Privatise Thatcher's State Funeral

[kenneal - lagger]

The UK was in the position that Greece is now in the 60s and 70s when we had to go cap in hand to the IMF for a loan. Britain was known as the "Sick Man of Europe". All the nationalised industries where running at a loss and being subsidised by a dwindling private sector. If Thatcher hadn't pulled the economy round the whole private sector would have gone down under the weight of taxation and the whole country would now be in the situation that those villages are in. In fact we would have been in that situation for decades without any recovery. It's sad for those villages but plenty of other towns have recovered from the loss of a major industrial plant.

She was so bad at running the country that she got re-elected three times and John Major after her. That's a sad indictment on how badly Labour had run the country before her. Before you say that it was the south that voted her in that is an impossibility. She had support throughout the country except, perhaps, Scotland.

[DominicJ]

I'm from Manchester
After 13 years of labour, they still complain its Thatchers fault they're unemployed.
Even the ones who are younger than me, with no education, and criminal records that could fill books.
Even if Labour had reopened the pits, they wouldnt have been up for hard labour in unpleasent conditions.


I certainly dont agree with the cult of personality that has grown up around her, but anyone who prays for her death shouldnt mind me shouting "you deserve you miserable ****er" throught the letter box when their newborn baby dies of cot death, or their wife is raped and murdered.

[SleeperService]

The UK was in the position that Greece is now in the 60s and 70s when we had to go cap in hand to the IMF for a loan. Britain was known as the "Sick Man of Europe". All the nationalised industries where running at a loss and being subsidised by a dwindling private sector. If Thatcher hadn't pulled the economy round the whole private sector would have gone down under the weight of taxation and the whole country would now be in the situation that those villages are in. In fact we would have been in that situation for decades without any recovery. It's sad for those villages but plenty of other towns have recovered from the loss of a major industrial plant.

She was so bad at running the country that she got re-elected three times and John Major after her. That's a sad indictment on how badly Labour had run the country before her. Before you say that it was the south that voted her in that is an impossibility. She had support throughout the country except, perhaps, Scotland.

There is definately something in what you say there. The basic problem seems to me that mining areas were left as job deserts. Pits closed and took just about every other form of employment with it. If a town loses a major employer then workers have usually got alternative employment in other industries.

I really believe that the Thatcher Government could have done a lot less damage than they did. Labour have to take some of the blame because at the time they were a shambles.

Dominic if you want to get into nastiness like that fine, you have the right. Just be prepared for the consequences when somebody ratchets up a level and blows your bloody head off

[DominicJ]

So Sleeper, what your arguement is, that Thatchers children should have to witness their mothers grave being desecrated, but you shouldnt?

Perhaps I'm missing something....

If a town loses a major employer then workers have usually got alternative employment in other industries.

And who stopped them?
Why didnt anyone see a town full of unemployed workers and decide it was a great place to build a factory?
Well, thats easy, the "workers" had been on a 20 year strike and the local government was hostile.
Yorkshire thought it could blackmail the rest of the country, it was wrong.

[Ludwig]

She was so bad at running the country that she got re-elected three times and John Major after her. That's a sad indictment on how badly Labour had run the country before her.

Actually Ken, it's an indictment of the fact that she got her numbers right, and figured that as long as she kept enough of the population on-side via a credit bubble and the support of the popular press, she needn't worry about the people her policies had alienated.

Many low-paid people voted for Thatcher despite the fact that they'd have been better off under Labour. If the tabloids didn't tell them this, how were they supposed to know?

I'm not disagreeing that Britain was in a mess in the 1970s, but Germany faced a similar problem of uncompetitive primary industry in the 1980s, and its government moved the economy forward in a planned and fair way, replacing old industries with new ones in precisely the areas where jobs were disappearing.

Before you say that it was the south that voted her in that is an impossibility. She had support throughout the country except, perhaps, Scotland.

Of course she did. Rural areas throughout the country are overwhelmingly Tory. But the former industrial cities of the north overwhelmingly rejected Thatcher.

[DominicJ]

Many low-paid people voted for Thatcher despite the fact that they'd have been better off under Labour.

No they would not have been!!!
They voted Thatcher because they wanted rid of the union thugs that made their lives a misery.

[kenneal - lagger]

Many low-paid people voted for Thatcher despite the fact that they'd have been better off under Labour.

No they would not have been!!!
They voted Thatcher because they wanted rid of the union thugs that made their lives a misery.

.... and kept them poor as they were on strike so often. They also wanted to buy their council houses.

[DominicJ]

Ken
Not everyone was lucky enough to have a job in a big nationalised unionised industry.

The idea that unions work for the poor is a flat out lie.
They work for union members.
Rail fairs are up 6%, primarily because rail workers wages are up 10%...

The rich dont care about power cuts, as Adam2s posts have shown, most installed big back up diesel generators.
The poverty stricken who lived in a two up two down couldnt do that, neither could the small business.

[jonny2mad]

I voted for thatcher after the winter of discontent I'm not anti union but before thatcher I think they went mad, and I voted for her believing she would take on the unions which she did

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_Discontent

People not being buried talk of burying them at sea, rubbish piling up in the street , pickets closing down hospitals .

Anyway I don't regret voting for her I think her controls on the unions were needed at the time, the unions caused thatcher to be elected .

[jonny2mad]

Also I think Blair for example is a bigger bastard , he got us involved in more wars, thatcher really only had the Falklands and I think that was more our business than Iraq or Afghanistan because the Falklands was defending our territory that had been invaded not going off and conquering places .

[madibe]

Dominic J wrote:

It always amazes me how many people are happy to say they'd piss on thatchers grave.

I'll be sure to remind you when your mum/dad/partner/kids die.....

Erm... well my Mum died last March. I put her ashes under a tree on one of her favourite walks. So please pop me a line if you would like me to show you where the 'grave' is. You can then remind me of my desire to metaphorically piss on Thatchers grave.

Crunt

[/i]

[SleeperService]

Well Dominic you and I obviously completely disagree here so I'll leave this thread.

Nottinghamshire is not Yorkshire most of the Notts miners worked through the strike, made no difference.

Sorry if I upset you maudibe it wasn't intended

[Snail]

I was too young to vote at the time.

But the amount of industries that Britain squandered is diabolical.

For instance, the 1980s and the micro-computer industry. Jesus, the amount and variety of computers we produced. And quality ones too.

We should have been world-leaders, or at least competing. But what happened. The same old thing in this country that's what. Greedy at the top who were more concerned with increasing private bank balances and becoming like their upper-class role-models. Or incompetence caused by promotion policy.

Christ all mighty. Psion should have been the new Apple. Psion people went on to Tom-Tom and Apple. EPOC operating system was sold to Nokia and became Symbian.

I've not sure how much Thatcher can be blamed personally, but she seems to be representative of why Britain went down the wrong path imo. As compared to Germany. Which didn't take the easy, quick option and still makes things. I've got items which are german made, but have I any UK ones.

-----

Psion: the company Microsoft's Bill Gates most worried about
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... about.html

[jonny2mad]

why have a company in the uk thats on strike all the time, or where you can have secondary picketing there was that and also it was cheaper to produce things in china .

The UK doesn't want to be competitive especially the left in this country don't want that

[DominicJ]

Snail
In what way did we "squander" our computer industry?

California didnt offer anything but low taxes and low regulation, the UK offered high taxes and targetted grants, which as always, went to rent seekers not wealth creators.

We could have lead the world, but its hardly Thatchers fault that we didnt, the problems existed before, during and after her.