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

510 replies

Cowwomanmoo · 14/06/2009 00:40

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?

OP posts:
Paolosgirl · 14/06/2009 22:26

Who's trying to cover themselves in glory?

Kimi · 14/06/2009 22:27

I am being serious here, coal is not an endless source of fuel, the mines were in deficit so what exactly would the point be in re-opening them???

Kimi · 14/06/2009 22:32

ponders when you stop ROFL would you like to explain where fossil fuel is a renewable type of fuel or would you like to troll elsewhere

Kimi · 14/06/2009 22:34

what ever coal is left is not cost effective to mine, and I apologize for being dyslexic and having crap spell check

BigGitDad · 14/06/2009 22:36

Kimi, there is about two/three hundreds years of coal reserves under the UK. Whether it is worth mining it out depends on the economics if it. If the price of coal is high enough it will be profitable enough to mine.

Paolosgirl · 14/06/2009 22:39

Ponders - taking the mickey out of someone's spelling error and laughing at them for their mistake which was caused by a disability is surely not the sort of thing a kind, soft hearted leftie does now, it is?

Really, shame on you.

BigGitDad · 14/06/2009 22:40

my guess is as natural resouces become less available over time then the price of coal will increase, just as it has or will do with oil etc.
In my opinion the UK govts have been extremely short sighted about coal, especially when you consider they want to bring in Nuclear power.

Kimi · 14/06/2009 22:40

But it is not worth mining at the moment, and it is not enough to run the country for 200/300 years by any means, it was sad to lose a way of life but it is gone

mrsruffallo · 14/06/2009 22:42

I think most of the things that have gone wrong are part of her legacy

Paolosgirl · 14/06/2009 22:42

Exactly - you don't keep uneconomic businesses going just in case they become viable at some point in the future.

BigGitDad · 14/06/2009 22:45

But that is the point if politically the mines were ruined (which to some extent they were- Keith Joseph a senior conservative said in 1974 ish that in future it would be govt policy to ruin the mining industry as a revenge for the miners losing ted heaths election)
Believe me at somepoint it will become economical to re open the mines.
Additionally doesn't it make sense to try to do something now. You only have to see how the Russians are trying to control the flow of gas in Europe to have concerns about buying gas from them. The less gas we get from them the better for me.

BigGitDad · 14/06/2009 22:46

look at Ukraine and Georgia to see what influnce the Russiand are trying to exert through the supply of Gas.

BigGitDad · 14/06/2009 22:47

(Russians)

Paolosgirl · 14/06/2009 22:49

If, and it's a big if, it becomes economically viable then so be it. However, we can't support industries through public taxation that aren't viable at a particular time.

What we also got from the Thatcher years was a relaxing of the grip that the unions had us in. I'm old enough to remember black outs, bin collection strikes, 3 day weeks - it was no fun, believe me.

Kimi · 14/06/2009 22:51

but we are talking about today, and today it is NOT cost effective to mine

Paolosgirl · 14/06/2009 22:56

Night all - too tired to type anymore

edam · 14/06/2009 22:56

quite, BGD.

Paolo, whose definition of 'uneconomic' are we using, here? Shall we try to put a figure on the national security issue - isn't it worth quite a lot of money to be independent and not at risk of the Russians/any other exporting nation just turning off the supply of energy?

Suspect the people who decided British coal was uneconomic were the sort of people who, it turns out, brought capitalism to its very knees, with their short-term thinking and focus on lining their own pockets and sod everyone else.

AitchTwoOh · 14/06/2009 22:59

haven't read whole thread (although was first to answer with the pithy 'she ruined everything') but saw bigitdad mention keith joseph. now there was evil personified.

wanted to destroy the unions, how to do this?

weeeeeell, give everyone something to lose by selling off all the council housing stock for buttons. everyone thinks they've done well (they have, but they've fucked the housing market for their children, the morons) and no-one wants to go on strike or take collective action in case they can't pay their by today's standards miniscule mortgage and bingo stingo job's a good 'un.

such a clever man, really. but wicked.

CHOCOLATEPEANUT · 14/06/2009 23:02

I always find it odd that women feel this way towards her.Despite your policital beliefs surely you have to admire what she achieved and in face of so much adversity.From humble beggingings she managed to get to the top in what was then a very male dominated system.

She had balls and fought for what she believed in, this country. Ok not everyone agreed with her but how many politicians do that today?

Her type are long gone and thats sad for british politics. Its all PR and spin,spin,spin now.

The parties today are a disgrace.

AitchTwoOh · 14/06/2009 23:07

i distinctly remember my parents arguing when my mother told my father she'd voted tory (first and only time) because she wanted a female PM. this was a few years' into maggie's first term, my mother was profoundly ashamed of herself and of thatcher's behaviour and 'confessed' to my dad, who was shocked and appalled. we are not natural born tories, i should say.

so no, i'm not taken with the 'she did well for a woman' thing. she betrayed women like my mother, imo.

edam · 14/06/2009 23:09

She managed to get to Oxford (serving her country during WW2 by, erm, not doing very much at all but then posing as some kind of supporter of 'our boys' when it suited her political purpose), and managed to marry a millionaire.

Yes, OK, it was an amazing achievement to be the first woman PM BUT she sure as hell pulled the rope ladder up after herself - can you name one woman promoted by Maggie? One female cabinet minister?

CHOCOLATEPEANUT · 14/06/2009 23:09

betrayed women? how?

AitchTwoOh · 14/06/2009 23:12

my mother voted for her because she thought that as a woman she would offer something different. she did, but in the worst and most venal way.

and like edam says, she was not a promoter of women herself, far from it.

CHOCOLATEPEANUT · 14/06/2009 23:12

maybe the other women were not very good??!!

Did she not manage to train as a barrister whilst having two small children?

AitchTwoOh · 14/06/2009 23:14

yes, that's definitely the most likely scenario, that the other women were rubbish. mos def.

i'm not exactly sure she was an involved parent, tbh. certianly her kids have turned out Lovely...