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?

I think she is disproportionately demonised as she was a woman with power that went against all of the “ideals” of what a woman should be I.e. the Victorian and Edwardian visions of the “angel in the home” who are maternal, sweet, women who bend to the will of men.

Could be, for some people. Look at the way Teresa May was treated. For me, Margaret Thatcher is the first PM I remember, so I had no idea that it was unusual.

I am however Welsh valleys born and raised. I remember the Miners Strike. That's where my hatred of her policies come from.

@StoneofDestiny All true.

@StoneofDestiny, absolutely spot on. This thread is just reminding me of exactly how vile she was - and I was one of the people who prospered under her government. She got out in the nick of time, immediately after she resigned we went into recession and there was mass unemployment, negative equity and house repossessions. The seeds of that were all shown on her watch.

Sown, even!

@StoneofDestiny I absolutely agree with you.

And the reason she kept getting voted in by the working class was because a) they could buy their council house at a greatly reduced sum (and then sell it on not long afterwards) and b) they could buy shares in public utilities and sell them almost immediately for a huge profit. There were a lot of people who did very well on those two things, all to the detriment of the country, of course.

Deregulated then stock market, smashed the unions that were strangling industry, got stuck into the IRA and didn't relent to the hunger strikers, encouraged private home ownership encourage people to better themselves, stood strong on the Falklands, opened up the opportunities for TV channels to challenge the BBC hold they had on television

She also won some repayments on our contributions to the EU.

@LightsInOtherPeoplesHouses that’s fair enough. I certainly don’t agree with the way in which the miners were dealt with, but I think in the long term if it hadn’t been for low profit then the mines would have been closed for not being environmentally friendly. It’s the way the mining towns and villages were left to die that’s the problem but other successive governments have been just as neglectful in that sense.

She wasn’t loved in the North. She was hated.

She was responsible for tapping into and exploiting ones greatest motivation; self agency. She knew that people like to own stuff; houses assets shares. She made everyone feel that with hard work we could could all achieve great things.
She got rid off unions and convinced us we didn't need a manufacturing base to our economy. She pretended to be a strong female role model. Had voice training so she was fantastic at scaring people..in the end she became her spitting image character. For many she is the best Prime minister for others her greed is good mantra and disdain for any state ownership changed British thinking for ever.

She fuelled the propaganda machine for the IRA by refusing to let them be heard, no chance of any 'good Friday' style agreement under her governance

I wonder how many of our younger readers are even aware of the farcical situation dictated by Thatcher whereby Broadcasters were banned from broadcasting interviews with elected politicians -
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988%E2%80%9394_British_broadcasting_voice_restrictions

Thatcher never cared about democracy or free speech.

Child of the 80s/90s. I barely knew what MT looked like until I was an adult as my father instantly swore and switched channels whenever there was even a hint of her being face being beamed on the airwaves.

“God forgive them for missing” was his comment at the time of the Brighton bombing. Fast forward to 2019, he reckons Cameron was far worse and Boris will be the worst yet.

Deregulated then stock market
Well that went well, didn't it? Weclome to boom and bust.
smashed the unions that were strangling industry
And then smashed up all the remaining industry
got stuck into the IRA and didn't relent to the hunger strikers,
Claimed not to talk to terrorists whilst do exactly that in secret - liar.
encouraged private home ownership encourage people to better themselves,
Sold off public assets cheap to greedy opportunists who thought it made them clever capitalists

stood strong on the Falklands,
A war she could have easily avoided if she hadn't clearly signalled her lack of interest by withdrawing the military against a lot of advice, and a war fought as a vanity project for her - and she lied about the Belgrano which was only sunk for her political advantage.

opened up the opportunities for TV channels to challenge the BBC hold they had on television
Eh? The BBC didn't have a hold. She fixed it up for Rupert Murdoch to enter the Satellite TV market on very favourable terms, no doubt in return for his media empire's backing.

She re energised the country. Stuff got done, people became aspirantional..
Labour won with Blair when they did the same.
Constant moaning about how bad politicians/ policies/the rest of the
country is why this Labour Party lost. Labour want ya win they need to start getting a positive message over.

but I think in the long term if it hadn’t been for low profit then the mines would have been closed for not being environmentally friendly.

It wasn't lack of profit, it was lack of demand. The demand for coal slumped massively with the advent of gas for heating and petrol/diesel for road transport and diesel/electric powered trains. Prior to that every house used coal for power. Schools and hospitals used coals in their boilers. Factories were powered by coal fired steam engines. Transport was mainly by train powered by coal fired steam trains. Only a fraction of the coal previously needed was required by the 70s. It was inevitable that most of the mines needed to close.

Just to make it clear, because it's not mentioned much. The BBC was unable to broadcast a documentary they had made in 1985 about Northern Ireland because of Thatcher's government censorship.

That is how much she cared for free speech.

292 million tonnes of coal in 1913, just 3 million tonnes in 2017. If the unions had their way, we'd still be digging up millions of tonnes more than we could use and presumably either stockpiling or re-burying it.

Or exporting it instead of importing it as we do now.

@34Alpacathebag profitable mines were closed. And look at Tower, bought out by the miners and stayed in operation until 2008.

It was always more about smashing the unions than anything else.

Absolutely, it was pure spite.

Where would all those people go? Just the Rhondda has over 62,000 people. Merthyr Tydfil, nearly 44,000. That's over 100,000 people, It's nearly a third of the popultaion of Cardiff. Where are they going to move to? What about all the people who are working (say in Cardiff) and put up with the travelling because housing costs are so low?
@LightsInOtherPeoplesHouses Presumably to the same places that anyone else emigrated to. Between 1924 and 1939 50,000 people left the Rhondda.

She redefined aspiration. The anglo-Irish agreement. The Falklands. Right to buy. Foreign investment. Stopping the trade unions. Tax reforms. She transformed the City of London.

She paved the way for women and rescued a country that was in a parlous state.

She most definitely didn’t pave the way for women. She never had a woman in her cabinet. She didn’t even like other women.

She believed in recognition through merit and was not a fan of feminism. Instead, she normalised female achievement.

She believed in recognition through merit and was not a fan of feminism. Instead, she normalised female achievement.

Are you saying someone not being a "fan of feminism" is a good thing? Just a reminder of the definition of feminism:

Feminism
/ˈfɛmɪnɪz(ə)m/
The advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.