To think that it's perfectly fine to be pleased someone is dead when they caused such a lot of harm?

[LoopaDaLoopa]

So, all these people saying it is inappropriate to speak ill of the dead are all positive and nice about Pol Pot are they? Stalin? Hitler?

Just because someone dies does not make them a nice person.

And did you feel sorry for Saddam Hussain's family? Or did it not cross your mind?

But wasn't her rejoice speech about the recapture of South Georgia and not specifically about deaths of Argentinian soldiers?

Peace process anyone???

Can anyone tell me why the miners, etc were unable to pick themselves up and do another job? I mean, if I lost my job, I would move to somewhere there were more jobs, or retrain. Why are the miners, shipbuilders, other strongly unionised workers exempt?

More and more I get the impression that these awkward, under-producing industries were jobs-for-the-boys, secure for life, didn't matter how badly you performed, work was guaranteed. Heavily sexist, because it really was jobs for the boys.

Why should the rest of a country prop up failing industries? Why can't UK shipbuilders, etc compete with other countries who are doing well in exactly the same industry?

Why is it if you go to one of these ex-mining villages, they are full of prejudiced people still going on about something that happened 30 years ago, when they were young enough to do something else with their lives?

I should say here that my grandfather was a miner, got out of it asap, and encouraged my father to do well at school and never go down the mines.

the 'rejoice' is in reference to Britain reclaiming the Falklands.

lessmiss you know that the 'rejoice' thing is a quotation from Thatcher herself, right?

Framey you will be doing a lot of prancing around at the deaths of various politicians over the years. Ever think of just being reasonable about life and it's misfortunes?

Yeah good for your Dad

Yes, get on your bike

There's no point in arguing with idiots is there?

"What she did for Irish relations with the UK is enough reason to want to dance on her grave alone."

I know, signing the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985 thereby opening lines of communication and co-operation between the two countries, ultimately leading to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. What a cock

Funnily you still haven't explained why you think I'm implausible Abs I am listening to the radio and there have been some interesting discussions about MT's policies. Even moderates were describing her blatant hatred of miners and her selling off of the industries. Our privatised industries are not particularly praised for their brillliance now are they?

Interstingly she was surprised at how selfish the fat cats of the city were after she lowered their taxes.

"There's no point in arguing with idiots is there?"

you said it.

is 'idiots' another word for 'people who dont agree with me'?

That MLK line, out of its context, is hackneyed and homespun and patently not true. The deaths of very few people, comparatively speaking, diminish us. Most deaths are entirely neutral, including those of some of the people we know. Think about it.

Thatcher had her ideology and she had her personality. Both to my mind were abhorrent and she ruined lives in a particular way: she took self-respect and removed it from every equation. For a society whose people were brought up with the value of self-respect as almost paramount, this was disastrous. Not only for those who found they had no more place, but also for those who made money hand over fist but looked like a most despicable lot whilst flaunting it. Horrid times.

LessMiss that would mean actual hard work and aquiring a strong work ethic and ambition though wouldn't it?

Far too much to expect. Blame blame blame is so much easier on the ego isn't it..

It's one thing not to like someone and to not mourn their passing.

It's another thing to gloat and be smug about it when her grandchildren and especially her niece who looked after her in her later years, will be missing her desperately.

The parties were ghoulish. The rejoicing, parties and smugness leaves a bad taste and reflects badly on us as a nation.

FWIW I didn't rejoice at Bin Laden, Saddam or Pinochet despite not agreeing and abhorring things they had done.

The behaviour of people publically rejoicing and holding parties is disgusting and embarrassing, this country is going to the dogs. They ropably don't even have a clue who Thatcher is or wat her policies were. Mst were not even alive whilst she was in office

lessmiss the reason they couldnt just pick themselves up and get another job is that often mining villiages are rural like the one I come from I don't live there now but in those times you couldnt just get another property and up sticks and move. remember these people were some of the poorest in society it was a struggle for my grandparents to feed the kids and put clothes on their backs and shoes on their feet never mind anything else

Sorry, how the Heck do you know she rejoiced.

The Falklands was a war, bugger the idea of exclusion zones, it was an enemy ship near (enough) to the islands and a task force. By any anology we should not have followed a german battleship to south america and waited for it outside the bay of a neutral country in WWII.

At the time the IRA were a terrorist group, murdering civilians and british soldiers alike. Also hunger strike is pretty self inflicted. The fact the blew up the a politician in the car park of the H of P, and killed Mountbatten, makes it wrong that they killed themselves does it?

I think she probably rejoiced at the downfall of scargill, not the decimation of the villages that followed the closure of uneconomic and unprofitable mines. Scargill wanted to bring down the government, fell into a trap and lost, in losing that he lost the whole industry, oh and he will still tell you he won, ergo listen to Arther it isn't he fault because he won, so he must have caused it then.

Sorry but whilst I didn't want to get involved in this debate that posting was just childish nonsense

LessMiss that would mean actual hard work and aquiring a strong work ethic and ambition though wouldn't it

No seriously, my grandfather came from a village in the heart of the Fife mining belt. Even in those days, mining wasn't considered a good job, but something you did if you were a hard working man and nothing else was available to you. You got out as soon as you could if you had any ambition and didn't want to do something dangerous and unpleasant.

But to go back to that village today, still mired in poverty but now benefits and drugs dependent, you would think being a miner was akin to winning the lottery. Still all voting the way their fathers did, and their fathers before them - fat lot of good its done them. Loads of public money pumped in for improvements, better leisure facilities than many private health clubs, so I supposed they've not done too badly.

Except they need people like me, to pay tax. But apparently I'm an idiot.

I agree with your last post LessMiss. A lot of people live in the past, the good times etc and never want to accept they have to move on. A lot of people in that village and similar villages probably follow their parent's footsteps as far as voting is concerned because they haven't got a clue. They're not totally to blame though, politics was never high on the agenda when i was at school. Unless you're educated in these areas or have an interest in current affairs etc then it can be really difficult. You're left vulnerable believing everything that's written in the Daily Scum.

I did mention upthread that the unions closed shops needed changing but it could 've been done more carefully. Removing the mining and shipping industries to China or wherever was shortsighted.

Some people find change really difficult though Abs there must've been some who relocated and retrained but if there are no jobs at all near the place your family lives it must be too expensive to do so.

It pisses me off when that stereotypical view of working class Scotland is portrayed by the people who shout the loudest and who have too much time on their hands. Plenty of people in Scotland did very well out of the Thatcher years and used their profits from their council house sales as deposits for expensive houses. I know several members of my family did. I live in an ex-mining area and I'm surrounded by £400,000 new builds with new cars outside and someone must be buying them. The shops are full of people of working age, during normal working hours, buying stuff. I often wonder if the left wing rhetoric is some form of guilt complex.

There is nothing wrong with selling council houses, nothing at all AS LONG AS the proceeds are used to build new houses for the next generation coming along and not to fund election bribes tax breaks for the rich.
lessmissabs how do you attribute the £400k new builds and cars in your area to maggie who hasn't been Pm for 23 years?
Further the reason why ship building etc failed in this country is largely because of government contracts awarded overseas!!!

The council house sell off was ridiculous. The councils were literally giving them away and not being allowed to build new ones creating a lot of homelessness. Oh I just remembered something else she did which was to centralise the power of the local councils, for a right winger that was a communist policy. She took away our right to democratically remove our councils if we didn't like their policies.

Labour had 13 years to reverse the right to buy council house policy and they never did.

True stressy DH says "she knew the price of everything and the value of nothing"