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!).

'proud to British' - eh? That covers just about all the PMs we've had surely.

'benefit system' - she created most of it around here (Lancaster)

'Brighton conference' - what a bitch just to carry on as if nothing had happened.

'mining' could have been managed it a totlaly different way.

nope - still hate her

Poll tax only replaced rates? Why no furore about them?

And wasn't new labour pretty 'me, me, me' too with all the 'bling' and consumer overspending?

Caring about the poor is easy, actually doing something to sort out the whole country so that you can afford to help them is hard.

'saved this country from near ruin' - no. she. didn't.

She didnt carry on as though nothing happened - she indicated that some scumbag bomber would not stop her. Very brave. What do you suggest she have done, go into hiding....

whoknows - how would you have managed the mines - poured tax payers money into them and run up a vast debt??

That's a bit like selling the gold reserves at the bottom of the market. Oh.....

And she was in power 20 years ago - what are people who claim to hate her and blame all their troubles on her done about getting a life for themselves?

All the kids round here had to look forward to in the Thatcher year after they left school was a bloody YTS scheme .. don't get me started on that exploitation

Yup, I didn't vote for nu labour either not even in 1997 . I voted libdem throughout TB's premiership, I only voted labour last time in the vain hope of keeping the torys out :( there is no party of the people.

Maybe those who think she was eeeevil are too Northern, poor and poorly educated....

Usualsuspect - I work with young people and the YTS is making a comeback albeit under various names.

'Brighton conference' - what a bitch just to carry on as if nothing had happened.

you'd have preferred it if she'd been cowed in the same way that the Blair govt was by terrorism?

'A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure' (1986) Commons debate.

For that quote alone I despite her for her snide attitude and small-minded approach to society.

Doesn't make it one person's fault though. We have to take collective responsibility for our elected representatives

Anybody who can actually remember the 1970's knows Callaghan had given up and was trying to manage our decline. Britain was one of the poorest countries in Europe in every measure. Mrs Thatcher turned the country round, she put our relationship with Europe on the agenda, she didn't kowtow to them nor did she sell our gold silver.

Doesn't make it one person's fault though. We have to take collective responsibility for our elected representatives

I hate most Tory politicians fairly equally! But my father is a military man and some of the sights he saw and the friends he lost mean her name is mud in my family and a lot of others I know.

"Maybe those who think she was eeeevil are too Northern, poor and poorly educated...."

Wow. Spongefingers, do you have to try hard or does being a twat come naturally to you?

Whoops. There must have been enough I'm alright jack, money grabbing voters to reelect her

..erm, just which politican of recent years wasn't smug. ??

Blair - deeply smug
Brown - quietly smug (and privately violent)
Cameron - v. smug*

Blair, smug? Agreed. And a Tory in all but name.
Brown, quietly smug? (and yes, was shown to be violent twice). Actually, no. Always cames across as a humble and troubled man to me.
Cameron, v smug? Yes and thrice yes.

Apols if others have posted questions to me - just back from RL and will answer if so...

Is she dead yet? I remember Maggie. I remember the miners' strike. I remember her selling off OUR utilities. I remember the Falklands. I remember the terrible decline in the steel industry. I remember Yuppies.

I may have to drink to forget.

Thesecondcoming said "clearly those who think she was good are either too rich or too stupid young or too southern..."

so I thought I'd see what happened if I said the opposite. Why is it okay to call people 'southern' or 'rich' but not 'northern' or 'poor'? Seriously, why? It's not what I think, but why do some people use the term 'southern' as an insult, but if you call someone 'northern' that's just terrible!