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Original poster

Thatcher, the worst Prime Minister Britain ever had.

218 replies

ivanhoe · 10/12/2010 19:16

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.

OP posts:
QuickLookBusy · 22/01/2011 23:54

Sorry am not usually so full of bile.

Blair just brings it out in me.Grin

lifeinlimbo · 23/01/2011 00:02

Many people had had enough of blair and brown - taking this country to an illegal war was the last straw for most people. Its very sad that they didnt both step down before the election, because labour had achieved many good things which were drowned out because people were fed up of those two.

Offpiste · 23/01/2011 00:09

Yes, the worst. Evil, evil, evil.

And the current shower were young during her reign, and thought: "That looks marvellous, I think I'll become a Tory". Which says it all.

longfingernails · 23/01/2011 00:22

Thatcher was the finest PM since the second world war.

She redefined Britain and made her Great Britain once again. She smashed the menace of the unions, she conquered the demon of inflation, she made us a world power. She won the Falklands, she was instrumental in winning the Cold War, and she let people buy their own homes.

Under her PMship it became normal for ordinary working folk to take foreign holidays, to own their own cars, to start their own businesses. She gave people more chance than they ever had before to make their own way in the world.

What a wonderful woman. Of course, by gushing about her like this, she would no doubt write me off as a "wet" :)

Sadly, Cameron is too much of a "Tory" and not enough of a Thatcherite. His instincts are with the Times, not the Mail and Sun.

longfingernails · 23/01/2011 00:28

Cameron's biggest danger is that he doesn't carry the "Thatcher Tories" with him. That means manual labourers and their families, those who work in small businesses, etc - people who voted Labour in the 70s, and started voting for Thatcher in 79.

She wasn't afraid of carefully calculated populism - but sadly, Cameron probably thinks it is not the done thing, or something.

longfingernails · 23/01/2011 00:32

Thankfully, though, Red Ed has about as little chance of understanding Sun readers as I do of understanding Mongolian.

Blair really got "aspirational" Britain. No party leader since has really done so.

Offpiste · 23/01/2011 00:39

Not many people where I grew up remember the Thatcher era as a time where we took foreign holidays and started our own businesses. More like dole queues, school buildings which were falling down, and a deep sense of anger and injustice.

And if it turns out that Cameron et al aren't (quite) as bad as her, then thank goodness for small mercies.

longfingernails · 23/01/2011 01:30

This Spitting Image sketch says it all

madhattershouse · 23/01/2011 01:41

Cameron is a male Thatcher! Or a puppet. Problem is we no longer make anything to export...nation of shopkeepers! Thanks Thatcher and to your son...oh DC not related just made from the same cloth! Trample the weak then blame them for everything! Happy days Hmm

Niceguy2 · 23/01/2011 09:46

Blair really got "aspirational" Britain. No party leader since has really done so.

kerstina · 23/01/2011 10:03

Biscuit 1st ever delivered to longfingernails .I would love to know your background .I am working class but will never read the Sun you are just so patronising.

longfingernails · 23/01/2011 12:43

Nevertheless, kerstina, it seems that Sun readers are the key "swing" demographic - more Sun readers are floating voters than readers of any other paper.

Whether the Sun follows them, or they follow the Sun, is a bit of a thorny question - but the fact is, they are the ones that politicians have to chase!

kerstina · 23/01/2011 12:59

Yes I suppose so but it is so depressing that those people who read the Sun (ignorant Wink) are the ones that can be swayed in which ever way Murdoch wants them too.

claig · 23/01/2011 13:03

Blair never got aspiration, he was exactly the same as every other progressive. He made sure he didn't increase income tax, but he made up for it with all his stealth taxes. He introduced rules, regulations and red tape to hamper business. He didn't stop the working time directive. The only reason he remained in power for so long is because capitalists like Murdoch used the power of the media to back him. He flew over to court them. But it had nothing to do with aspiration or helping the people. When Murdoch turned on him and Brown, his time was up.

claig · 23/01/2011 13:10

He dumbed down education and slowed down social mobility. He was anti aspiration, he was pro nanny state.

complimentary · 23/01/2011 13:39

Kerstina. Why are Sun readers ignorant? my sister's children could read it at age 6! They are very intelligent! Plus it's got boobs, the men they love it! Grin

complimentary · 23/01/2011 14:10

The Daily Mail is also another great read, with us lovely ladies reading it a lot, it is the only paper with over 50% female readership! Grin
It's second only to the Sun in readership figures. It's a kind and caring sort of paper. It's lovely readers collectively gave in December 2010 donations, which totalled £100.000 for the NHS elderly! So if your elderly or a woman read the Daily Mail! Smile

claig · 23/01/2011 14:40

well said, complimentary. It's the paper of choice for the cognoscenti. It's the paper of aspiration, which is why Blair and Brown didn't like it.

complimentary · 23/01/2011 15:27

Claig. Yes aspiration! Not degradation! The plight the Labour party would like to see us in!

claig · 23/01/2011 15:33

exactement

longfingernails · 23/01/2011 15:36

Thinking about narrow political self-interest:

It is in the Labour party's interest to keep the poor poor, so they rely on State handouts, and become more likely to vote Labour.

It is in the Tory party's interest to give the poor a hand up, so they become independent, and become more likely to vote Tory.

Which is better?

claig · 23/01/2011 15:37

I think it is self evident

newwave · 23/01/2011 15:44

The Mail is toilet paper with the shit already added.

LFN nice joke

"It is in the Tory party's interest to give the poor a hand up, so they become independent, and become more likely to vote Tory"

That will be a first, the Tories have never given the poor a hand up they just scapegoat them in the Tory rags.

I have never been poor and I have never voted Tory then again I have a conscience unlke you it seems.

claig · 23/01/2011 15:52

'I have never been poor and I have never voted Tory then again I have a conscience unlke you it seems.'

I am sure that Tony Blair said something similar. The first two are true about him, but what of the third?

newwave · 23/01/2011 15:58

You wont find me defending Blair or many of his policies.

NL were to timid and were scared of upsetting Murdoch and Mail readers but they did introduce some welfare policies that helped the poor and vulnerable such as the (far to low) minimum wage and tax credits all of which the Tories want to destroy.