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!).

Tondelayo... Generalising much?

Blu - France were still selling arms to Iraq after 1998 (weapons inspectors being booted out).

Hear hear Blu

melodyangel - I hope you don't have children.

the idea that unionists think about other people than themselves and their own narrow interests is one of the funniest things I have read on here.

Well, that's a personal opinion that I clearly disagree with.

As for socialists thinking we have a collective responsibility to one another - when will you learn that you can't legislate people into being 'nice'??

I'll forgive your patronising tone and calmly state that it's not about legislating to be 'nice'. It's about being decent and treating other as you would be treated yourself - fairly.

Socialists don't care about the poor at all - it's their relative position to the rich that fixates them so. If the poor got poorer, they wouldn't give a stuff...so long as the rich lost more money still.

Well, I'm a Socialist and I don't feel this way so it might be possible for me to surmise that other Socialist may feel the same as me.

@Pascoe
"Why anyone would want to advertise their mean-spirited nature like that is beyond me."

Well Pascoe, as someone very wise once said you can't legislate people into being nice.

She closed down the pits and destroyed the North in order to win a battle with Arthur 'Twat' Scargill (don't get me started on him. Plank.) and bring down the unions.

She ripped the heart out of half the bloody country because she felt the unions were too powerful and wanted to grind them underfoot and put the northern oiks back where they belonged - servicing their Betters for little pay and no rights.

So yes, I hate her.

I also hate Scargill, who played right into her hands.

So what do UK socialists believe these days then? What are their actual policies? Genuine question. I used to be able to just read the Labour Party Manifesto to find out but that's not really very reflective of socialism these days.

Why do people assume that people who hate Thatch are socialists? I hate her and I'm not.

Katie Hopkins likes her!

I don't hate Thatcher as such any more. She's an old woman. But I do hate pretty much everything she ever did to this country. I'm not looking back at the Seventies with dewy eyes here. We were poor, but people managed their finances on a weekly basis and for the most part families lived within their means. Once Thatcherism took hold, if you were one of the ones struck by the mass unemployment that was the 'price worth paying', you were pretty much fucked.

Sorry Lying I just remembered that Kenny Everett campaigned for her and he seemed nice. I'm struggling otherwise.

"Hate" seems to come very easily to some people. Those who plan to "celebrate" her death in some way - did you do the same for Saddam Hussein, someone about whom there was no doubt he was genuinely "evil"??

I come from a Welsh, British-Steel dependant family. When learning to talk I learnt 'fatcher baddie' off my mum (I don't think she specificly taught it to me, I just picked it up from the rants)

I'm tempted to go to her state funeral, just to check she's really dead and possibly to throw something

I'm sure her family will be delighted.

I do think people forgot what itwas like before 1979. My dad was doing 3 day weeks in a factory way before MT came to power. We were living with wage cuts before she wa in charge. Labour weren't doing a great job either. TBH none of them ever do it would seem.

sorry this is from way up the thread niceguy

'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.'

anyone remember the Political Obit sketch from Not the Nine o clock News? Fabulous. Can't find it on Youtube unfortunately.

I did at the time, but have come to realise she was a strong woman with determination and would not be swayed by PC crap

something we could dearly do with now :(

Strange how the torys have changed. We have the big society now.....all doing our bit for our neighbours. Back in Mrs T's time there was no such thing as society. Make money and stuff everyone who can't.

The thatcherites are still there of course. She is still loved by many. I can sort of understand why the rich admired her, but why did so many working class vote for her.

I'm from an east midlands market town very similar to the one which produced her......many here still insist she's the best PM ever.

the thing is that the uk is just naturally a bit screwed, and has been for decades.

Apart from financial services, we're just that competitive at anything. I'm quite surprised that things arent worse than they are.

Ah yes, the Big Society - everyone doing their bit and 'utlising' charities.

As one of the lead stories on the lunchtime news is the closure of hundreds of Sure Start Centres.

Maggie'll be delighted that her policies and legacy continues....

My dad once called me 'Thatchers child'. It was the ultimate insult he could think of and TBH it did sting a bit..........

Can you imagine what it would have been like without her? I think she had balls and was better than having a labour government at the time

Oh I wish there was a rolling around the floor laughing emoticon

big society is the spin they are putting on "you're on your fucking own, mate. No money coming from us." I can't think of anything more pure tory.

"No such thing as society" is always quoted out of context. A few years ago I was sufficiently intrigued to look up the whole quote.

here it is

(I wanted to use it in a book. Interesting copyright dilemma over the use of words from interviews, which I won't bore you with, but the upshot was that the MT Foundation owns the rights and asked for a considerable donation to charity for using it, which I wasn't in a position to afford.)