Re: Thatcher dies
 

Personally, I greatly admire Mrs Thatcher. She was, after all voted in 3 times! she broke the back of unionisation and she was ballsy enough to fight for the Falklands! I know it depends on which side of the fence you sit but she did her job well (apart from the poll tax!) RIP Mrs T xx

Re: Thatcher dies
 

Are you kidding FL?

They made a fortune! Their job included hours of sitting on their arses in big coaches doing nothing being paid OT.

Re: Thatcher dies
 

Why? we are only supposed to have 3 score years and 10!

Re: Thatcher dies
 

:thumbup: now that was a monster!

Re: Thatcher dies
 

Yup pretty much the same as the potential for violence at tonights Utd/City game or when Spurs play Arsenal or West Ham play Millwall.
How many coppers will be paid overtime at these games and yes the taxpayers are paying for it.
Oh look the EDL are having a march better get some coppers in on overtime just in case there is trouble.
A coopers life is not always a happy one and Im sure hundreds of them would prefer to swap places with you in these situations.

Re: Thatcher dies
 

A cooper's life is usually a barrel of laughs.

Sorry.

Re: Thatcher dies
 

And whose fault is that? Not the Polices. Sure the OT was paid and I know some who made decent money but believe me when they surged forward at places like Cortonwood and started lobbing all sorts at the Police believe me it was not a nice scenario. Yes there were some pretty violent clashes with injuries on both sides. So who would you sooner have had separating the miners the Police the Army or nobody just let them go at each other then.
We saw what it did to families pitted brother against brother because some chose to work and refused to join the picket lines.
BTW if you were a copper would you have taken the OT;)

Re: Thatcher dies
 

The police aren't conscripts so trying to drum up sympathy for them doing a job they are paid well for isn't going to wash with me. The police were used as a political tool by Thatcher, that didn't bother you?

Thatcher reneged on a previous agreement to increase productivity in the mines by closing them down wholesale, whole communities were affected-disastrously.

Re: Thatcher dies
 

I'm a little lost today. Where am I going to direct my ire now when I see injustice in the the world? :(

Re: Thatcher dies
 

So the question is.....How do you define a great leader? leaders, whoever they are a one in a party of people and as such do not have sole responsibility for decisions however good of ill founded. look at all the parties and their leaders....as far as I am concerned, they do a service, some good things, some not so good, but most of them are only in office to feather their own nests, and very well they seem to do so.

We have to remember that we are all human and could any of us...hand on heart......say that we could do a better job. To Err is human.

As for Maggie Thatcher, I for one am saddened by her passing in the same way as I would be to hear of anyone in public office or celebrity passing.

we all follow their story in the media and are intrigued by it, but we never know the person behind the facade. One has to be brave to put oneself out there for public Scruitiny, support, ridicule or condemnation.

The people who do that are called leaders and the rest followers.......whatever their calling.

These are my opinions, for what they are worth.
Stef

Re: Thatcher dies
 

No they are not conscripts and some would argue not paid well given the nature of their job.
Everybody knew there was going to be violence due to both the Govts and miners position. Neither were going to back down.
So in view of this what should have been done send in a bunch of teachers, nurses or bankers to separate them?
Where we used as a political tool then that can be argued the same as sending soldiers into Northern Ireland in 1969.

Re: Thatcher dies
 

The Policing of football games is not met entirely from the public purse, the clubs have to contribute to all security at matches.
Stef

Re: Thatcher dies
 

In 1979, Britain's future prospect was a rapid transition to third-world status, and she delayed that for a couple of decades. You know your country is in trouble when even Idi Amin is offering to send you aid.

I strongly suspect her election was largely down to the Boomers realising that if they continued down the path their parents had chosen, they'd soon be living in a colder, wetter Zimbabwe. By the time the British people decided to 'vote the bastards out' in 1997, the economy was in a better state than it had been for decades.

Re: Thatcher dies
 

I think we should all agree that something had to be about the trade unions, but killing the industries at the same time I feel was the wrong approach, yet the unions were subdued, but with the entire industry killed in the process made the act rather pointless
For the others that many refer to costing the country a fortune, how then did mere privatisation suddenly make them profitable , other than possibly changing the financial rewards & motivation the bosses that had run them in the past (rich getter richer)
But I don’t think they will be her long time legacy, between Margaret and Ronald they lead the deregulation of the banking sector, something we’ve started too see as a big global mistake!
That I think will be one of the things that will put Thatcherism and Regonomics in histories list of big mistakes
And as many point out see was voted in for several terms, but don’t forget if it wasn’t for the Falkland’s she was nearly throw out of office by her own party in her first term, and also asked to leave by the party in the end too

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I know from experience, as an ex copper myself, some of my jobs were far from a barrel of laughs, dealing with murders, blood, assaults, stabbings, suicides, child abuse, car crashes.......if that would be deemed a barrel of laughs you would need to seek therapy
Stef