Thatcher, the worst Prime Minister Britain ever had.

[ivanhoe]

Thatcher wrecked British manufacturing industry and devastated whole areas of Britain by her obsession with high interest rates.

Under her rule crime rates soared. The Health Service was wrecked. Before she came to power it was the best in the world. After 11 years of her rule it was the worst in the developed world.

Britain's mental hospitals were closed and their inhabitants dumped on to the streets of our cities to be a menace both to themselves and to the general public.

All forms of physical punishment were banned in schools, thus wrecking the education system for ordinary people.

Thatcher crucified the Health Service and was responsible for a number of equally wretchedly mean actions, such as abolishing the Wages Councils and making various cuts in welfare benefits. And breaking the State pensions link with national average wages

Margaret Thatcher also ruined the Social structure of this country by stopping the building of Social housing during her Premiership.

she also had terrible hair

I'm not old enough to remember Mrs Thatcher but I don't think you can say that she was the worst prime minister we've ever had and she totally revolutionised politics. Every Government since has adopted her principles

So you want teachers to be able to physically punish students?

I'm with Thatcher on that one.

She didn't do it all on her own

Mrs Thatcher is one of the greatest Prime Ministers the country has ever had. She smashed the unions that were holding the rest of the country to ransom with their unreasonable demands. She modernised the economy away from the inefficient state owned and controlled industries as well as successfully defending the Falklands from the Argentinians.

I've got a feeling the worst is still to come. Depends which side of fence you are on.

'every government has adopted her principles'

so is that why we're in such a state now?

I don't think you can blame Mrs Thatcher for the current sovereign debt crisis. The deficit was created by the Government spending far more than it could raise in tax even in good times by borrowing off the markets. This meant we already had a structural deficit before we had a recession which again meant that we had to borrow and pushed our deficit to its current unbelievable level. I think its fair to say if Mrs Thatcher had been in Government this would not have happened

Hmm not sure about the corporal punishment but I agree she decimated huge swathes of the country and created huge social problems. The roots of the welfare culture that exist today come from her policies taking away traditional industries with little or no support for those left unemployed. Those jobs were more than just jobs, they were the whole social fabric of large chunks of the country.

And wasn't she "the great she elephant who must be obeyed"? I think she did do it all on her own.

/////Every Government since has adopted her principles/////

Thats because through her years of office, people got greedy.

Perople forget their working class roots and ditched Labour traditional values of fairness and equality.

Now those same people are moaning whiners worrying about their Child Benefits, when thousands of people have much less to live on.

/////I think its fair to say if Mrs Thatcher had been in Government this would not have happened//////

No it wouldnt, because Thatcher created poverty for millions, and New Labour tried to help people without increasing taxation, but by borrowing.

////////Mrs Thatcher is one of the greatest Prime Ministers the country has ever had. She smashed the unions that were holding the rest of the country to ransom with their unreasonable demands. She modernised the economy away from the inefficient state owned and controlled industries as well as successfully defending the Falklands from the Argentinians.///////

Yes and Hitler didnt really murder the jews.

What about the fact that the country was being held to ransom by the unions, and everyone was suffering, before she took a strong hold.

She didn't get everything right, but she certainly didn't get everything wrong either.

ivanhoe- I don't think you can liken a belief in thatcherism to holocaust denial

Thatcher was the finest peacetime Prime Minister in the last 100 years at least.

She made Britain feel like Great Britain again.

I lived through the Thatcher years ..I thought never again ...seems I thought wrong

Evening GordonBrown Ivanhoe!

Lady Thatcher was a legend and this country would be poorer without her influence.

Enough with the ///////////////. There's a good boy.

Great?

depends which side of the fence you were on, longfingernails

a lot of people where I'm from (and where I am) would vehemently disagree with you.

Ivanhoe! It's Friday it's twenty to ten and it's Mumsnet, that can only mean one thing....Bumsex!

Ivanhoe- You doubt that Mrs Thatcher took on and defeated the unions, modernised the economy away from primary industries and that we won the Falklands war?

nah Cameron is worse

She might have sorted the Unions but she decimated society - we live with her legacy today - the underclass.

///////She might have sorted the Unions but she decimated society - we live with her legacy today - the underclass.///////

Brilliant. Spot on.

//////Mrs Thatcher is one of the greatest Prime Ministers the country has ever had. She smashed the unions that were holding the rest of the country to ransom with their unreasonable demands. She modernised the economy away from the inefficient state owned and controlled industries as well as successfully defending the Falklands from the Argentinians.//////

She then went onto decimate British community and Society.

She pit us all against each other, including the young from the old and visa versa.

If you think that's a success story, you are a knuckle head.