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

Interestingly, Gordon Brown is a great believer in individual responsibility. I am sure he and Mrs T were able to sagely nod their heads in a agreement that there is no such thing as society. I believe Thatcher meant there was no such thing as society in the abstract but that society is made up of individuals who take responsiblity for themselves. Whatever happened to Brown's promise of transparency? I would like to congratulate him on his reform of the Bank of England but I can't see anything else this government has done that is worth mentioning. They inherited a golden legacy from the Tories when they came to power. Even the director of the CBI said we were "sleepwalking into decline".
You must all be students or in receipt of generous tax credits.

Mrs T nods her head these days because she is barking. Sage? Crikey, have you seen her recently?

Margaret Thatcher is an evil, cold hearted cow who divided this country so much that thousands will not shed any tears when she dies. She caused much pain and suffering to many in this country and imo is responsible for the many social problems we have now.

Loss of the mines and the ship building business caused so much damage. Yes, going down mines is a god awful job but tens of thousands of men did it every day. It put fod on the table and it gave them a purpose in life. Suddennly that was gone. Those men had no purpose, no jobs and neither did their sons and their sons. Recipe for anabsolute fucking disaster.

Her political life was aimed at keeping 60% of the population content to the detriment of the remaining 40%. Her legacy to the UK is that society is lost, people are secular and envious and the public infrastructure and services are on their knees, but still, she made a lot of gormless elitists very rich.

What the good Dr. said. And more.

tons more

Her so-called convictions were 'everyone for himself'.

Echo every word Northerner said. She had no pity. And she was a downright liar, who got away with claiming black was white. Relentless in her cruelty. And we are still paying for it today.

Amen.

If I get on my Maggie soap box I will go on and on and on all bloody night.

Words can not describe how I despise that woman.

DrN - couldn't agree more.

How anyone can still defend that mad old bitch is beyond me (harsh words from the sprout but hey).

I bungled earlier for same reason. Can't spit the words out fast enough.

i loved the old lady who had an argument with her on live tv about the belgrano

Wonder if it's on youtube?

When I saw her crumpled face in Nov 1990, when I realised her own party had done the worst to her, that did stop me feeling angry with her

What, pointy? Designer tears?? She knew what she was doing.

She was crying for herself Nothing else. I felt nothing but elation when Michael Portillo lost his seat too

Those crocodile tears didn't make me feel sad. She didn't weep for the millions she threw out of work, the people who were driven to the despair of suicide. She didn't weep for the sailors on the Belgrano who were bloody conscripts from a dictatorship, the poor sods. Or for the UK service people who had to save her sorry arse in the Falklands. Etc. etc. etc.

she cried because she wasn't prime minister anymore, that's all

yes yes yes she was crying for herself, yes thaTs al; she cared about. But that's the point. All sher cared about was herself and she was royally shafted. It couldn;t have ended better than that

That was where she hurt, nowhere else

DrN - when you say secular do you mean non-religious, or something else? if the former, a) I don't see the connection with Mrs T, and b) what's wrong with being secular?

insular?

insular would make more sense.

Margaret Thatcher was most definitely a conviction politician. You can't argue with that, even if her convictions were right-wing. UQD's post summed up pretty much what she thought - that everyone was responsible for themselves. She had a brilliant mind but no compassion or pity. She could quite happily hang the miners out to dry in order for it to be better (in Thatcherite terms) for the economy.

You couls argue that her convictions are responsible in part for todays' social housing crisis. In Thatcherite terms selling off council houses to thsoe who had rented them for a long time made sense - rewarding hard work, giving th echance for property ownership. Thatcherism didn't allow for the rise in family breakdown that would mean more vulnerable people needing accommodation, nor the next government allowing any EU citizen the right to live in the UK.

I do agree with Andrew Marr's assessment that 'we are all Thatcher's children'. She changed the landscape of our country so much that it is so hard not to be. Designer clothes, delis in supermarkets, wine bars...all part of our obsession with consumerism that started with Thatcherism.

Whatever, I agree with Ben Elton that she's now lost her marbles and should be left alone.

I don't think secular is the right word...insular maybe...but there is this sense that we as a nation are devoid of any real joy. It is all about getting and acheieving and having, and enjoying yourself no matter at whose expense that is. And Thatchreism did play a part in spreading that, I think.

But the current Govt have carried on her good work.

you don't have to argue the council house point, it's a fact isn't it

privatise every public service, yes what a success the railways are now

People have all but forgotten that we ever had nationalised industries.

Re the railwats the current Govt did spectacularly well in screwing up even further the mess the Tory privatisation had made though.