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!).

oops - I mean ifancyashandy - duh.

Re previous posts - she is widely hated in Scotland not because of her gender or her political allegiance but because of the policies which she inflicted on the country which brought it to its knees.

Quite, nagynolonger. I remember asking my mum in 1981 whether Thatcher would be elected next time, while we were watching the news. To a background of riots in Toxteth and Brixton, the U-turn on mine closures to prevent the first miners' strike, and the daily 'cricket score' of thousands of jobs going (anyone else remember that?), and the Rt Hon Howe burbling on about monetarism, we laughed at the very idea that this bunch of losers could be voted for again.

Thanks, General Galtieri.

(Agreed that Blair is a hate figure -- but he is sure as hell not of the left. He took the Thatcher legacy and ran with it.)

She might have been the first and only woman prime minister but a feminist she certainly wasn't.

It is legitimate to criticise her policies. It is not legitimate to make quips about 'man in a dress'. That says absolutely nothing about Thatcherism, and actually weakens valid criticisms. I would never refer to the sex of Gordon Brown or David Cameron - so why is Thatcher's sex of any relevance whatsoever?

Eleison - true to an extent, but I don't think anybody will be reacting in quite that way when Tony Benn dies. It'll be all "statesman" and "didn't agree with him but he fought for what he believed in", etc. As indeed it should be.

And it certainly won't be true of Blair. The bloody Tories even gave him an ovation when he left the House!

I think she has damaged female politics to be honest. I think that all female politicians (especially Tory ones) always get compared with her, sometimes very unfavourably.

The Falklands and the Miners Strike were both fortunate for MT in that it gave her easy to dislike enemies- even if the miners had a cause, no-one could stand Scargill.

ifancyashandy- so do you think these loss making industries should have been kept open? To an extent I think it would have been the lesser of the two evils, but I also think that the unions would have kept pushing and pushing for more and more and have to take some responsibility.

Also, to those who hate MT, do you also hate TB for not doing enough to reverse these policies- after all, he's meant to be one of the good guys, right?

I mean unfairly, not unfavourably

I think its called empathy. Even if it doesn't affect you directly i would hope one might feel for the ones whose lives were ruined?

No, I don't hate her. It's more of a sense of complete and utter loathing for the way she destroyed, or sold off almost anything of value in this country, while simultaneously wrapping herself in the Union flag and claiming to be a great patriot. Despicable woman.

Also, I was 11 when she was elected and at the time found her really quite scary; she had very cold eyes.

Margaret Thatcher and John Major survived as long as they did by scaring everyone about the economy. I'm old enough to remember them both and to have been working through their recessions (yes - plural!). I remember the fear of losing our jobs was almost continuous with rounds and rounds of redundancies and companies going under - you think it's bad now? You should have seen it then.
I remember inflation being at 15%, my parents being out of work and Mrs. Thatcher telling us there was no alternative. She surrounded herself with advisors like herself: Norman Tebbit is almost as hated with his contemptuous "Get on your bikes and look for work" speech.
I remember boards of house sales that no-one could sell. I remember whole streets of closed shops - have a listen to Ghost Town by the Specials sometime.

Pensioners in those days used to freeze to death in winter because they couldn't afford their heating bills: Mrs. Thatcher's Government advised them to knit themselves woolly jumpers and scarves.

It was their utter contempt of anyone who couldn't manage for themselves and who needed help. She threw thousands on the scrapheap and then dismissed them as scroungers. She sold off BT, gas and electricity, conning us that it was being sold to ordinary people - who were then forcibly bought out by the big players.

It's thanks to her that school dinners were so appalling pre-Jamie Oliver because she scrapped the standards and forced schools to sack their cooks and contract to the cheapest suppliers.

In her previous role in the Heath Goverment, she was called Thatcher the Milk Snatcher after she stopped free milk for all school children. When she was Prime Minister, she was called the Money Snatcher. Her party targeted the weakest and most vulnerable and I see David Cameron is starting to do the same. He's also restarting her policy of selling off and privatising everything that's not nailed down.

What's not to hate about the woman?

No need to hate Tony Benn. At the end of the day, and all his firebrand rhetoric, he's been largely inconsequential.

I live up north....ish Midlands, but still mining communities, think blaming Mrs T for closing the mines is atypical of those who always have to find someone to blame because can't accept that maybe (just maybe) they were partly responsible for it to.What about the actions of Scargill who wanted to expel Notts from the NUM after an overwhelming majority voted against the strike. Miners from Manton Colliery in Notts took NUM to Court as they believed it was an llegal strike - which it was found to be. Msybe the fact the NUM didn;pt pay it's fines and was later sequestered might have contributed.

Those hard done to miners threw bricks and stones at the police who removed their helmets as a mark of respect when my fathers funeral cortege went past. Stones and bricks hit the hearse.

It's strange how the same people have been happy to buy their own homes under right to buy which was passed shortly after Mrs T came to power and to benefit from that - don't here any moaning about that.

You may not agree with her politics, but she is one of the geatest leaders this country has ever had and when compared to the current crop.........there is no contest.

The topic of Mrs Thatcher is highly emotive. I shall bow out now (having ranted) as arguing will not change my opinion nor those who think differently to me.

As an aside I do wonder if we would have devolved parliaments in Wales and Scotland without her? Ironic given that she was a fierce Unionist.

I don't think the hatred has a lot to do with her gender, actually - but a lot of people, both male and female, do seem to resort to using gender-specific vocabulary they would deem inappropriate when directed at any other woman (witch, cow, hag, harridan, evil bitch, etc.) Almost as if it "doesn't count" when it's Thatcher.

I don't want to celebrate her death. The most evil person to die in recent years? Probably Saddam Hussein. I didn't cheer or want to throw a party when he was hanged. It was a rather horrible end to a horrible chapter.

My mum and dad had two bottles of champagne in the cellar, we had the first one when Nelson Mandela was freed and the second one is still there waiting for the day she pops her clogs. I guess that makes me a classic lefty child of the 80s!

I hate lots of other people too, but haven't the cash or the willpower to stock a whole wine cellar on that basis.

op...DUDE! your in wales? DUDE!

well i hate her, shes on my shit list

Bagged and Tagged

"Also, to those who hate MT, do you also hate TB for not doing enough to reverse these policies- after all, he's meant to be one of the good guys, right?"

Yes, I think Blair is beneath contempt too! I stopped voting Labour when he became leader.

and so are boyzone, i hate them equally

"She sold off BT, gas and electricity, conning us that it was being sold to ordinary people - who were then forcibly bought out by the big players."

No- the big players could only come in when the small players sold their shares to them willingly. To do a forced buy out you need +90% shares already and when you start to build a stake you have to declare that stake at 3% so you cant do it by stealth.

Broken Britain is Margaret Thatcher's fault?? I really have heard it all now.

The fact that society has broken down is down to the fact that there are moronic people, without ethics, values or character, having moronic children who grow up without ethics, values or character and the cycle repeats itself...

Do you really think that a Government should do the parenting for you? Perhaps those that think so should stop adding to the disfunctional population... but they never will... those that shouldn't have kids never do seem to recognise it in themselves.

BellBook of course the strike was found to be illegal! Do you honestly think the Judiciary is seperate from the Government in these cases?!

May I suggest you look into the concept of the Guildford Four et al if so...