To think that these T-shirts are disgusting?

[GreenD]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19560284

Whatever you may think of her, this is hardly in good taste is it? It just makes the unions look bad to have this sort of thing on sale at their conference. Can you imagine the CBI having T-shirts looking forward to the deaths of Tony Benn, or Shirley Williams, on sale at their conference?

*She did do more damage. Firstly, because she was in office so long.

Believe me, there is no love lost between me and Blair, either. But he didn't mess up generations of families, whole cities (except some overseas).*

Oh well, as long as it was just those overseas who lives were destroyed then thats ok then

And the reason that Thatcher was in power for so long was because she was democratically elected to be so.

Things were just fucking peachy from 74-79 in Britain werent they.....

(Not a fan of Thatcher particularly by the way).

That first bit is a quote, my bold went a bit wrong!

maybe it's not bullshit - it did happen - doesn't mean she is talking about your dad though does it

SOME police behaved appallingly, so did some strikers and some 'scabs' - but the pay packet / overtime boasting to the faces of people who couldn't feed their kids - did happen

what happend to your dad is awful and no one would condone that

Toughasoldboots - yes, the police are all princes aren't they? why don't you ask all the former mining communities what they think of the police actions back then. did daddy tell you that they were all standing passively and the horrible miners got shirty with them? did your dad and his pals get a massive pay rise to put them in hock to the tory government? nice that someone got good treatment from the tories.

Hate the vile loathsome Thatcher, but don't much care for the t-shirts

Also agree that John Smith was the best prime minister we ever had.

never
Sorry, it's late, I'm tired!

South Yorkshire police paid out half a million on compo to Miners who where at Orgreave - the police where not angels

Sorry saltnpepa that bit about overseas was not meant to imply that I didn't care but that Blair didn't care. Sometimes sarcasm doesn't work when you're writing not speaking. I really do care about what happened overseas. Children dying in Iraq matters just as much as children dying anywhere.

can you tell me why you think bob crow is a hero of mine? how do you reach that conclusion? who is bob crow to me.
the police were employed by the government to do violence to desperate people who were losing their whole communities, is your dad proud of that? are you proud of that? as long as you were okay, everything is okay. what about my question about the police getting nice fat pay rises, did your dad get one? is that why maggie is your hero?

my mum was a student / cleaner - we where on free school meals as well - it is a competition?

later on she was a teacher - 1984 she graduated - we where no better off

creighton Tough has just clearly explained that the violence was not just one sided and her dad was seriously injured. Why are you being so aggressive and putting words in her mouth?

Of course they're in bad taste; they're meant to be in bad taste! That's what T shirts like this are for: to cause comment and outrage.

I find all the huffy puffy offended nonsense to be rather put on in order to detract attention from the conference itself. Lady T herself would probably be delighted at all the notoriety. She never courted public opinion and popularity and I can't see her starting now. She'd have been delighted at his business sense, surely.

What I find far more offensive and disgusting are the numerous 9/11 "jokes" circulating today.
Op, I think you should reserve your contempt for those instead of being professionally offended on behalf of a dear little old lady who is still quite capable of eating you for breakfast!

GreenD I'm just going to tell you a couple of experiences from my childhood and ask whether you think I've got a right to feel hatred towards the woman who, in my opinion, was the person whom caused it.

Withiin the space if six weeks every man in my family -none of whom had ever been unemployed before-was out of work. The shipyards were closed. My DU couldnt cope with shame of being unable to provide for his family and had a nervous breakdown, closely followed by his wife who had electric shock therapy in a second rate hospital. (Good enough for the scum of the NE though...)

So my mam, a single parent who'd put herself through teaching training college took two extra jobs (cleaner and barmaid)to help financially support my seven DC.

That means we lost our house. Interest rates went sky high under Thatcher and mam was unable to keep her head above water. Many of my earliest memories nvolved hiding from debt collectors. We always had enough to eat but looking back I know mam didn't.

You know that milk she stopped. Well at my school they were kind enough to let us take it home as they knew people were going short. It helped us so it was taken away.

You say Thatcher brought progress? Well I'd invite you to visit the once thriving communities in county Durham where there's never been jobs since and now there are three generations of families trapped in cycles if benefits and poverty.

I'm one of the lucky ones. The experiences of my childhood meant I was bloody determined to try and be secure. I'm a saver and get n to no debt. I worked hard, got in to a good Uni and got a good job. Three weeks ago I completed on a house for my DM to live in. The experience is losing her home meant she has lived in rented accommodation ever since and I didn't want her on a pension and the rent going up. But I never feel safe. I count money religiously. I'm not miserly but going into my overdraft makes me panic. I know how fragile financial security is and it terrifies me.

Not all my cousins have made the same successes of their lives. The ones who were reaching school leaving age during Thatcher's time are worse. There was no jobs for them and all have had long periods of unemployment. She left a generation behind n much the same way the Tories are doing now.

Sorry for the long post everyone, but GreenD, if you think I will feel anything but joy when the woman I consider the cause if childhood emotional distress dies, you are as crazy as she was.

Sorry for the mega long post everyone!

And also the iPad induced typos.

dominodonkey you have a selective reading ability. i explained the miners strike situation tough got pouty because i explained how the police were used to attack the miners who were losing everything. this is of no import to her. other people do not count.
she put words in my mouth, bob crowe, who is he to me? how did you miss that post?

the police are used by the government to attack people even when they are protesting peacefully. is that not the truth?
there is no anti-police hijack, the police played an integral part in oppressing the miners. i was an adult when this happened. i am not making anything up.
the miners strike is an important point in why many adults say they will dance on mt's grave when she dies. obviously you weren't affected so you don't care to understand why people feel this way.

tough, stop pouting, i know you can't believe it but this thread is not about you or the police it is about margaret thatcher and why people react so strongly towards her.

Thanks for sharing that RowanHart. I think people forget that it wasn't individuals losing their job. Someone could move or change jobs or claim benefits. It was whole families, whole communities.

I know it's from Wiki so excuse me... The 1994 European Union inquiry into poverty classified Grimethorpe in South Yorkshire as the poorest settlement in the country and one of the poorest in the EU.[48] The county of South Yorkshire was made into an Objective 1 development zone and every single ward in the City of Wakefield district of West Yorkshire was classified as in need of special assistance.[49] In Merseyside, the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, had contained the "Cronton" pit and the neighbouring Metropolitan Borough of St Helens contained Sutton Manor, Bold and Parkside collieries.

Closing the mines and the shipyards and the factories caused misery. Maybe it needed to be done but it was done in such a dreadful way. People were desperate and were painted as lazy and greedy and feckless.

OP, do you realise how much you are upsetting people with your comments on this thread. Thatcher is not some abstract issue, she ruined whole communities. You seem surprised that people care about this - but it was only 30 years ago.

Two points:

1. You ask why she was voted in if she was so unpopular. That was to do with our particular system of voting without proportional representation, the way constituencies were (and to some extent still are) unequal in terms of the number of people voting in each one - with tory MPs generally frequently representing smaller numbers of people, and the existence of two other political parties which split the vote making it difficult to defeat the tories.

1. You say industry was shut down because it was unprofitable. For many communities, this was not the case. Certainly in my one industry home town, the industry was highly profitable but Thatcher closed it anyway for political reasons.

Unlike Margaret Thatcher's family, who are unlikely to be reading this thread, numerous people on here saw their families, friends and towns damaged by Thatcher's actions, and your ill informed remarks are offensive to them. So perhaps if you are so concerned with what is and is not disgusting, you might want to familiarise yourself with how much people still care about what happened and you might (although I'm not hopeful) think about their feelings.