25 Years since Maggie

[Strike]

I liked Thatacher, best prime minister since Winston Churchill. Won't mention why as I gotta do my homework in a few minutes and I don't have time for a arguement with anyone.

 

[Kent Seagull]

I hate the bitch, I wouldn't piss on her if she was on fire!

 

[Dover]

I'm with Kent Seagull on this one.

I grew up with someone who ripped apart not just towns in The North, but a fair few down south. The miners dispute, and the arguments still are apparent in South-east Kent.

Kent lost three pits. All producing good quality coal. It was alleged at the time that the Kent miners were as militant as their counterparts in Yorkshire. I still know of many miners who "flew" to Doncaster, and whilst they weer on strike pay, other working people gave what they could to the fighting fund. Not just money but food and clothing.

After the pits went, the Gatic iron foundary went. Then there was the ferry strike, as she wanted to crush the NUS. Follow that with the selling of the railway, hence closing Dover Marine Station, and loosing the boat-train (Golden Arrow service) she did a fantastic job on destroying my home town.

Dover, and south-east Kent has never recovered from that woman, and sadly I doubt it ever will.

 

[shingle]

Its alright being wise after the event, but people voted for Thatch in their millions and rightly so as there was no credible alternative. I believe several of the elections were landslides so she must have been doing something right in the eyes of the voters. Some of us actually lived in Britain in the seventies with the 3 day week, Industrial strikes of one kind or the other every day, as a boy I remember the electricity going off and sitting with candles for hours on end. And all this community that you fondly reminisce about never existed except in your imagination and Welsh mining villages. The poll tax was a mistake, but some of her policies were sound , face it Chaps without Thatch we would be a banana republic now.

Am now reaching for my tin hat

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I've just spend the Bank Holiday acting as Best Man at the wedding of a mate who used to work in Insurance and is now a financial journalists dealing with Futures. The wedding was attended by a number of people with similar backgrounds and I have no problem with the integrity or honesty of any of them.

Individually, they are no doubt as honest as they day is long.

But Thatcher's legacy is that she turned "dealing with Futures" into a respectable profession, whose exponents now control the whole economy - when the reality is that they are nothing but gamblers who play with other people's money (and, more often than not, lose it).

Time was when hard graft and manual labour were the foundations of the economy. These days, you're a failure if you aspire to manufacture something. You certainly won't be rewarded, or housed.

 

[Yorkie]

Its alright being wise after the event, but people voted for Thatch in their millions and rightly so as there was no credible alternative. I believe several of the elections were landslides so she must have been doing something right in the eyes of the voters. Some of us actually lived in Britain in the seventies with the 3 day week, Industrial strikes of one kind or the other every day, as a boy I remember the electricity going off and sitting with candles for hours on end. And all this community that you fondly reminisce about never existed except in your imagination and Welsh mining villages. The poll tax was a mistake, but some of her policies were sound , face it Chaps without Thatch we would be a banana republic now.

Am now reaching for my tin hat

I agree. The Tories were voted in following the Winter of Discontent. The dead lay unburied, the NHS was at a standstill and Healey was having budgets practically every six months.

Yes Margaret Thatcher got some things wrong like the Miners Strike and the Poll Tax but she got a lot of things right.
My stepMum comes from the Falklands for example and I knew some people in Port Stanley at the time that I was praying for. My own half-brother went out with the Marines to help liberate them.

She did encourage more reward for more effort. What she cannot be held responsible for is some companies and individuals who used that legislation for their own greed.

Communities started breaking down in the 50's long before Mrs Thatcher.
The only time this country had a real sense of community was during the war when everyone pulled together (and even then spivs were still dealing in the black market for their own greed)
Families were moving away from each throughout the 50's and 60's instead of all living in the same street. That was down to more affordable housing being built after the war.

Every Prime Minister gets some things right and some things wrong, what I object to so much is the additional insults because she is a woman.

 

[Gwylan]

Its alright being wise after the event, but people voted for Thatch in their millions and rightly so as there was no credible alternative. I believe several of the elections were landslides so she must have been doing something right in the eyes of the voters. Some of us actually lived in Britain in the seventies with the 3 day week, Industrial strikes of one kind or the other every day, as a boy I remember the electricity going off and sitting with candles for hours on end....

The three-day week and the power cuts were under the Heath government ie a Tory one. Not sure what that has to do with credible alternatives.

Thatcher never won a majority of the votes, it's just that the opposition was deeply divided (as is indeed is the case with the Blair government today - the difference is that today's parties are all very similar so Blair is almost leading a coalition, Thatcher's governments ruled by emphasising divisions).

 

[Kent Seagull]

I'm with Kent Seagull on this one.

I grew up with someone who ripped apart not just towns in The North, but a fair few down south. The miners dispute, and the arguments still are apparent in South-east Kent.

Kent lost three pits. All producing good quality coal. It was alleged at the time that the Kent miners were as militant as their counterparts in Yorkshire. I still know of many miners who "flew" to Doncaster, and whilst they weer on strike pay, other working people gave what they could to the fighting fund. Not just money but food and clothing.

After the pits went, the Gatic iron foundary went. Then there was the ferry strike, as she wanted to crush the NUS. Follow that with the selling of the railway, hence closing Dover Marine Station, and loosing the boat-train (Golden Arrow service) she did a fantastic job on destroying my home town. Dover, and south-east Kent has never recovered from that woman, and sadly I doubt it ever will.

As a part of my job I spend around £40K a year on buying coal. Apart from 3 pits in Scotland there is no Bristish coal available that is suitable for the use I put it to (Steam locomotives). Before the miners strike there were around 180 pits producing British coal, now there are only 8. History has no proved that Scargill was absolutely right and the Tories are just a bunch of lying twisters. Combine this with the immense damage they inflicted on the railway industry means there is no way I could ever vote for them.

 

[shingle]

Well said Yorkie

 

[Meade's Ball]

People can be bought with the promise of lower income tax and an unmovable leader. We are not known for our long-term perspectives. Now, we complain about the services she privatised and how no one takes responsibility for the problems.

I don't think it's an added thing that she is a woman. Although how ugly she was is irrelevant, of course, and possibly typical of how women are immediately judged. But everyone remembers Gorbachev as a blotch-headed ruskie.

 

[Simster]

History has no proved that Scargill was absolutely right and the Tories are just a bunch of lying twisters.

Scargill was wrong. He said that if they didn't stand up to McGregor and Thatcher then 50,000 miners and would lose their jobs in the next 10 years. In actual fact, it was about 75,000.

And Yorkie, I find it a bit rich that Thatcher apologists are whinging because she is getting certain insults just because she's a woman. In fact I'm quite bitter about it, not least because I still think Neil Kinnock is the best leader of the opposition not to have been elected. If he had looked and sounded like B liar, he'd have strolled into office, but because he was Welsh, Ginger and opposed some of the worst excesses of capitalism that Thatch and Tebbit encouraged, the media jumped on him and demonised him - using his looks and "Welsh windbag" sound as their most potent weapon. (I'll never forget the way he took on Derek Hatten at the Labour party conference in the '80s, getting rid of the militant scum blighting the party.)

I saw a queue about 100 metres in length outside Books Etc just off Leadenhall in the City about 3 years ago. The queue was policed by at least 8 police officers that I saw, you'd have thought Royalty was in town, except it was just Maggie signing her autobiography. Proof - if needed - that you either loved her or hated her. And lets face it, she never got in with more than 34% of the vote. Food for thought...

 

[shingle]

GWYLAN

Come on, You know fully well the point that I'm making

When the General elections came around 79, 83, 87 etc, there were no credible alternatives to Margaret Thatcher, the Labour Party was deeply divided, Neil Kinnock was no match for thatch, at the time she was simply the best around by miles

 

[SM BHAFC]

Thatcher a British heroine no doubt, dragged the UK into the 20th century after the sad bad old days of Labour in the seventies turned this country around and and gave everyman a chance of success if they were willing to take it.

She was the perfect person for the job at the time, Labour in the seventies were killing this country and she sorted it by the tiem she was stabbed in the back this country had never been so prosperous.

 

[looney]

Individually, they are no doubt as honest as they day is long.

But Thatcher's legacy is that she turned "dealing with Futures" into a respectable profession, whose exponents now control the whole economy - when the reality is that they are nothing but gamblers who play with other people's money (and, more often than not, lose it).

Time was when hard graft and manual labour were the foundations of the economy. These days, you're a failure if you aspire to manufacture something. You certainly won't be rewarded, or housed.

Its sad that no-one has explained to you the purpose of futures markets assuming your not being deseatful as usuall.

Futures markets act as a form of Insurance against price fluctuations which reduce the Risk/costs faced by businesses who wish to plan ahead when ordering stock, that would be...er..Manufacturing businesses as well as banks, services tend not to export so it doesn't apply to them. I can also add it reduces the need for a single currency.


If you were refering to derivatives markets you would be on firmer ground, Barings etc. I doubt thatcher is responsible for either as they were a product of technological change, remember big bang in 86?.

Thatch was a chemist and politician not an economist.We owe thanks to her she began sorting out the pensions or we would be in as deep shit as the backward Eurotrash.

 

[Simster]

I totally agree with you Looney!! (apart from the bullshit last sentence of course )

 

[looney]

I totally agree with you Looney!! (apart from the bullshit last sentence of course )

Maybe you should look up German pension liabilities over the next 50 years and compare them to the UK.

The eurotrash are living in cloud cuckoo land and will have to face up to the problem at some point.

 

[zefarelly]

I couldnt agree more Simster, well said !

Individually, they are no doubt as honest as they day is long.

But Thatcher's legacy is that she turned "dealing with Futures" into a respectable profession, whose exponents now control the whole economy - when the reality is that they are nothing but gamblers who play with other people's money (and, more often than not, lose it).

Time was when hard graft and manual labour were the foundations of the economy. These days, you're a failure if you aspire to manufacture something. You certainly won't be rewarded, or housed.

now that is a hardened fact, manufacturing and industry used to be the back bone of this country . . . .think Industrial revolution . . . .now its almost entirely unviable, it may be cheaper out east, but by the time its been shipped, re-engineered and repackaged, reshipped and sold I seriously doubt, in fact I know, theres not much difference, if any in many cases. . . . .but companies are all after a quick buck because everything was sold off for shares and ultimate profit in the 80's, exclusively to the detriment of the general workforce, we are turning into a spineless country of serviceworkers, we have a national shortage of skilled tradesmen, because people think a tinpot degree is the be all and end all, and those of us with genuine working skill are being overlooked and underrewarded by paper qualified junior management, because they have a tin pot degree and its a kind of 'recruitment security' for people whio cant personally assess skills and attributes.

 

[looney]

Btw

Youe Gay avatar suits you simster.

http://www.funnysexypics.com/gallery/adultpics/150

 

[looney]

I couldnt agree more Simster, well said !




now that is a hardened fact, manufacturing and industry used to be the back bone of this country . . . .think Industrial revolution . . . .now its almost entirely unviable, it may be cheaper out east, but by the time its been shipped, re-engineered and repackaged, reshipped and sold I seriously doubt, in fact I know, theres not much difference, if any in many cases. . . . .but companies are all after a quick buck because everything was sold off for shares and ultimate profit in the 80's, exclusively to the detriment of the general workforce, we are turning into a spineless country of serviceworkers, we have a national shortage of skilled tradesmen, because people think a tinpot degree is the be all and end all, and those of us with genuine working skill are being overlooked and underrewarded by paper qualified junior management, because they have a tin pot degree and its a kind of 'recruitment security' for people whio cant personally assess skills and attributes.

The same arguements used to apply to agriculture which employed well over 50% of the population in 1850, it is now less than 2%. Its called progress which means you have to adapt. contrary to the Vulgar Marxist veiw Services do generate wealth which at the end of the day is what is needed to pay for everything.

Read my response to bracknell to see why he is wrong.

 

[Simster]

looney, I can't see that site here at work but no doubt it was HILARIOUS.

(To be honest I don't know enough about the pension situation before and after Thatcher, but I can't take it your anti EU guff seriously. "eurotrash" my arse - you're talking about seriously powerful economies.)