Margaret Thatcher's in hospital,Is this the beginning of the end? How will you mark the day? Black arm band or party 7.

[Cowwomanmoo]

After looking at the news about Mr T I found my self on wikiquote.

Classic:

In an interview with George Negus for the Australian TV program 60 minutes, the following exchange occurred:
Negus: Why do people stop us in the street almost and tell us that Margaret Thatcher isn't just inflexible, she's not just single-minded, on occasions she't plain pig-headed and won't be told by anybody?
Thatcher: Would you tell me who has stopped you in the street and said that?
Negus: Ordinary Britons...
Thatcher: Where?
Negus: In conversation, in pubs...
Thatcher (interrupting): I thought you'd just come from Belize
Negus: Oh this is not the first time we've been here.
Thatcher: Will you well me who, and where and when.
Negus: Ordinary Britons in restaurants and cabs
Thatcher: How many?
Negus: ...in cabs
Thatcher: How many?
Negus:I would say at least one in two
Thatcher:Why won't you tell me their names and who they are?

I will be opening that bottle of bubbly and having a paaaarty!

Witch, witch, witch.

"ONly the left would celebrate the illness or demise of anyone. They are so much less caring than the right it so often seems and yet seem to think they have a monopoly on care. " Xenia. Are you totally unhinged?

Can I say that she is not dead yet? She broke her arm, and she is being kept in to treat her, not kill her?

I was 18 when Thatcher was first elected, and the travesties close up. When she does die I won't be 'happy' - it was just a relief to have her out of office.

Mucically, the icon in those times was Elvis Costello's Tramp the Dirt Down, from the Spike album.
it's here where he describes the song and then does a performance Anyone who has venom for Thatcher and likes Elvis may want to give it a go. About 9 mins in total.

She did much good for this nation. Are any of you old enough to remember the 70s as I can, the nation in the grip of the unions, having to buy kerosene lamps because the power was off, the 3 day week, inflation, tax rates up to 95+% for some. They were dark dark days until she brought both rich and poor to the prosperity we now have. Lucky us to have had her at the helm.

3 day working week.

Rubbish piling up in the streets for weeks and weeks on end.

Schools shut because of no heating.

Paraffin lamps and heaters.

Parents trying to cook us meals on a tiny camping stove.

Yes, I remember those days well and I was only about 6.

I agree with BoF

I danced the day she left power, but I would never wish an old lady dead.

her passing at some satge is inevitable, I hope it is painless and peaceful, but also that her like is not seen again

She was a hateful, hate-filled woman who didn't give a flying toss about the misery she inflicted on those less fortunate than her. She has plenty of suffering and death on her hands and not just in the Falklands - where HER government had reduced the garrison, inviting the Argentinian dictatorship to advance.

Used the police as her private army, imposed what was to all intents and purposes martial law on South Yorkshire, chose mass unemployment as a deliberate policy with the consequent ill-health and premature deaths associated with deprivation and poverty... if you did well out of Thatcherism, good for you, but don't turn a blind eye to the suffering she caused others.

Xenia
have to disagree
depends where you live
have you ever lived in the north-east?
or what's left of it after it was decimated by the Tories?
DH comes from a mining family, from a small pit town.
Aside from her policies which did nothing for me, I think she is a nasty woman.

'ONly the left would celebrate the illness or demise of anyone. They are so much less caring than the right it so often seems and yet seem to think they have a monopoly on care. "

some Xenia, just as I know S8ome* nasty half witted rightist bigots

Unless you follow extremist parties (into which I include BNP), then it's unlikely your capacity to feel or care is defined by your political choice

To be fair there was some brilliant music to come out of the Thatcher era, stand down maggie stand down, up against the wall (tom Robonson) and so on. Nowadays there is hardly any decent protest music about.
As for Thatcher I do think she was part product of the times as has just been pointed out, the 70's and 80's were politically very turbulent times.

no, the nation wasn't in the grip of the unions. if somewhere is in the grip of unions they woudn't have a reason to go out on strike. It wasn't the unions who made those stupid stupid decisions. IT was, I remember, a Tory leader called Ted Heath. When people go on strike they lose money immediately.

I have heard this right-wing shit for years. The reason why the nation lost it's productive capacity was so that the shareholders, no doubt Xenia/family and the like, got their healthy annual payout, much morethan the nation could afford. Every year. So basic investment didn't happen. We lost productivity year by year so the short term greeds of the 'owners' were satisfied.

I am 35 - to me she will always be 'Mrs Thatcher, milk snatcher'.

But I wouldn't wish her ill harm. At least she got off her arse and stood up for what she believed in, unlike the vast majority of this country who couldn't be bothered to vote in the recent elections.

The Tories weren't wholly responsible for the decimation of the British Coal Industry.
It was already in decline and had been from the 1950's. British coal is/was expensive to mine and cheaper imports were available from the continent.

you know it is pretty horrid to celebrate someone's death..

so instead of raising me glass, I'll aim for not giving a flying fuck about the old grot

How awful that people would discuss the death of an actual human being with such callousness, whatever your views of her politics.

That was to the OP.

I cannot think of another (European) ex-leader who would provoke this kind of outpouring of emotions and strongly felt views so many years after they left the political stage ...

Pan, that is pretty simplistic, no doubt there may be expoitation of the masses if you like to put it that way but the Unions had there own agenda too. Some were a hotbed of communism who wanted to see the destruction of the political elite and it was in their interest to use the working class for thie own agenda. I might be out on a limb here but some of those unions recieved funds form the USSR which had an interest in the destabilisation of the UK.

I grew up in the North east! Have you seen the transformation of that region and compared the 60s to the 90s? Thatcher wrought wonders. Also many of us got on our bikes as Tebbit suggested and moved to where work was and were appropriately rewarded. People need to take charge of themselves and their own destiny and not just whinge and expect things handed on a plate. Socialism never works, doesn't even benefit the poor ultimately.

she only broke her arm

Harold Wilson's LABOUR Government were the first to stop providing free school milk in 1968.
Up until this year, secondary pupils also received free milk.

Getting rid of free school milk was the best thing that ever happened ime!

Nothing worse than trying to drink a lump of cheese through a straw, which invariably the milk had turned into during warm weather by the time we were made to drink it.

In winter, we then had to try and eat an ice lolly with a straw.

Oh, such fond memories of free school milk.

Quality comment from Southeastastra!!

which bit is simplistic, BGD? they bit about under funding for decades, or the bit about losing money when one goes on strike??
Also need to at the 'hotbed of communism' line. More than a bit simplistic. With respect.

yes SEA, i did say she is being kept in for treatment, not to be killed!!

I'M with Xenia on this.

My DW comes from the North East. She lived next to a miner in 2 up - 2 down house and eventually went to Oxford just like Thatcher. The miner next door founded his own business under Thatcher and still lives in his 2 up - 2 down and knows he is better off as well. Labour did nothing for the North East and the people in that area now know it. They are disgusted at what Labour has done in the last 10 years. Kicked in the teeth, the old Labour supporters can no longer bother to go out and vote.

To wish someone dead is just a vile thing to think. Margaret Thatcher is a old lady who deserves our respect - no matter our political affiliations.