The Iron Lady Dies..........

[Deleted]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2305751/Margaret-Thatcher-dead-Former-prime-minister-dies-87-massive-stroke.htm

[Ali]

Strong lady - thats for certain.

[JohnP]

In 1979 Britain was in a mess and needed fixing. In my opinion Thatcher and her bunch of spineless "yes men" took the biggest wrecking ball they could find and smashed it. She was a single minded, egotistical, vindictive dictator who destroyed and crushed everything and everybody who stood in her way. When she came to power Britain had a coal industry, a shipping industry and a car, bus and truck industry and a huge manufacturing base.

She destroyed these industries and the communities that depended on them. She sold off the very heart of the country..The Electricity, Gas , Rail, Bus and Telecoms industry, most of which is now in the hands of overseas companies leaving the Government with no control and the British people with the highest utility bills and rail fares in Europe.

She offered people the chance to buy their council houses then in a cruel twist when interest rates soared to 17% through her governments incompetence, most lost their homes and they were snapped up at rock bottom prices and ended up rented back to the people at inflated prices.

Under her leadership/dictatorship, as with all tory governments, the rich got richer and everyone else paid the price. Her legacy is a country that has but a small manufacturing industry mostly in foreign ownership and a corrupt, fraudulent banking industry.

She succeeded where even Hiltler failed and broke the very spirit of the British people and damaged the infastucture to a point where even 30 years on it has not recovered.

I for one will not mourn her passing.

[Cheeky Chops]

Apparently buying council houses was already allowed. Thatcher offered discounts. She should have built more yes but with the discounts, she changed people's lives for the better. The mines from what I can gather were already going. Thatcher did a lot wrong but she did so much right and as a female, she definitely changed my view of what women can achieve. Someone this morning on the TV said "She didn't have empathy". Would they say that about a bloke Prime Minister? The only reason as far as I can see that she is vilified by so many is because she is a woman. And the class struggle? She did more to get rid of the class system by being in such a position of power than any other person in her time. And so sayeth the Chops.

[littlemouse]

I did't object to people buying their council houses, I objected to the massive discounts that were given to buyers when in the real world you had to pay the going rate.
For me it was a cynical way of grabbing voters and at the same time ensuring there were less people willing to strike because their homes were at risk.

[meldrew]

Come to the point JohnP, did you like her or not? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[meldrew]

On a more serious note, it was a fact that the Unions were of the opinion that they were above and stronger than the elected government and in my opinion had to be curbed to avoid anarchy in the country.

Thatcher I believe went to war with the union bosses in the mineworkers and the car factories and as with all wars, it was inevitable that 'the people' would get hurt, every war has its innocent casualties but in the end the evil of the Unions' excessive power was curbed.

The question is now was that a good or a bad result - its the same question about WW2 really - we won didn't we?

[JohnP]

Clearly something had to be done and yes the unions were too powerful and doing serious damage. There was overcapacity and an unwillingness to change but the answer was not wholesale destruction but negociation and gradual reduction of over capacity. Clearly Thatcher and her goons had no idea how to solve the problem, they didn't even try, their answer was to close everything down or sell it off. She could not have been more provocative setting unions against government and Father against Son ripping the country apart. The end result was a Britain that was broken and all the things that made you proud are gone.

[meldrew]

So you don't like her John?

So what about her good points with say the Falklands? Without her we would have given them away.

[Ali]

All that I can say about Maggie (coz of course I was far too young then to understand pollytix) is that she gave me the power to be entreprenurial.