What a sad and spiteful thread. I can only assume from the juvenile comments made by the majority of posters that they were not old enough to have worked in both the 70's and 80's. Had they done so then they would be more aware of the enormous problems that Mrs Thatcher's had to overcome to turn around the fortunes of the UK. Posters that claim to be aware of the history of these times yet still have made their sick and distorted views public must have been naive and under the influence of the Militant Tendency at the time and ever since.

Mrs T took over a country on its knees with successive governments of all colours unable or unwilling to tackle the problems head on. Throughout the 70's we became known as The New Sick Man of Europe because of industrial strife and poor economic performance when compared to other countries. In 1976 the Labour government had the humiliation of seeking a £2.3 billion loan from the IMF. It was on recent Greek bail out proportions.

The 3 day week caused by the militant unions, rampant inflation (26.9% in 1975) culminated in the "winter of discontent" in 1978/9 under the Callaghan Labour government. The over powerful unions demanded a return to "free collective bargaining" with demands for 40% pay increases or we strike. In those days so much was run (or mis run) by the public sector and there were wide spread public sector strikes with more days lost in Jan 79 than since the general strike of 1926.

I can still picture the scene: Refuse bins unemptied with public parks used to dump the rubbish - Rats on the streets -Ambulances on strike and refusing to answer 999 calls with the army having to be called in - Nurses demanding a 25% rise - the grave diggers strike meant coffins were piling up in warehouses - Lorry drivers striking for 40% increases and the army called in to drive the petrol tankers - flying pickets being bused around the country.

The top rate of income tax was 83% (on anything over 24k) and talent was leaving these shores by the boat load and tax revenues were nose diving.

The people had had enough and voted Mrs T in on a ticket to reform trade union law after nearly 30 million working days lost in 1979 to industrial disputes. So after the Conservative victory in the 1979 elections Mrs T proceeded to carry out her election promises which inlcuded a change to trade union law which was dramatic in those days but now something no current polititcian would want to change. She made it law for a union to have to have a ballot before strike action could be taken. Was this such unreasonable legislation?

This was followed by other necessary reforms which turned the countries fortunes around. The sale of council houses provided many to have the chance to own their own home and home ownership rose from around 50% to around 67%. Ordinary people for the first time were able to buy shares and trade union reform led to the lowest level of strikes for 30 years and a steady upturn in the economy. She led the way for London to be one of the leading financial centres and encouraged the service sector. The size of the state was reduced and we prospered.

All this meant Mrs Thatcher had a landslide victory in 1983

The 1984-5 miners strike was caused by the arrogant self important and very foolish miners leader Scargill who led the poor miners over the cliff. He thought he could bully Mrs T and she made him look the fool that he was. But make no mistake it was this disatrous year long strike that spelt the death knell for the coal industry. Unions and left wingers have tried to push the blame on Mrs T but she was the democratically elected leader of the country who was prepared to do her duty on behalf of the majority of the country without fear or favour. While Scargill was the most undemocratic leader you could imagine and the main culprit.

She became one of the most important figures on the world stage and played an important part in the downfall of communism and had a major influence on most free market economies who copied her ideas and she brought inward investment to the UK. Margaret Thatcher was a conviction politician who was also pragmatic and many of her policies were divisive which tends to happen to those with strong convictions. Churchill suffered in the same way.

But like all politicians and PM's they too often go past their sell by date. I did not agree with all her ideas but IMO she was the right person for the problems of the time and history will record her as one of our truly great PM's who always had the best interests of the country at heart whether you agree with her policies or not.

That she is still hated after all these years by these keyboard 5th columists is testimony to how successful she really was.

You realise that doesn't rule out being religious, right? It can, and does, apply to both theists and atheists.

Made everyone greedy and selfish by destroying the unions who were... greedy and selfish.
Strange paradox

tl:dr. Was it a spittle-inflected rant about how wonderful she was and how evil anyone with slightly left-leaning tendencies is by any chance?

You need to vary your material. You were only slightly amusing to start with; now you're just tedious.

An agnostic is someone who doesn't know what to believe or indeed whether to believe at all. To be religious one has to first believe.

Nigel Farage

“I thought that although the medicine she made the country swallow had a deeply unpleasant taste and was very painful for a lot of old industries,” said Mr Farage. “But I have no doubt that she modernised the United Kingdom, and at the end of her 11 years there was foreign investment flooding into manufacturing and finance.”

“We went from being the sick man of Europe to being the most dynamic economy in Europe.”

He continued: “But whether you like her or loathe her, the one thing that I would really say about her is that nobody should doubt that she was absolutely the most patriotic Prime Minister of modern times. She believed in everything she was doing, and that it was for the good of the country.”

Drunk again!

I don't think there will ever be another British PM who was able to cope with the suffering and misery of so many other people. She was a real hero.

Dennis Healey once said "The further you travel from Britain, the more popular Mrs Thatcher becomes". Many people posting their love for Thatcher on this thread and in the newspapers are clearly from another f******g universe.

Will there be room in the casket for that ex-press secretary of hers, Sir Bernard?

There needs to be!

A House of Commons love in today.
I'm getting a nausea rush already.

I'm going to try and get a version of Toni Basil's hit covered on itunes. Just a draught at this stage but it starts something like:

"Oh Maggie, you're so fine
You're so fine, you blow my mind, hey Maggie, hey Maggie
Oh Maggie, you're so fine
You're so fine, you blow my mind, hey Maggie, hey Maggie

Hey Maggie You've been around all night and that's not long enough
They think you've got it wrong but I think you've got it right
Why can't we say goodnight? So you can take me home, Maggie ................."

Not bad eh?


Just seen Arthur Scargill's wife on TV spouting more bile. How low can these dreadful people go? Now there are plans to disrupt the funeral service. I don't know about "lower class" - no class more like!

Can you remind us again what was the NUM's stated purpose, the main cause, of the year long strike ?

The deletion of Arthur Scargill.

The list requires nothing else.