to think that surely not EVERYONE hates Maggie?

[LadyOfTheManor]

Seriously, unless you're a miner or from a mining family, or Welsh... ok well even if you are, surely not EVERYONE hates Maggie T?

I'm a tad young, I was born in her "reign", but I did my degree in Politics and although I didn't really live under her (it was Major until I was 11) I couldn't see what she did that was SO terrible-let alone the sheer hostility when her name is mentioned here (in Wales!).

Yes, indeed Ivanhoe I remember well Mrs Thatcher rounding up the poor and sending them to be gassed in concentration camps

Inflation averaged 13% a year, and peaked at 25% in 1975.

News from 70s: "Nationwide power cuts averaged 31 per cent yesterday, with 40 per cent in some areas, and hospitals faced their most critical 24 hours of the strike so far with staff struggling to keep going by candle and battery power" Power cuts due to union strikes.

I am not saying by any stretch that the 1980's under Thatcher were good, but why does no-one look back further, so that the 80s are put into some context?

Delighted to hear it smallwhite cat.

"Thacher was to Britain's poor, like Hitler was to the Jews."

No she wasn't. That is an awful analogy.

It was a load of rubbish that Mrs Thatcher "stole" school milk.

to the demands to end free school milk, Mrs Thatcher said: "I think that the complete withdrawal of free milk for our school children would be too drastic a step and would arouse more widespread public antagonism than the saving justifies." She opposed it but was overruled

I am 52 and I think Margaret Thatcher was OK. She inherited a mess like the latest government has.

That was a link from the beeb, gawd knows why it did that ??

/////Maggie Thatcher,milk snatcher///////

Council house snatcher

Stat pension snatcher.

Minimumn wage snatcher.

Moral decency snatcher.

I will freely admit that I am too young to really remember the Thatcher Years (born in '81), so some people may think I am not qualified to comment.

However, I do find it strange that so many people are willing to sit back and blame Thatcher for everything that is wrong with the country today.
Did it escape people's notice that she has been out of power for nigh on 20 years? There have been ample opportunities to change some of the things she did that people disagreed with. A prime example is the deregulation of the financial sector, yet Gordon Brown gave a speech to the City telling them they needed even less regulation!

That worked out well for us didn't it

No one can claim to be a perfect leader, or a perfect human being, but to portray Thatcher as a tyranical dictator hell bent on destroying the country is living in cloud cuckoo land.

Damn - a couple of people got there first!

Also, my parents are immigrants, and Thatcher was a racist (propping up apartheid in S. Africa being one example), another reason why I despise her.

I grew up in a White working class area of ghe SE and most people thought she was the best thing ghet had ever happened. They bought their council houses and were delighted. These were small business owners, natural Tories supporting low taxation.

I remember the Brixton riots ( my dad worked in one of thr local schools) and the 'bullring' at Waterloo where the new homeless slept in cardboard boxes.

I remember my mum's sadness at 'the closure of adult education classes, youth centres, play schemes.

Also the queuesaround the magistrate court for non payment of poll tax.

I think created more inequality, I saw my estate change over 15

Sorry

I saw my estate change over 15 years and become poorer.

"This is peace time, Thatcher created homelessness, millions were and are still living on the streets and dying on the streets."

Why is the fact that people are living homeless NOW down to Thatcher??!!

Jesus, ivanhoe. Stop justifying that hideous analogy. You are belittling the holocaust, and the suggestion that the imperatives of war are all that separates a genocidal racist from Thatcher is a bit too kind to Hitler.

smallwhitecat - I am no fan of any of them.

//////I am 52 and I think Margaret Thatcher was OK. She inherited a mess like the latest government has.///////

The last Labour government were called New Labour, and they cntinued Thatcher's political agenda.

Your are 52, so you should know the difference betwn traditionl Labour, and New Labour.

Are you happy about the rich and poor devide Thatcher created ?

Long, lingering death is nasty. Painful dental work is more appropriate.

Mrs Thatcher created homelessness?

Millions are living and dying on the streets?

Really ?

Gosh, you Maggie haters are a measured, rational bunch.

Alouiseq....1987. I was bring up 3 DC. DH was working in heavy engineering wondering if the next payday would be the last. Oh and we were paying a mortgage. That's why we view those years differently.