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!).

I'm the result of the blackouts

There's a bottle of champagne in our fridge against the day she shuffles off.

Margaret Thatcher is a wonderful person and, besides, anybody who spends time 'hating' someone they don't even know is a bit unbalanced anyway IMO.

If Maggie had been in power, instead of Labour, these last 11/12 years this country would not be in the mess it's in now, because she would not have flooded the country with immigrants in the hope of gaining their votes (as Labour did - fact) thus straining our NHS, Schools and jobs market; nor would the economy be in dire straits because she would have given the bankers a sound thrashing before they could flush our economy down the toilet, as they have done.

Gosh, how caring, sharing and non-elitist to boast about how you'll drink champagne when an old lady dies.

I'll have a drink with you Reshape. Were you around during the eighties Gorgeousx? You are talking complete garbage.

sorry should that say Lambrini?

I was a result of the '78 blackouts.

My Dad was the greatest guy on earth. Kind, gentle, wise and educated. He was involved in local politics as a labour councillor for years. He met many politicians of many colours, his absolute favourite being Marjorie Mowlam.

He was hugely respected by all of the local community and after his death they names the local community centre after him, an annual football game takes place in his honour and the college where he worked has a yearly trophy named after him as a special achievement award.

He always maintained he would throw a street party the day Maggie Thatcher died.

She did some evil things to make a good man feel this way, and therefore, she must be evil imo.

I'm just sad that my lovely Dad will never get to hold that street party.

We always have champagne in because whenever DH puts a bottle into the fridge to chill it gets taken out to make room for the shopping before we remember to drink it.

Hey, I'll take what I can get to feel young now

Will you lot please stop putting champagne in fridges.

It totally ruins it

[will no one think of the bubbles emoticon]

I hate her. I cannot put into words just how much I despise and deplore her for what she did to this country. Aside from everything else she set womens rights back 20 years.

She's the only person on the planet I wouldn't pour a bucket of water over if she was on fire. In fact I'd get out the marshmallows...

My eldest DC (not bio) goes to 90s nights. Do you know how wrong that is?

no no no
people are allegedly (and must have large fridges) keeping champagne in fridges on the off chance she snuffs it.

It takes 3 hours to chill to a proper temperature : I'm sure sky news will give them plenty of warning so they can take it out of the cellar/winerack.

Facts: the miners strike was voted for by a tiny minority of miners - many thought it was wrong headed in the extreme

It wasn't popular at the time (certainly not where i lived, when hard working mums were told theyd have to take a day of work unpaid to look after their kids because teachers were striking in sympathy.)

i think it is ill-informed 'received opinion' to indulge in Thatcher bashing.

and the comments about rejoicing at her death are juvenile and tasteless - bordering on unlawful where they lean towards incitement to murder.

The Uk was not a rich country in 1979 - it was a coutnry with deep economic problems - an economy twenty years behind he competition without a means of getting back in - strike action stalling all progress. she got on top of that. She recognised the need for change.

She was voted in three times for a reason: of he politicans of he time, she was the only one equipped to do something about it.

For those of you who take her policies as some kind o personal slight - bear in mind this - My folks became medically underweight under the Callaghan government - to villify him for that would be politicaly naive - it was jsut what happened. It was a relief that Thatcher got control of the inflation that caused that though.

The right to buy was initially established with funding ringfenced for builing new housing. 13 years of labour and that wasn't re-established - whose fault is that?

The end to the enormous levels of industrial disruption just came too late for much Uk heavy industry - British Leyland for instance had been in decline since the 50s.

But those of you who want to attack the only woman ever to hold the office of prime minister- think on this - no man in politics has been treated the same way by posterity. Is it not mysogyny?

wordsonascreen.

Does it? I don't actually like champagne that much.

Yeah, I know that celebrating someone's death in that way is indefensible. She's decrepit and has dementia. All the same.

(I wrote a bit more to try and justify this, and deleted it. You're right - it is nasty. But. So was she. I have no leg to stand on here, but it's interesting that I'm not alone.)

(born in 1973,btw)

She was a power hungry, mis-informed, bubble living tyrant. She had balls but that's neither here nor there when you use them to make the wrong decisions.

The mines should not have closed. The unions made a bit of an arse of things because of Arthur Scargill but Maggie was determined to bring down the miners to avenge the fall of the previous tory Government.

Council house sales - dreadful decision which we are paying for now. Helped to over inflate the housing market.

Privitisation; loss of manufacturing and heavy industries.

I'll never forget Michael Heseltine when he walked out of the cabinet stating that "the Government wasn't rotten to the core, it was rotten from the core".

ifancy
But you forgot to mention that along with those admirable qualifications, she aquired a condescending, smug attitude that was / is repelent. There was absolutely no humility. And that is a vile characteristic.

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

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

not an ounce of humility in any of them. and yet you gun for MT for it?

I too lived through the Thatcher years and I would hate to see us return to the mean-spirited and selfish attitudes of those times. It's fine to want to do well but not at the expense of others.

I think a lot of the social problems we see now result from the breakdown of working class communities she oversaw.
I come from a large close-knit family in a northern city and grew up surrounded by auntys, uncles, cousins, etc. Now none of us live near each other as we all had to move for work or education and I find it really sad that my DCs have never experienced that level of "community" (despite, I have to say having a very nice life!)

I'm married to a dyed-in-the-wool Tory but think I will be sneaking into the kitchen to drink a sneaky toast when she goes.