People who think Margaret Thatcher was good...why?

[malificent7]

I have s tory froend who worshipd Margaret Thatcher and cried when she died...just why? Can anyone explain please?

She is loathed by most scots. Frankie Boyle summed it up by saying we didn’t need a state funeral ‘just hand everyone in Scotland a shovel and we’ll hand her over to Satan personally!’

Never understood why people are so upset the mines have closed. Would you want your family to work down there?

That’s all well and good but what did they have or do to rebuild the economy of those communities afterwards?

Never understood why people are so upset the mines have closed. Would you want your family to work down there?

My dad’s family all worked in the pits. Proud, hardworking men who supported one another. Those communities lost more than work, they lost their pride, dignity and self respect.

Another aspect of Margaret Thatcher's skill in making people believe the spin was about the EU, seen as tough and slightly Eurosceptic.

Part of the cabinet that took us into the EEC (as it was then).
Her government agreed the single market.
Her government agreed free movement (which at the time was largely out of the UK to places such as the Spanish coastal areas).
Her government agreed the rule that VAT once imposed cannot be completely removed (so we have the so-called tampon tax).

For me there were five good things only about her time in office:
The first woman prime minister
A person who liked to be on time
Proved politics can change things
Abolition of composite rate tax on savings
Abolition of the dog licence.

Because she deregulated the City and London became the financial centre of the world (still is), creating thousands of jobs and economic growth in the 80s.

"...horribly dirty and dangerous jobs digging coal..."

Quite.

And look at how many miners successfully claimed compensation for ill health & shortened lives due to disease arising from years spent in coal mines.

I bet that there are 10,000s of former miners (and people who would have become miners) who are still alive today thanks to Margaret Thatcher; and that she saved the lives of more miners than anyone else in history.

that she saved the lives of more miners than anyone else in history

To do what? There are communities in the north east with three generations of unemployment. Towns like Hartlepool where the only work available is wiping old people’s arses. Thousands of people deprived of earning an honest living to fuel ideology.

The 70s had been horrific. Strikes. No gas. No public transport. She came in and sorted it out. There was optimism. The 80s were booming.

She was a woman who didn't take shit from anyone and there was no better proposition at the time.

"...wiping old people’s arses..."

I find this comment very saddening, Alsohuman. I would say that caring for such vulnerable & needy people is a profoundly dignified and worthwhile way to earn a living.

I would invite you to reflect on how dismissive you have just been to such fine & valuable people as our Care Workers.

She got stuff done. Bad stuff, but nevertheless. She made the turkeys feel good about themselces.

My dad’s family all worked in the pits. Proud, hardworking men who supported one another. Those communities lost more than work, they lost their pride, dignity and self respect

Bollocks!! Everyone was happy when the mines closed. The miners who were young enough to find alternative employment did. Widows were compensated for their husbands being blown up in the course of their work.

It's disgraceful how people think working underground was a great thing.

Thank God the pits were closed down. Too many people, including young boys, were blown up underground. It wasn't employment to be proud of 😢

Hopefully men and boys will never have to do that dirty, disgusting, menial, scary, hazardous, soul destroying job ever again. I wouldn't want my father, brother, husband, teenage sons or 6 year old working underground. Would you?

@Alsohuman disgusting comment

So you know those people do you @TheGardenFairy? The miners and their families were heartbroken when their livelihoods were torn from them. Of course it wasn’t “a great thing” to work down a pit but it was an honest living and the communities that depended on it were close knit and supportive.

Thatcher and Scargill, not to mention Macleod were responsible for the devastation of great swathes of the north east, midlands and Wales which still haven’t recovered 35 years later.

Also she enabled millions of council tenants to become homeowners and ordinary people to own shares

And how did that affect the availability of council housing for those who needed it?

This is trash bait.

I will bet my house on Tories blaming the last labour government is ridiculed.

@MNHQ needs to clamp down on obvious activists threads, despite the political leaning it needs to be curbed now. it became a joke on 2008, it has just got worse. with the faux innocence.

Many council houses were bought by the reasonably well off children of elderly parents. Profiteering and destroying/losing the social housing of the nation.

TheGardenFairy are you Serious? The only person I know who was happy about the miners strike was a senior police officer friend from the met who made a fortune in overtime allowing him to increase his property portfolio.
Vast areas of the country were plunged into depression with huge unemployment, no prospects, communities ripped asunder and decaying housing.

You lefties are gluttons for punishment on MN at the moment.

Why don't you forget you lost for a minute and go out and have some proper fun?

These threads won't make the election result go away!

(oops) and it will never be a good thing that an area's job pool is limited to jobs like that. I find other poster's disregard as to how valuable mining was to communities like the one my parents grew up in far more saddening than a poster not bending over backwards to sing the praises of a job for which I was underpaid, overworked and never thanked.

Because she was a damn sight better than the shower of shit that went before her.

TheGardenFairy are you Serious? The only person I know who was happy about the miners strike was a senior police officer friend from the met who made a fortune in overtime allowing him to increase his property portfolio.
Vast areas of the country were plunged into depression with huge unemployment, no prospects, communities ripped asunder and decaying housing

Yes. Im serious! I guess you voted on the say so of one person you knew in the early 70's then? I'm guessing none of your relatives were blown up while working underground? Maybe you'd like the mines to be reopened. Would you shove your son into the cage and force him underground to work?

Gah, first part of the post missing.
*I find this comment very saddening, Alsohuman. I would say that caring for such vulnerable & needy people is a profoundly dignified and worthwhile way to earn a living.

I would invite you to reflect on how dismissive you have just been to such fine & valuable people as our Care Workers.*

As someone who has worked as a care worker and has frequently using the term "wiping old people's arses" to describe my job, I'm with Alsohuman on this one. It may have been valuable to society and an honest job but I still hated it.

I did it because, in the area I lived in at the time, there were almost no other jobs and I was in no position to move away. It will never be a good thing that an area's job pool is limited to jobs like that. I find other poster's disregard as to how valuable mining was to communities like the one my parents grew up in far more saddening than a poster not bending over backwards to sing the praises of a job for which I was underpaid, overworked and never thanked.

@MissingLinker, I apologise for my turn of phrase. It wasn’t intended to be offensive. Like you, I’m very angry that people try to rewrite history and turn devastation of huge swathes of the country into virtue.

She deconstructed the steel , coal, car tec industries because they were costing the state too much and vastly unprofitable.
People stopped buying British cars because they were inferior and expensive compared to foreign cars.
She put and end to unions controlling the workplace and put an end to workers demanding the right to go to work and produce nothing because assembly lines had to stop as no one was buying what they produced. Unions were calling strikes because they felt workers had the right to go to work and even sleep on their shifts as there was nothing to do and still expect to be paid!
But yes, she was a tough one... even thought VAT on sanitary products was a good idea.
Previous labour government almost crippled the nation ... “Winter of Discontent.”