View Poll Results: What do you think of Margaret Thatcher (these days)?
Made Britain Great Again !
0
0%
She did what she had to do, and the country was benefitted in the long run.
22
46.81%
Heartless Tory, she has a lot to answer for.
14
29.79%
Thatcher Thatcher, milk snatcher. Hope she's warm down there.
11
23.40%
Voters: 47. You may not vote on this poll

Margaret Thatcher

Old Nov 22nd 2020, 6:45 pm
  #16  
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Default Re: Margaret Thatcher

She presided over a shift from centralised, state-controlled institutions to privatisation and economic reform.

This alone is a plus for me. I left the UK at age 17 permanently and as such never got to vote there but the power of the Trade Unions in the 70's and the lack of entrepreneurial spirit in the country at the time was a dark gloom over the nation. Thatcher had an unwelcome task to overcome the power of the unions and for many she allowed the economy to open up.

For many who hated her with a viceral passion, it seemed that she wanted to take away the entitlement and free ride that they were benefitting from for so long.

I find it telling in S4 of the Crown that Prince Philip was suspicious of her as she seemed to be a self made conservative (a scientist no less) and not like the long line of Conservative MP's who were very similar to Jacob Rees-Mog or the various landed gentry from the shires who had dominated conservative party politics for so long.


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Old Nov 22nd 2020, 10:03 pm
  #17  
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Default Re: Margaret Thatcher

Originally Posted by Shard
A couple of years older than you, I did find the Falklands bizarre at the time, and now see it as reprehensible. Very conflicted on the miners. I don't know what to think. It certainly wasn't handled well, and the lack of new investment in those communities is tragic.

Have you been watching The Crown. Series 4 is not as bad as they've been saying, although only seen the first two episodes so far,
Yes I finished episode 6 last night, really enjoying it so far and the actor playing Charles is spot on.

I wonder if the young Royals watch it now that this season is hitting close to home. I'm still confused why Charles didn't marry Camilla in the 1st place.
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Old Nov 22nd 2020, 10:27 pm
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Default Re: Margaret Thatcher

Originally Posted by Danny B
Yes I finished episode 6 last night, really enjoying it so far and the actor playing Charles is spot on.

I wonder if the young Royals watch it now that this season is hitting close to home. I'm still confused why Charles didn't marry Camilla in the 1st place.
I think Camilla had been around the block a few times, as such she was deemed unsuitable for a future Queen. A young woman with no history, was what the Queen Mum and Uncle Dickie were looking for. Enter the 19 year old Lady Diana Spencer.

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Old Nov 22nd 2020, 10:50 pm
  #19  
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Default Re: Margaret Thatcher

Originally Posted by Danny B
Yes I finished episode 6 last night, really enjoying it so far and the actor playing Charles is spot on.

I wonder if the young Royals watch it now that this season is hitting close to home. I'm still confused why Charles didn't marry Camilla in the 1st place.
Bigamy - as she didnt get a divorce until 1995. But it wasnt thought the thing to do, anyway, to marry a divorced woman, the spirit of Edward VIII's abdication, (the Queen's Uncle), to do that was still strong.
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Old Nov 22nd 2020, 11:06 pm
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Default Re: Margaret Thatcher

Originally Posted by kimilseung
Bigamy - as she didnt get a divorce until 1995. But it wasnt thought the thing to do, anyway, to marry a divorced woman, the spirit of Edward VIII's abdication, (the Queen's Uncle), to do that was still strong.
I think Danny meant before she married PB. She met Charles years before when they were young. He wanted to marry her but the RF sent him overseas. It’s in The Crown series 4.
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Old Nov 23rd 2020, 5:25 am
  #21  
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Default Re: Margaret Thatcher

Thatcher = Despicable disgusting piece of -- . Loathed her and her type then and despise her & her type to this day. That will never ever change. What she did to the country remains forever unforgivable.

Made me more than spit that she was given a ceremonial funeral with her ashes buried at the royal hospital Chelsea , rather than just cast ignominiously down a pit.

Makes me sick even thinking about the likes of that one.



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Old Nov 23rd 2020, 7:30 am
  #22  
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Default Re: Margaret Thatcher

Everyone who despairs at the selfish and grasping nature of the UK today can trace that attitude directly back to Margaret Thatcher.

She was enthusiastically supported by the greedy and the unthinking. "F*** society - me first." Interesting that the supporters on here so far only note their personal benefit, not societal.
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Old Nov 23rd 2020, 8:13 am
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Default Re: Margaret Thatcher

I guess clamping down hard on terrorists, football hooligans and allowing people to buy their own houses from the council cant be classed as societal. Bringing down inflation I bet doesn't count either. I wonder if she had had a Referendum what the result would have been? At the end of her tenure unemployment was down from when she took over and she actually closed less coal mines than the previous Labour Govt. I wonder if Labour would have sent the Armed Forces in or handed over the Falkland Islands to the Argentinians? Deregulating the Stock Exchange in 1986 I suppose didn't help with the amount of money that flooded into the UK.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...hanges-britain

But yeah I guess to some she did no good at all.
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Old Nov 23rd 2020, 8:47 am
  #24  
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Default Re: Margaret Thatcher

Originally Posted by Danny B
Yes I finished episode 6 last night, really enjoying it so far and the actor playing Charles is spot on.

I wonder if the young Royals watch it now that this season is hitting close to home. I'm still confused why Charles didn't marry Camilla in the 1st place.
He certainly has the ears for it.

​​​​I think it was because Mountbatten had viewed it as a young passing love, and encouraged Charles to play the field. Meanwhile Camilla got married.

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Old Nov 23rd 2020, 9:08 am
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Default Re: Margaret Thatcher

Originally Posted by Former Lancastrian
I guess clamping down hard on terrorists, football hooligans and allowing people to buy their own houses from the council cant be classed as societal. Bringing down inflation I bet doesn't count either. I wonder if she had had a Referendum what the result would have been? At the end of her tenure unemployment was down from when she took over and she actually closed less coal mines than the previous Labour Govt. I wonder if Labour would have sent the Armed Forces in or handed over the Falkland Islands to the Argentinians? Deregulating the Stock Exchange in 1986 I suppose didn't help with the amount of money that flooded into the UK.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...hanges-britain

But yeah I guess to some she did no good at all.
"Clamping down hard" on terrorists isn't automatically a good thing. Remember internment? And notably, peace in Northern Ireland was brought about by engaging with the leaders of the various factions. You're not a squaddie any more, you don't need to think like one any more either.

Football hooligans? That's what happens when you create 3 million unemployed people... bored and angry young men. "Clamping down" on a problem you created is hardly political genius.

Selling off council houses? Let's not go there. The UK property market is completely distorted beyond belief thanks to the Thatcherite obsession with property prices. Selling off council houses has ruined the UK economy.

Bringing down inflation was achieved by destroying the industrial sector. The obsession with inflation is idiotic... inflation is driven by demand, and demand is healthy for the economy. Chocking the economy simply to drive down inflation is stupid.

Unemployment - I hope you are not trying to credit Thatcher with bringing down unemployment. Revisionism beyond belief!

Falklands? Who cares, really?

Deregulating the Stock Exchange... well, I never had you down as a yuppie, FL. Remember the financial crash of 2008? Directly due to deregulation and encouraging people to make money out of selling debt.

Oh, she changed society alright... and it's funny how so many Gammons like Farage keep harping back to the halcyon days of old, which are usually before Thatcher took the axe to Britain.
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Old Nov 23rd 2020, 9:55 am
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Default Re: Margaret Thatcher

I am certainly no yuppie just an ordinary guy going about things to live a decent life.
So who sent the troops into NI it certainly wasn't a Con Govt.
Not all football hooligans were unemployed.
So would you have preferred that those who bought council houses to have remained paying rent and not have the opportunity to buy a home? I lived in a council house until 1972 but my parents didn't buy one when they could afford to buy a home.
FFS she was voted out in 1990 and died in 2013. The way some talk about her I am sure some of them would sooner have Hitler, Stalin or Mugabe sat at their dinner table than Thatcher.
She has been voted the best and the worst UK PM so make of that what you will.
Did I vote for her No.
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Old Nov 23rd 2020, 4:36 pm
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Default Re: Margaret Thatcher

Originally Posted by Partially discharged
She presided over a shift from centralised, state-controlled institutions to privatisation and economic reform.

This alone is a plus for me. I left the UK at age 17 permanently and as such never got to vote there but the power of the Trade Unions in the 70's and the lack of entrepreneurial spirit in the country at the time was a dark gloom over the nation. Thatcher had an unwelcome task to overcome the power of the unions and for many she allowed the economy to open up.

For many who hated her with a viceral passion, it seemed that she wanted to take away the entitlement and free ride that they were benefitting from for so long.

I find it telling in S4 of the Crown that Prince Philip was suspicious of her as she seemed to be a self made conservative (a scientist no less) and not like the long line of Conservative MP's who were very similar to Jacob Rees-Mog or the various landed gentry from the shires who had dominated conservative party politics for so long.
Id agree with this...a balanced view point.

As many have said, your personal view point of her, really does depend how old you were and what you did for a living, The UK was out of control when she came to power following the winter of discontent....which has been forgotten by people who spout the bile and venom, she may have overdid it in certain areas, but it needed to be done, the trade unions were out of control ....as FL mentioned you would think some would sooner share a dinner table with Mugabe, Mao, Stalin or Hitler than Thatcher. .


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Old Nov 24th 2020, 2:33 pm
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Default Re: Margaret Thatcher

Originally Posted by Shard
I never quite understood the depth of resentment against the poll tax, and evidently, neither did she ! I had the sense that the protests were more ideologically against Thatcherism than that particular policy itself.
It was a cold, calculated, politically motivated policy to empty people from the electoral roll. With poorer families and households failing to register, and who would traditionally be working class and Labour voting people, this by default ensured tory wins in elections and by-elections. The very fact that it contributed to her downfall proved how flawed it was. No-one denies that people should pay their way but Mr Kensington-Smythe in his townhouse in Belgravia paying the same as Mr Bob Broke, wife and 2 adult kids in his 8th floor flat in Peckham paying 4 lots of poll tax? Seriously? What particularly annoyed the people of Scotland was that no-one gave a toss or listened to the concerns until it affected England. But we didn't riot about it, although the 'Poll Tax riots' are what made the rest of the UK sit up and take notice! And now we have Bojo and JRM 🙄
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Old Nov 24th 2020, 2:43 pm
  #29  
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Default Re: Margaret Thatcher

Originally Posted by Jamesy5008
It was a cold, calculated, politically motivated policy to empty people from the electoral roll. With poorer families and households failing to register, and who would traditionally be working class and Labour voting people, this by default ensured tory wins in elections and by-elections. The very fact that it contributed to her downfall proved how flawed it was. No-one denies that people should pay their way but Mr Kensington-Smythe in his townhouse in Belgravia paying the same as Mr Bob Broke, wife and 2 adult kids in his 8th floor flat in Peckham paying 4 lots of poll tax? Seriously? What particularly annoyed the people of Scotland was that no-one gave a toss or listened to the concerns until it affected England. But we didn't riot about it, although the 'Poll Tax riots' are what made the rest of the UK sit up and take notice! And now we have Bojo and JRM 🙄
I haven't heard the theory about removing voters from the elctoral roll, that sounds a bit of a stretch as political motivation. Whether a non-progressive flat tax is fair or not is a different argument. Although, the current system council tax based on property value does seem fairer.
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Old Nov 27th 2020, 4:33 pm
  #30  
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Default Re: Margaret Thatcher

It's a long time ago, but one or two things still stick in the memory.
I seem to remember voting for Thatcher and arguing with fellow workers about her policies and driving through picket lines.
I think a couple of things really changed it for me.
I distinctly remember listening to the news of a morning and hearing tales of the police stopping motorists from travelling if they'd come from certain areas, the idea that so called flying pickets might be among them. To me this really was an example of the state going too far. Many tales came from innocent people going about their business but stopped from doing so simply because the police thought they might be up to no good. Confrontations outside the likes of Orgreave was one thing but clamping down on someone like me because I might be doing something they didn't want me to do didn't sit well at all.
By the time Thatcher started selling off utilities I'd become fervently anti-thatcher. Taking from people who, as a member of the voting public, partly owned a utility to sell it off cheaply to only those who could afford it, was to my mind stealing from the poor to give to the rich. Ironically I was never wound up about sales of council houses.
It's clear to me that the unions had become a force that needed to be taken on. I'm not sure that there were many politicians who'd have taken on the job, but it was well planned and enlarged stockpiles of coal is evidence that she'd decided as and when the struggle would take place and she was lucky in her choice of adversary. Scargill was much more easily disliked and demonised by the average voter than the quiet Gormly.
The Falklands war was allowed to happen. I seem to remember tales that a show of concern about Argentine ambitions by dispatching a warship to the area might very well have quietened things down had they done a few years earlier, but I found the islanders fixated on their dislike of a country so close and one they traded with. I remember thing at the time that it would have been cheaper to have bought the islander off and sharing sovereignty, but by then I don't think compromise entered the Thatcher mentality.

Like Churchill, she was suited for a time and unsuited for so much else. Unlike Churchill she's still in living memory.
I hesitate to wonder to what lengths Thatcher would have taken the country had the miner's strike gone on indefinitely.

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