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!).

tampons are a spend choice?

Post of the week goes to Grace!

Excellent post Grace.

What about adult clothing? Or should we walk around naked and barefoot?

Tampons I have a huge issue with as conversely, razor blades are exempt.

Thatcher was a vile woman. How sad that the first female British prime minister was so awful. People with a conscience and empathy for their fellow citizens who lived through the eighties can never forgive her.

If a student of politics can't see how dreadful she was then I despair!

Grace your statement is worthy and idealistic and frankly unaffordable.

On Monday HMRC will cash lots of peoples cheques, and they will send out reminders for those that havnt paid. They show no mercy, they never have.

At some point in my lifetime I would like to see he who pays the piper calling the tune...albeit with a sense of personal responsibility NOT a sense of entitlement.

It wasn't unaffordable, Alouise. I'm not describing an imaginary Utopia, I'm describing the British economy in the 1960s - arguably the most affluent period in our history. What went wrong was bad management, not bad policy.

Grace, brilliant post. A standing ovation from me.
I'm getting a bit sick of reading posts from supporters of Thatcherism who assume anyone with a social conscience is milking the system at their expense. Leftwingers have to pay tax on their earnings as well, you know.

Thanks. I'm reassured to know there are still some people who can see the bigger picture!

In the 1960's we hadn't got a clue about the kind of costs involved with treating diseases. Life expectancy was lower and geographically variable. The advent of the NHS was needed and demanded but it "it" thought that diseases could be vaccinated against and broken bones could be healed.

It was a double edged sword that gave us drug therapies, cancer treatments, and new, as then, undiscovered illnesses. Mental health was treated with a blunt instrument and mortality was a given not a litigious issue.

Life has changed since the war ended and longevity and immigration are putting pressure on a broken and unsustainable system. Unless we are prepared to ration or age limit drug therapy and treatment we have to accept that the NHS is bust.

I am only answering the OP, not getting into the offshoot arguments!

We are still dealing with what she did.

The reason there is so many problems with the lack of council housing is because she authorised them being sold off. The reason the NHS is still on its knees is because of the policies she authorised and it has never recovered. The banking fiasco is another one. The poll tax riots happened for a reason, it wasnt just middle class people being pissed off.
It was a fucking nightmare and one from which it will take decades to recover, if we ever do.

A hell of alot of the problems we have now can be directly traced back to that period and her government.

Oh FFS come the revolution she's third or forth up against the wall.

She killed communities, created the current economic mess we find ourselves in (admittedly 'Labour' did NOTHING to put this right).

Encouraged the 'me' culture we live in.

Spat on women trying to get ahead and did nothing for our sex whatsoever except confirm the stereotype that you have to act like a man to get ahead.

Her 'legacy' will be felt for many years to come.

Any spelling mistakes etc. are due to the incoherent rage and high blood pressure this just caused!

NextTimeIMightTellYouWhatIReallyThinkOfHerTiggaxx

Answer me: Whywas there an uprising about poll tax and not against the Rates that preexisted before them???

Amicissima, you said There have been people sleeping rough where I live over the last 13 years. There still are today. I'm still waiting for a 'caring' government to help them.

13 years ago = 1998, 19 years after Thatch was first elected. There has been no caring government since 1979.

I benefited from the '80s economy. I noticed, however, that every time I sashayed from a yuppie bar to the taxi rank, I had to step over more and more homeless folk. While I was a kid, the only homeless people were homeless by choice - I'm not kidding. It's probably hard for anyone under 40 to imagine or believe.

I hate hate her and cannot see why anybody else would not hate her. She is a monstrosity, I cannot imagine why anybody would not hate her after the way she wrecked the country.

Itsgrace - it's true, I told DP's brother (28) that homelessness appeared as a phenomenon in th 80's and he didn't believe me. He couldn't conceive of a society without homelessness. Nor could he understand that a bus driver and a top tanked foreign office civil servant could happily live side by side on a council estate. But this was the case where i grew up.

Our society is broken into 'haves' with a huge sense of entitlement and 'have nots' who have no idea what they are missing.

Been thinking about the 'go where the jobs are' argument (can't bring myself to quote Tebbit!)

Let's say you lived in a community that was dependant on one industry (Wales / Mining; North East / ship building etc). The entire communities welfare was dependant on it's success, eg, shops reliant on wages being spent in them. That industry is closed, stopped, shut down - resulting in mass unemployment and no wages being spent. Shops shut down, pubs (community hubs) pout their last pint and social centres can't afford to open.

Cue mass recession / ecomonic depression in said area.

There is - at the same time - money being spent on new industry - IT for example. BUT it's in the South East. Miles and miles away from you and your family and friends. You could move. Except...

... You live in a council house. You could put in for a transfer. Except there are no council houses left in the South due to the Right To Buy policy.

And moving costs money. Which you don't have. Because your livelihood has been taken away. And not replaced.

But people who didn't get on thier bikes (there, did it!) and get on board with the 'gung-ho, 'me, me, me' ideology were just lazy, right ?

Apparently the witch will be getting a state funeral - so if we are going to be paying for her funeral, I am assuming that we will be free to go and dance on her grave?

I used to hate her until about the mid-90s - then I read a biography of her (and later her autobiography) and realised she was a concerned person who genuinely meant well.

She got a lot wrong, and as someone said upthread, the power went to her head. But she did manage to drag the UK out of socialism.

Very good point about the homeless that I never considered before! The famous "tramp" in my home town was rumoured to be a very intelligent person whose family had died in an accident (possibly caused by him). I don't remember ANY others when I was young. I still remember HIM clearly.

Nowadays the dispossessed are everywhere. I live in Belgium, so none of the homeless I see are down to Maggie, but there were entire families living in the train station before Xmas. The whole world has changed. Migration is common. Indeed WE moved to avoid redundancy.

I thought Maggie to be The 1st PM was equality and seemed promising unfortunately she failed like others. I wonder if I would make a good PM ? Possibly too nice x

LOL and empathy with tigga
'///Alouiseg Fri 28-Jan-11 19:29:50
Answer me: Whywas there an uprising about poll tax and not against Rates that preexisted before them???////
because the poll tax was unfair and oppressive like the er, poll tax before it, and was particularly harsh burden on the poor. The amount of the tax was no longer based on the value of the house (i.e. on capital wealth) to the number of people in it (i.e. irrespective of wealth)
It was actually called the Community Charge

There will be a riot if she has a state funeral. That should never be allowed to happen.

It's all bollocks this attitude the tories have that we are all born equal. Utter bollocks. Some kids are born with a massive disadvantage, poor council housing, local sink schools, mass unemployment, unemployed parents etc etc. Taking away sure start, youth clubs and libraries is going to make these places ghettos. I feel sick and sad just thinking about it.

But she did manage to drag the UK out of socialism

what are you talking about?! We had a Labour govt, not a socialist one.