Maggie Thatcher is a 'conviction politician'

[EffiePerine]

Eh?

This puzzles me on many, many levels

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6993269.stm

Cameron may get a conviction if he tries to hug a hoody .

every time there is a headline with her name on I just think 'is she dead yet?'

DaDaDa, Brown's just being a canny bugger.

He's whipping the Tories up one side and down the other. Giving some props to Maggie is just another way of rubbing the Tories noses in the fact that he's pretty much set up camp on the centre ground and can afford to court a few Tory votes with this sort of shtick.

he won't get my Tory vote but neither will David

True. He knows there's nothing much to gain from appeasing the left, and plenty to hold onto in Middle England.

Still annoys me though! Remember the day she finally went?

yes, I wept

Oh ues, DaDaDa - was at uni. There were many impromptu parties that night

That classic wet-eye moment when she got in the car to go - priceless.

I do remember the day. Remember how hopeful I was when TB got elected too. Oh cruel reality, pissing all over idealism.

I'm a bit of a disillusioned non-voter myself, tbh. I haven't actually been able to get out to vote the last few times, and it wouldn't have made a fat lot of difference anyway.

sighs wanly

Oh fab, he has given her some garage flowers!!

"yes, I wept"

I drank! Was at Uni too.

mine were tears of sadness of course

I'm with the Elvis Costello "Tramp the dirt down" school of thought

I remember the moment she went - listening to the news, the end of an era blah blah. My colleague said 'it's the end of an earache'

Yes - convicted politician is wishful thinking.

Do you remember Gerald Kauffman....a debate about Nelson Mandela ( It hink the tories were trying to stop him coming here...as a coinvicted terrorist or something) and someone said, in great retorical flow 'Had the honourable lady spent 27 years in prison....' and Kaufmann said audibly "as she should". I think he was formally told off about it.

It was the think people said at the time, whilst hating every line of her pollicies: "but you have to admire her". No, I didn't, I don't and i wish her conviction had wavered and withered.

Oh Sue, do what I do. Regard all mainstream politicians as wankers-in-waiting, vote for a small party that will NEVER get in power (Green in my case) and regard yourself as entitled to slag off everyone else. Hence, I could spend the entire ten years of Blair's head-girl-ship saying 'well, I never voted for him'.

I'm not British but why does everyone hate her so much? OK I see at the time she did some stuff that caused immense distress but now, don't people acknowledge for example that mining communities are better off with the employment opportunities available to them rather than having to down the mines? Also, don't most people shudder when they think of no competition in areas like telecoms, power supply, airlines etc?

Also seems to me that the present day council tax is as hard as the less well off as poll tax was.

"mine were tears of sadness of course"

I'd guessed. Mumsnet is a broad church so you're forgiven ducks and runs for cover

"I'm not British but why does everyone hate her so much? OK I see at the time she did some stuff that caused immense distress but now, don't people acknowledge for example that mining communities are better off with the employment opportunities available to them rather than having to down the mines? Also, don't most people shudder when they think of no competition in areas like telecoms, power supply, airlines etc?"

I don't know where to start with that, so I won't.

It's an idea PW - trouble is, the 'small party' here is the BNP. I would rather garot myself with my own intestines that vote for them.

Yes, chocolatedot, the miners only went down the mines because there wasn't an ASDA for them to clean toilets in

thank you

I remember Gerald Kaufman - his consituency was in central Manchester somewhere I forget, I met him briefly and I was very young but he he was very smarmy. I remember he had a side kick with him, equally smarmy - he introduced him - 'Here is Gerald Kaufman, shake his hand, he's going to be Prime Minister one day' like I supposed to be impressed. I suppose we get some luck in life.

Hmmm. Good point, Sue. Start your own party? The Elvish Midlanders?

Chocolate - she was incredibly divisive for one thing. She presided over a great widening of the gap between the rich and the poor (something that continues to the present day).

lol at Suebaroo

A PM with the view that "there is no such thing as society" had no business running the country.

Actually I hope I've left mn before she dies because I think it's going to be pretty sick.

Nail on the head from beansprout.

I blame the Thatcher years for a large part of the social problems we have in Britain today.

As I said, I'm not British so was hoping for a genuine explanation but guess I'm not going to get it. Suebaroo, a documentary on Radio 4 I heard last year talked a lot about how miners were now glad that their children didn't have to go down the mines as it was such a hard life.

As I understand it, the gap between rich and poor has risen faster in the past decade than any time before.