Dh and I get on well ususally, then he sings the praises of Margaret Thatcher and I want to punch him.........

[DrNortherner]

Why oh why did I marry a tory

Aaaaargh....................

Help me with a list of things she did not do well:

Poll tax
Closure of industry
Privatisation of services
Crap schools
Belgrano

i don't hate tories.

like i said, at least they have the balls to stand up for what their beliefs are and not pussyfoot around like NuLabour.

DrNortherner where did you grow up I'm from Teesside but not a council estate but I still know of many parents who had no work, no money, no nothing whilst the SE prpspered. my Dad nearly had to make all his telecoms staff redundant but they were saved in the nick of time when Darlington telephone exchange started doing directory enquiries for London! My family background is in coal mining - Bates coillery - the centre of the strike - I absolutely cried when they pulled down the minehead tower (many years later) that was a landmark of my childhood. My uncle went from being affluent (he was highly skilled) to not working for decades and being penniless. It was grim, grim, grim grim and I was very young but it is etched in my mememory.

Excuse me this is a THATCHER HATING THREAD OK?

I am an only child and a virgo and my opinion is the right one on this. It is not open for debate.

And Des, I used to like you

Solidarity expat I'm with you. Bollocks to tories and NewLab too. How did you marry a tory drn?, did you not fight alot before your nups?

I'm from REdcar cargirl

Yea lets have a thatcher hating thread, we can put on some punk and feel all rightous and angry and hopeful that things can get better and we're the ones to do it yeah! right?!!

I appreciate how the loss of the coal mines and a hatred of Thatcher would be intertwined to a child who was growing up in those times.

But unfortunately, somebody had to do it. It was time. It's always best to look at politics objectively, wherever possible.

lol northerner.

but the thatcher effect is funny. I lived through it, then watched the myths being formed and spouted on the tv. she was not as powerful as people think, many of the things she did were just part of longer running trends.

eg the gap between rich and poor has been widening for around 30 years. And she signed the single european act, for all her anti europe rhetoric.

How did I marry a tory? Well, I fell in love with him I guess. To be fair, in theearly days he didn't even vote, let alone talk about Thatcher. Where I have always been politically passionate - labour party member, help canvass at elevtion times, number catch at polling stations etc etc. He does draw the line at a labour poster in our window though

In fact, we've been married naerly 10 years and he's only voted once. I of course do not encourage him to do so.

But recently he seems to have developed an opinion and I don't like it.........

yes, how did you wind up marrying one, DrN?

i mean, when i involved myself in a social experiment by going out with a Tory - admittedly he did not reveal his true colours for a couple of weeks - i just found that our core values were so different i couldn't see myself getting more involved with him romantically.

i just couldn't have that kind of relationship with someone whose value system was so different.

yes, but expat, do most tories know what they are voting for? bet they dont.

All together now -

MAGGIE!, MAGGIE!, MAGGIE!, OUT!, OUT!, OUT!

Don't know how anybody can defend her. Remember when the tories came to power in 1979 on the Saatchi slogan "Labour isn't working"? After one term of them in government unemployment had jumped from one million to three million. They only won in 1983 because of the Falklands war.

Politics did seem a lot realer back then though.

DrNo ... you still do. You just can't help yourself

1. Poll Tax = Council Tax.
2. Closure of Industry - accelerated since 1997.
3. Privatisation of services: I haven't noticed the Labour Party re-nationalising them.
4. Crap schools = nuff said.
5. Belgrano (legitimate war, legitimate target. They started it.) Counter-blast ... IRAQ.

So, what's the deal with Thatcher?

But doesn't voting tory generally indicate a quite different perspective of how people are? and how individuals and society (assuming one exists ) should relate to one another. I'd have thought the disagreements wouldn't be limited to discussion of voting IMO

Elizabethh ... it takes a while to turn an ocean liner around. I take it you're old enough to remember the winter of discontent?

Meiooow smallwhitecat. I don't think disagreeing with tory policy and MT government specifically is anti-democratic in fact i think its very democratic of us to exercise our right to slag whom we choose.

didn't she only actually go to -war- conflict over the Falklands to actually popularise herself again???

I'm from Eaglescliffe near Yarm but had family friends from all over the place. Even now watching Billy Elliott makes me sad. I remember going to uni and I friend saying how terrible the stock market crash was etc as all these people had been comfortable beforehand whereas in the north we were used to being poor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess people didn't realise that mining was well paid, cheap housing and free fuel.

Exactly smallwhitecat. He might be a tory (well not a very pasionate one judging by his voting history) but he is still a decent guy. He doesn't have floppy hair, wear beige cords and say Ra Ra Ra or anything like that.

My Dad (the labour councillor) and sh's Dad (the wealthy business man) have excellent debates about politics but still kind of like each other

I can hold my own in most political debates, but something about Thatcher makes me go loop the loop.

Wasn't it Margaret Thatcher who said "There is no alternative"?

I mean she was Prime Minister, whereas nobody has much power on this thread (unless Gordy is posting in disguise). She didn't seem particularly open to other points of view.

It is not Stalinist to think your way of thinking about the world is correct. In fact it'd be a bit weird if you thought you were wrong.
I don't anyone is saying lock people in Gulags if they think differntly but just be prepared to defend your POV cos tis people's roight to say, no your wrong and I'm right and this is why

No, CarGirl, she did not go to war to popularize herself.

The Argentinians invaded the Falklands, which was British territory, and had been for several hundred years.

It was known that the inhabitants of the Falklands did not wish to be ruled by Argentina. They appealed for our assistance,and we gave it. It was a provocative, very clear cut challenge, which we responded to. No other nation was involved.

The vast majority of the British public in 1981/82 had never even heard of the Falkland Islands. I had never heard of them. She was most certainly not courting popularity. She was defending British interests abroad.

All politicians have dubious motives, IMO.

We have had very few conscience politicians in recent years. There have been a few threads recently slating Cameron for his 'posh' credentials but at least he is upfront 'posh.' The mangled mockney of most of the current government would make Dick Van Dyke blush.