Forums Forums National News Margaret Thatcher died Monday following a stroke

Well said Chris. The 70s where a nightmare.

Strongly agree chriskay and I'm not a Conservative btw. I consider myself to be more of a Libertarian.

I was a teenager in Birkenhead in the 1970s and they were grim times to be young. The rise of MT can be directly attributed to the rank incompetence of Wilson, Heath, and Callaghan who preceded her. Britain was in a right state; crippled by industrial disputes, a crumbling manufacturing base, and polluted to all hell. Having never embraced US style Darwinist Capitalism, we just couldn't compete with the newly emerging markets in the far east who made superior products at competitive prices.

We also tend to forget that picketing was no more than bullying of those who wished to exercise their right to go to work without asking permission of the very unions whom they were paying to look after them.

I wonder how things would have turned out if Michael Foot or Neil Kinnock had become PM though.

Elizabeth, is it not disrespectful to say she had balls, they are an unnatural appendage on a woman.

I agree with NickLeg, the damage she caused is almost irreparable. We will never have a strong manufacturing base again because all the old skills have gone, the old communities have gone. It was her ideaology that the economic future of our country could be based on services(which no-one can now afford) banking and finance, which we all know about and that the market would regulate itself, yeah,.As for the sell off of utilities! people can't afford to heat their homes because of gas and electricity prices and soon won't be able to afford a bath because of rising costs in their water bills. So did "great woman " do it all on her own? no she was surrounded by loke minded people for who GREED IS GOOD.

I am only a workinclasshero

aint seen you do much work.

Okay, just a few points to remember,
It was a labour minister, Edward Short, who actually abolished milk for secondary students.
Children up to the age of seven were still provided with milk.
Thatcher was actually against the policy but was forced into it by the rest of the party.
She was staying at the Ritz because she was struggling to cope with stairs, and lets be honest if you had enough money and a choice between the ritz and a care home which would you choose?

As for the mining industry it was one which needed to be controlled before they were able to control the country. Had they not got greedy with power then maybe there wouldn't have been the issues that had arisen.

I'm only 21 so I wasn't even alive for any part of her time in office however all it takes is a little research to find out these facts. So for those of you who who have all these disgusting comments to make about another human dying, think about your frail mother who struggles with stairs and who has maybe done things they regret because they have been pressured into them and how you would feel if on that persons death people started saying some of the above comments. How would you feel?

[quote=NickLeg]

In the war led by Margaret Thatcher’s governments – against the left, the trade unions, the post-war consensus – her side was crushingly, devastatingly, humiliatingly victorious.

In the coming days, some on the right will attempt to snuff out criticism of her legacy, arguing that it is somehow disrespectful, spiteful or ghoulish. Absurd, of course: she was a politician – the most divisive in modern British history – and what she represented must of course be debated. They will use the moment of her passing to batter Thatcherism into the national psyche: that she somehow saved Britain from ruin, put the “great” back into “Great Britain”, and so forth. Those who grew up in the Britain that Thatcher built will be patronised: you were still learning how to walk at the height of her power. And that is why it is crucial to separate Thatcherism from the woman who spearheaded it.

Thatcherism was a national catastrophe, and we remain trapped by its consequences. As her former Chancellor Geoffrey Howe put it: “Her real triumph was to have transformed not just one party but two, so that when Labour did eventually return, the great bulk of Thatcherism was accepted as irreversible.”

We are in the midst of the third great economic collapse since the Second World War: all three have taken place since Thatcherism launched its great crusade. This current crisis has roots in the Thatcherite free market experiment, which wiped out much of the country’s industrial base in favour of a deregulated financial sector.

A poisoned “debate” about social security rages in Cameron’s Britain. It focuses on the idea that there are large numbers of people stuck on benefits. It is certainly true that there were more people languishing in long-term unemployment last year than there were in all forms of unemployment 40 years ago. In large part, this is a consequence of Thatcherism’s emptying communities of millions of secure, skilled industrial jobs. Large swathes of Britain – mining villages, steel towns and so on – were devastated, and never really recovered. Even when Britain was supposedly booming, the old industrial heartlands had high levels of what is rather clinically described as “economic inactivity”.

Five million people now languish on social housing waiting lists, while billions of pounds of housing benefit line the pockets of private landlords charging rip-off rents. The scarcity of housing turns communities against each other, as immigrants or anyone deemed less deserving are scapegoated. But the guilt really lies with the Thatcherite policy of right-to-buy and failure to replace the stock that was sold off.

Champions of Thatcherism hail the crippling of the trade unions, which were battered by anti-union laws, mass unemployment, and crushing defeats of strikes, not least after the rout of the iconic miners. This has not only left workers at the mercy of their bosses, but has made them poorer, too. Four years before the crisis began, the income of the bottom half was stagnating, while for the bottom third it actually began to decline – even as corporations were posting record profits. With no unions to stand their corner, workers’ living standards have long been squeezed – driving large numbers to cheap credit.

We could go on. Britain was one of the most equal Western European countries before the Thatcherite project began, and is now one of the most unequal. Thatcherism is not just alive and well: it courses through the veins of British political life. The current government goes where Thatcherism did not dare in its privatisation of the NHS and sledgehammering of the welfare state.

The challenge ahead is the same as it was yesterday: to tear down the whole edifice of Thatcherism, heal Britain of the damage done, and build a country run in the interests of working people. It’s a fight we must all fight. The champagne is on ice until we win it.Well said Nickleg,I too cannot believe the amount of "I'am not a tory,tory working class people on here, it is sad she has passed away as eventually we all will however I am sure the rest of us wont have created as much misery and division and the legacy of greed as she did, there are non so blind as those that dont wish to see.
I sincerely hope none of you "I am not a tory" types dont lose your employment in the future and feel the cold fingers of the Thatcherism legacy rip from you your self respect and everything you have worked for and be labelled scrounger. To finish is buying a council house cheap worth selling your souls and self respect for? I am not a tory but... Iam not a racist but.......

Well said Nickleg,I too did'nt realise how many "I am not a Tory but" live amongst us lets hope that they are not unfortunate enough to lose their employment in the future and feel the cold fingers of Thatchers legacy strip everything they have worked for from them along with their self respect and be labelled scrounger or become ill or disabled that is the reality of thatcherism no mercy, and yet people have sympathy for her passing perhaps it was the cheap council house they bought that brought the rose tinted specs into play.
We will all pass on one day but I think the majority of us wont leave as much misery and division as she has managed to do.Would anyone like to contribute toward Generalissimo's Pinochettes family expenses so they can attent the big event, I know the tories have a perchant for dictators.

Early 70's, couldn't get a job unless I was in a Union. Couldn't join the Union unless I had a job. Still had to pay my way, no help from the UAB. Streets filled with rubbish, bodies in morgues, no heating because the miners were out, power cuts to electric for the same reason. Dockers on strike, British Leyland and other car companies always on strike, Seamen always agitating for strike action etc etc Oh yes, 70's under Labour wasn't half great.

The Truth.
ANNE SCARGILL: Ex-wife of former NUM leader Arthur Scargill, said: 'She was intent on smashing the trade unions and in it she smashed the country.
'She called us the enemy within. There was only one enemy within and that was her.
'When you think about what's happened yesterday I know it's probably not good but I was really really happy…that woman caused us such distress and upset and here we were fighting for survival, not for a wage increase, and she's just smashed our communities and the woman she what… she weren't a woman she was evil.'
DEREK HATTON: The former Liverpool councillor said: 'The issue isn't about whether she is dead. I regret for the sake of millions of people that she was ever born.'
'She promoted a form of greed in business that we've never known before and it's continued ever since. She actually changed the whole face of this country in a way, that you know, people wouldn't have even anticipated.
'Even her successors got away with murder, literally, for example Blair in Iraq, that they wouldn't have got away with had it not been for what she did.'
ALAN CUMMINGS: The chairman of Durham Miners' Association, said the timing of the events, on the 20th anniversary of their pit closing, was 'remarkable' and 'one of those quirks'.
He said: 'She couldn't be cremated on a better day. We are planning to have a colliery band and we are inviting ex-miners and their families to go back over their memories of the strike and what has happened since the closure of the pit. I couldn't stand her. She had a very patronising manner and I could have put my foot through the television whenever I saw her on there.'
MORRISSEY: The singer tweeted: 'Every move she made was charged by negativity; she destroyed the British manufacturing industry, she hated the miners, she hated the arts, she hated the Irish Freedom Fighters and allowed them to die, she hated the English poor and did nothing at all to help them, she hated Greenpeace and environmental protectionists, she was the only European political leader who opposed a ban on the ivory trade, she had no wit and no warmth and even her own cabinet booted her out.'
JOEY BARTON: The footballer posted: 'I'd say RIP Maggie but it wouldn't be true. If heaven exists that old witch won't be there.'
KEN LOACH: The film director said: 'How should we honour her? Let's privatise her funeral. Put it out to competitive tender and accept the cheapest bid. It's what she would have wanted.'
FRANKIE BOYLE: The comedian tweeted: 'All that Thatcher achieved was to ensure that people living in Garbage Camps a hundred years from now will think that Hitler was a woman.'
IRVINE WELSH: The author wrote: 'So, if u take out Orgreave, destroying communities, Belgrano/Falklands, Hillsborough, protecting nonces, child poverty, Pinochet, she was ok.'
PETER TATCHELL: The gay rights activist tweeted: 'Thatcher was an autocrat. She suppressed miners, civil liberties, inner cities, local government & #LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people]
RUSSELL BRAND: The comedian, in an article in Huffington Post, said: 'If you behave like there's no such thing as society, in the end there isn't. Her death must be sad for the handful of people she was nice to and the rich people who got richer under her stewardship. It isn't sad for anyone else. There are pangs of nostalgia, yes, because for me she's all tied up with Hi-De-Hi and Speak and Spell and Blockbusters and “follow the bear”.'
ANDY KERSHAW: The former Radio 1 DJ tweeted: 'She was uncaring about the disadvantaged and counted Chile dictator Augusto Pinochet and Jimmy Savile among her friends. To Thatcher, Nelson Mandela was another terrorist. The discord she brought to this country is still deafening.'
MARK STEEL: The comedian wrote: 'What a terrible shame – that it wasn't 87 years earlier.'
ROSS NOBLE: The comedian tweeted: 'Bloody typical that Thatcher dies when I am in Australia. I hate to miss a good street party.'
ALEX CALLINICOS: Professor of European Studies at King's College, London, and member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party, he said: 'Murder was Thatcher's business. Sometimes the murder was metaphorical – of industries and communities. It still destroyed people's lives. Sometimes the murder was real. Thatcher over-saw the ongoing dirty war in Ireland.'
ERNESTO ALBERTO ALONSO: The president of the National Committee of Argentine Falklands Veterans said: 'She will be remembered as a leader who brought nothing positive to humanity.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ng-bile-Lady-Thatcher.html#ixzz2Q45LWe6u
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Bandy
Also:
One and a half million unemployed at the end of Callaghan's reign in office.Population then was approx. 46 million. now about 54 million.



Casper
Do you mind telling me why that should be a problem to you? It's not a very costructive remark and without any political clout.Just let me explain. Maybe some are no longer Tory because not all people stick with the same point of view. Over the years policies change ,from all parties and depending on what's happening around the world and in the country, people are entitled to changer their opinions and which party they vote for. That is democracy, in case you hadn't heard of it. If, going back to 1970's the voters of Britain had, had enough, of the weak Governments and those same people changed their views and elected Margaret Thatcher, they saw the results she made in getting the country back on it's feet, was subsequently re-elected on two more occassions. So she couldn't have been all bad.Who we vote for is not really the issue in this case, it is who we saw as our best bet in 1979,to bring back normality to our way of life.
Generally, over the years people have voted according to their present beliefs for the good of all. Not just for the 'me me me' tribe.

When your mate Nickleg says 'we' and you agree with his words, does that mean you and him or does it mean somebody else too, possibly a political party?

For one who is only 21 you are to be commended for having taken the trouble to do that 'bit of research' and to have shown the acumen to form your own conclusions rather than being swayed by the histeria of others. I also remember the 3 day week, trying to keep a business running and staff properly employed. I also remember the anger of those staff when they saw the bullying and grasping behaviour of miners and other groups. Sure, miners working underground have a difficult and often dangerous job and rightly should be rewarded as such - but not to the excesses being demanded at the time.

Snod

@RedLance: by what authority do you preface your list of quotes by those people, "the truth"? In my book they are mostly un-funny "comedians" or members of the loony left; e.g. Derek Hatton and a member of the Socialist Workers' Party (does that really still exist)?