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AIBU?

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Original poster

to think that surely not EVERYONE hates Maggie?

1001 replies

LadyOfTheManor · 28/01/2011 12:27

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!).

OP posts:
thefirstMrsDeVere · 28/01/2011 17:26

In the 80s I lived in Holloway and worked in Archway and Soho.

There were children sleeping on the streets of Soho. Kids. Archway and Holloway were full of beggers and rough sleepers.

I saw it. It was real.

mrsshackleton · 28/01/2011 17:27

With you all the way UQD

Though the spite and vitriol and puerility manifested by the so-called caring left that made me step back, reexamine my hitherto kneejerk and ill informed political views (left= lovely/ right=root of all evil)and vote Conservative for the first time. And I'm not a Maggie fan either.

Quattrocento · 28/01/2011 17:28

She did an awful lot of good which simply never gets acknowledged. Never voted tory but the country was an absolute mess when she took over. She did some stuff that simply needed doing.

Oh and I agree with UQD. Some of the comments on here are repulsive.

UnquietDad · 28/01/2011 17:30

As I was saying above, there are many on the Left who simply cannot fathom what it is like to think like a person on the Right.

It's not that they see them as different and respect their beliefs and/or take the piss out of them, like vegetarians and meat-eaters. It's not that they just hate "otherness" tribally because it's what you do, like rival football teams. It genuinely is incomprehension.

So what they do is conclude that, because none of the Nice People they know will admit to being a Tory, the only possible way anybody could be one is if they are Eeeeeeevil.

ambarth · 28/01/2011 17:32

Fuck me Alouiseg! getting bitter about homeless kids. How unreasonable.

BuzzLightBeer · 28/01/2011 17:32

bitter and twisted? maybe. Some us lost a lot under Thatcher, easy for you to criticise if you didn't?

I know some perfectly nice people on the right, Thatcher is not one of them though.

Alouiseg · 28/01/2011 17:32

If homelessness was "caused" by Mrs T, then why couldn't Labour "solve" it?

Sometimes these issues are waiting to happen and the catalyst can come from anywhere. Population increased in the late 70's, divorce became commonplace and expectations of housing were increasing.

BuzzLightBeer · 28/01/2011 17:33

because its harder to magic up council houses than it is to sell them all off for a start. Hmm

usualsuspect · 28/01/2011 17:33

I don't think all Tory voters are evil...I do think Thatcher didn't give a toss about the poor though ,and in my mind thats evil

I'm alright jack politics then ..much like todays

UnquietDad · 28/01/2011 17:35

It also absolves you from having to do any kind of meaningful socio-economic or political analysis, or put anything in any kind of historical context. It means you don't have to engage in any kind of intellectual debate about the good/ill of monetarism or meaningfully critique any of the political thinking underpinning the Thatcher years.

Oh, no, it can't be complex. It's simple. It was all caused by one person being naaaaasssssty and eeeeeeeevil. Simples.

If you sleep well thinking like that, I wouldn't want to be you.

TheSecondComing · 28/01/2011 17:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Rocky12 · 28/01/2011 17:37

Oh my God, people wanting to dance on her grave or open bottles of champagne when she dies. It makes me feel sick!

I was brought up in a Labour household, we always put the posters up in our windows saying vote 'Labour' but I am quite a fan of hers for a few reasons:

  1. I think the poll tax was a good idea, why should people that rent not pay for services such as rubbish collection or street lighting?
  1. She was the first woman PM and didnt stand any nonsence, she might not always have been right but she was very proud to be British,
  1. I wonder what she would do about the benefit culture that is sweeping through the country?
  1. When the Tory Government were nearly wiped out after the bomb went off in Brighton I thought she was going to hit the reporter who asked her if the conference was still going ahead. She must have been devestated yet carried on.
  1. Mining was a dying industry, to think we could just carry on with it because someone's father and father's father had been a miner is a little naive.
walkersmum · 28/01/2011 17:37

I'm ashamed to say I voted for Maggie.

I was so wrong awful times, glad to see her gone........

whoknowswhatthefutureholds · 28/01/2011 17:37

good for whom quattro?

Oh people with money I remember now.

whoknowswhatthefutureholds · 28/01/2011 17:38

or those willing to trample on others to make their money.

BuzzLightBeer · 28/01/2011 17:39

TSC.....who me?* On a contentious thread sitting firmly in the far left? Never! Wink

*Blush if you didn't.

usualsuspect · 28/01/2011 17:39

Poll tax a good idea ...dear god, I went on many a poll tax protest its was a bloody awful idea

whoknowswhatthefutureholds · 28/01/2011 17:39

Rocky - that's not poll tax. Thats council tax, the poll tax no longer exists.

Quattrocento · 28/01/2011 17:40

It's not a reasoned thought process though UQD. As you say. It's an emotional reaction.

People forget the winter of discontent, the rubbish on the streets, Britain being bailed out by the IMF, an economy freewheeling downhill, unending power cuts, trade union block votes, the uncollected dead ...

Itsthawooluff · 28/01/2011 17:41

Surely the worst thing she did was give is "Sir" Mark Thatcher - failed coups / dodgy business dealing / can't find his own backside with his hands yet still somehow managed to become multi millionaire.

Does nepotism have one p or two?

mrsshackleton · 28/01/2011 17:41

It was poll tax too - council tax is a watered down version of poll tax

spongefingerssavedmylife · 28/01/2011 17:41

Agree with UQD, all this vitriol just makes everyone uttering it sound ignorant and like sheep following the flock. How stupid to use the word 'hate' for her, save that for Hitler et al. If you must 'hate' anyone, what Gordon Brown for completely fucking up our economy (and no, it wasn't 'the bankers', it was a decade of labour overspending).

Thatcher was a leader, she raised our profile in the world - we still punch above our weight.

She saved the country from near ruin (and guess what, the tories are having to do it again).

The coals mines closed because they weren't financially viable - but the coal is still there and in the future it will be viable to mine again and we'll be very glad that we saved it.

She's a hero.

naughtymummy · 28/01/2011 17:42

I grew up hating her, married in to a dyed in the wool tory family and have been forced to rexamine some of my prejudices. I can now see both sides and that she was simply a sign of the times , much easier to blame all the social ills onto one person than to accept a multifactorial explaination . Having said that I do hate the whole 80's me,me,me culture and can not bring myself to vote conservative because of it.

Alouiseg · 28/01/2011 17:42

Magic? Bricks and mortar.

Particles · 28/01/2011 17:43

It's true - most non -Tory voters couldn't possibly understand what it is to think like a Tory (grin)
A lot of us have consciences.

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