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?

a war fought as a vanity project for her - and she lied about the Belgrano which was only sunk for her political advantage.
@Hingeandbracket you're talking shite I'm afraid. The impetus to send the task group down came from the Navy. If Admiral Leach hadn't bypassed his superiors (not to mention the Defence Secretary) and walked into Westminster to tell the Prime Minister that "we must" retake the islands then we'd never have stood up to the military junta.

As for the Belgrano, the very day before it was sunk Admiral Juan Lombardo was ordering his fleet to seek out and destroy the British task force. Even the Captain of the ship, Hector Bonzo has said that it was a legitimate target and that HMS Conqueror acted entirely within the rules of war. Likewise, Rear Admiral Allara said that "the entire South Atlantic was an operational theatre for both sides. We, as professionals, said it was just too bad that we lost the Belgrano". Admiral Woodward meanwhile wrote that "The speed and direction of an enemy ship can be irrelevant, because both can change quickly. What counts is his position, his capability and what I believe to be his intention."

In other words, everyone who knew what they were talking about (i.e. both navies) said that it was a perfectly legitimate target. The only people who say otherwise are the likes of politicians and journalists who've no more knowledge of naval warfare than they gained while on the Isle of Wight ferry.

She invented soft scoop ice cream.

I don't remember her at all really - for me everything being discussed is historical.

However, whatever you think about her policies, being the first woman prime minister at a time when girls in the top stream of grammar school were still being told their aspiration should be to 'be a good wife' is pretty amazing.

Not quite as amazing as the first woman in the cabinet though, another Margaret, in 1929.

I do remember Gerry Adams' voice being dubbed over and found it quite scary.

didn't agree with her policies,but she became PM when I was 6th year at school (year 11 now?)
A new comprehensive whose extent of career advice for girls was to ask whether you wanted to work in a shop or an office; if you were in the top stream (I don't think they fully understood the idea of comprehensive), they might suggest that you could aspire to become a secretary.
One or two very academic girls were invited to think about teacher training college or nursing - this is from a large cohort of around 200 students in each year group, and ONE went to university.
Every suggestion other than shop/office was greeted with "no dear, not for girls' - tailoring career advice was along the lines of "oh, you like shoes, how about working in a shoe shop?'

So like her or not, hate her policies, Thatcher really made a generation of girls break free from the low expectations and believe that they could aspire to more.

"She invented soft scoop ice cream."

No she didn't.

However, for a short time, she was part of the team dedicated to increasing the amount of air that they could get buyers to pay for.

(ice cream is sold by volume not by weight. By whipping more air into it you can increase the volume of the product without adding any more of the listed ingredients. In much the same way as by adding salty water to processed ham, and selling it by weight, you can get customers to pay for the water the same as they pay for ham).

Some might say this was in conformity with her approach to business vs. her approach to the citizens who are merely taxpayers and consumers.

FrOg

Something seriously wrong with the school you went to or the town you lived in. Well before Thatcher became PM, girls were studying at University from a variety of backgrounds. Thatcher didn't send the numbers souring!

As far as I am concerned she ruined this country. We have never recovered as a country the age old the rich got richer and the poor got poorer could have have been written for her.

BaldCrusader you ask how many steel plants and mines Labour reopened. The answer is none simply because the way the mines were closed meant it was impossible to safely reopen then and once a blast furnace is cooled down it is dangerous to start it up again.

Thatcher came to power when I was just about old enough to take notice. I had a country with a woman as head of state, a woman running the government and a single(divorced) working mother. I never questioned that a woman could do anything. I thought women literally ran the world and have never once thought myself inferior to a man. For that at least I'm grateful.

My mother thought she was excellent but I think that was a reaction to the strikes /rubbish / power cuts /3 day week / union power etc people have already mentioned coupled with a mentality that you strive for what you've got, life is hard and you don't look for help, you help yourself. I think also she was buying into the idea of personal responsibility rather than collective responsibility since she was entirely responsible for our household income....and didn't get, or actually expect, any other bugger to give a toss or help.

In addition, her father was sent down the pit in Wales as a youngster and hated every second of it - he could not get out of there fast enough, so when he was old enough, he did & went to London. I think it was a case of the family narrative being that they were fighting (working) their way out of the dirt and drudgery of the coal mine and aspiring to more / better. And not relying on anyone for help as a matter of what? Principal? Pride? (In a very Victorian way - ie it would be embarrassing and shameful to have to ask for help or to end up in the workhouse - loved the NHS but not any other State interference )

Working was the only way forward and I think that's what Thatcher tapped into with some of these people who loved her like my DM did from very working class backgrounds. (And bearing in mind DM got loads of stick for being a working mother in the 70's, never mind divorced - I think Maggie was a sort of role model in her mind, sticking it to a bunch of grey men in grey suits!!)

Blair and Scargill closed more mines than Magie But as usual the truth doesn't matter.

remind me, @ginghambox

when was Scargill Prime Minister?

Babdoc you said she "successfully repelled the Argentine invasion of a British sovereign territory."
As did Foreign Secretary David Owen in the 1970s. The difference being not a drop of blood was spilt. When the Argentine government made noises about the Falklands Owen let them know we had a submarine in the area and would defend the islands. Thatcher ignored the same noises and with the run down of shipbuilding, Argentina took it as a tacit agreement that we wouldn't defend the islands so they had another crack at it. The conflict (and it was deemed a conflict not a war which affected the entitlement of combatants to financial benefits) should never have happened. She was pretty unpopular before the conflict and was reelected on a wave of populism afterwards.

PigletJohn

I don’t know why you’re refighting the 1980s when we’re reliving them as we speak, including the hard left getting routed once again!

Do you think Scargill acted with honest intentions or fucking Blair for that matter?

She was a hideously awful person, but I'd kill for her to be in charge now.

At least she believed that what she was doing was for the best. Unfortunately, all we've got now is far right/Putin puppets looking to sell everything off for the most money for them and their contributors.

There are people complaining about the phrase "turkeys voting for Christmas", but unfortunately they are unwilling to realise that they are the turkeys. They think they've been so clever, but they don't realise what Christmas is going to bring for them...

@CendrillonSings

I'm responding.

It’s very easy to read the consensus of the Twatterati, the rantings of left-wing celebs and the views of people who weren’t old enough to vote when she was in power and take from this that she was A Bad Woman.

Actually, she was hugely popular and respected. Hence the three election victories. The country voted for her three times.

It’s exactly the same now. Britain has shown they love the Tories but if you only got your views from social media and online frothing forums such as Mumsnet you’d assume the Tories were hated.

Not true.

As someone said of her 'she's like the new pound coin. Bold, hard, brassy and thinks she's a sovereign'. She asset stripped this country to its bones and laid waste its former industrial heartlands to benefit the already wealthy South of England. Then abandoned those areas full of unemployed workers and their families. And people admire her for it and have just asked for more.

I was 18 when she came to power and everyone I knew hated her and her policies.

The three day week happened under a Tory government you know...

I guess her attempts to shut down the coal industry would today be applauded by Greta and her supporters.

The more I read the more I think of Boris.

I have always believed that great deal of the hatred directed at Lady Thatcher is ultimately rooted in misogyny. No male leader, however incompetent or however big a liar ( Tony Blair, I’m looking at you and your war on Iraq), has been subjected to the visceral hatred she has from so many quarters.

However, as has recently been shown, the loud shouting of the left often does not reflect the feelings of the general population.

It’s exactly the same now. Britain has shown they love the Tories but if you only got your views from social media and online frothing forums such as Mumsnet you’d assume the Tories were hated

Er they are.

Some hate labour - just look at the nastiness directed towards key labour politicians and their policies.

The 3 day week was several years before Thatcher became PM. Yes we all know it was under a Tory govt. it was a grim time and was a response to save power due to the effects of previous years of galloping inflation. And the fact that the miners were demanding a pay rise of over 30% and threatening industrial action if they didn’t get what they wanted. When Labour got in, didn’t they give them a rise of around 35% or something crazy? Well, look where that led....

At least she believed that what she was doing was for the best.

She didn’t believe in anything except power for M Thatcher and the Tories. The biggest myth of all is that she was a conviction politician. She would and did change almost anything to keep power. Another of her hugely expensive divisive vanity projects after the Falklands, the poll tax had to be abandoned because it was a disaster - she U turned on that just like she did on the Falklands and many other policies just to try and stay in power.