered the unfailing adoration and unquestioning support of the USA

17. She allowed the US to place nuclear missiles on UK soil, under US control

18. Section 28

19. She opposed anti-apartheid sanctions against South Africa and described Nelson Mandela as "that grubby little terrorist"

20. She support the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and sent the SAS to train their soldiers

21. She allowed the US to bomb Libya in 1986, against the wishes of more than 2/3 of the population

22. She opposed the reunification of Germany

23. She invented Quangos

24. She increased VAT from 8% to 17.5%

25. She had the lowest approval rating of any post-war Prime Minister

26. Her post-PM job? Consultant to Philip Morris tobacco at $250,000 a year, plus $50,000 per speech

27. The Al Yamamah contract

28. She opposed the indictment of Chile's General Pinochet

29. Social unrest under her leadership was higher than at any time since the General Strike

30. She presided over interest rates increasing to 15%

31. BSE

32. She presided over 2 million manufacturing job losses in the 79-81 recession

33. She opposed the inclusion of Eire in the Northern Ireland peace process

34. She supported sanctions-busting arms deals with South Africa

35. Cecil Parkinson, Alan Clark, David Mellor, Jeffrey Archer, Jonathan Aitkin

36. Crime rates doubled under Thatcher

37. Black Wednesday – Britain withdraws from the ERM and the pound is devalued. Cost to Britain - £3.5 billion; profit for George Soros - £1 billion

38. Poverty doubled while she opposed a minimum wage

39. She privatised public services, claiming at the time it would increase public ownership. Most are now owned either by foreign governments (EDF) or major investment houses. The profits don’t now accrue to the taxpayer, but to foreign or institutional shareholders.

40. She cut 75% of funding to museums, galleries and other sources of education

41. In the Thatcher years the top 10% of earners received almost 50% of the tax remissions

42. 21.9% inflation

 

Most people recognise the massive changes that evolved during the 1980s. However, to ascribe the positive changes to one person, as though they never would have happened in her absence, is laughable.

[Colin]

MASSIVE SNIP....

31. BSE

 

She might have been a 'mad cow' herself but, you surely can't blame BSE on her?

[Colin]

 

I will show her about as much respect and decency as she showed the average working man... Next to none...

 

That's your prerogative, but it's not particularly admirable behaviour, in my opinion.

 

.. There's plenty of empty ones.

 

Just as well someone had the good sense to shut them down then.

 

I suspect that this might be a major Troll Alert

 

Well, you can have all the opinions you want but, as far as I am concerned, what is not 'admirable' about holding a different one to you? My family was directly affected by her 'battle' with the NUM and, I saw the consequences of mine closures at first hand, I saw the work of generations ruined and I saw whole communities torn apart. She only won that one because Arthur Scargill (even though he was 100% right) was an idiot.

 

Closing the mines was a good thing? Yes if you think that buying cheap coal from eg. south america, that had been dug out of the ground (in some instances) by children as young as 10 but, hey, who cares just so long as we make a little extra profit and get rid of those pesky miners at the same time..

[unlinkedstudent]

.... 42. 21.9% inflation

 

Ahem:-

 

http://safalra.com/other/historical-uk-inflation-price-conversion/

 

Thatcher came into power in 1979. According to the above, inflation that year was at 13.4%. Note that under Labour in 1975 it was 24.2% ... in other words, one week 10 Embassy cost you 20p and within a short period of time they cost you 80p or thereabouts.

 

As for coming out of the ERM, my recollection is that John Major was the PM at the time and not Thatcher.

[Marooned in Maywick]

Note that under Labour in 1975 it was 24.2% ... in other words, one week 10 Embassy cost you 20p and within a short period of time they cost you 80p or thereabouts.

 

How d'you work that out?

[waarigeo]

As unlinked student points out it was John Major assisted by our own Norman Lamont who pulled out of the ERM. In fact Mrs Thatcher was always opposed to joining it!

[unlinkedstudent]

Note that under Labour in 1975 it was 24.2% ... in other words, one week 10 Embassy cost you 20p and within a short period of time they cost you 80p or thereabouts.

 

How d'you work that out?

 

Ghostie told me.

 

In all seriousness though, I do recall every week items going up in price in the shops even though I was a kid at the time - and I'm not just talking by a few pence. They just kept going up and up and up and up until it got to the stage that Mum could no longer afford simple treats like a packet of Blue Riband.

[JGHR]

I suspect that this might be a major Troll Alert

 

Well, you can have all the opinions you want but, as far as I am concerned, what is not 'admirable' about holding a different one to you? My family was directly affected by her 'battle' with the NUM and, I saw the consequences of mine closures at first hand, I saw the work of generations ruined and I saw whole communities torn apart. She only won that one because Arthur Scargill (even though he was 100% right) was an idiot.

 

Closing the mines was a good thing? Yes if you think that buying cheap coal from eg. south america, that had been dug out of the ground (in some instances) by children as young as 10 but, hey, who cares just so long as we make a little extra profit and get rid of those pesky miners at the same time..

 

You suspect wrong.

 

As I said, your opinion and actions are your prerogative. I find the public celebration of the death of an elderly, bedridden and demented grandmother unseemly and distasteful. You are free to gloat and delight in it all you want, just because I choose not to does not make me a troll.

 

Globalisation was happening before Thatchers time. Why do you suppose the subsequent governments of Blair and Brown, or private enterprise, did not re open the coal mines, shipyards and steelworks?