MSE News: Margaret Thatcher 'leader to knock Britain into shape'

Former_MSE_Guy · 18 November 2011 at 12:03PM

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"Thatcher has been voted the Prime Minister best equipped to lead Britain in 2011 by a poll of MoneySavers ..."

Read the full story:
Margaret Thatcher 'leader to knock Britain into shape'

JC_Derby · 18 November 2011 at 12:13PM

yeah just what we could do with.
National strikes, race riots, pointless wars....oh wait:mad:

mattytun · 18 November 2011 at 12:13PM

tagq2 · 18 November 2011 at 12:23PM

In a poll of

, people voted[the game changer] plus [two recent names] as most able to do [something].

Do we have an age distribution for site visitors? Some polls suggest we have quite a lot of people in their late 20s/early 30s, fitting the nostalgia filter rule quite well: things were always best just before you became aware of them and have been going down since.

In other news, Stalin knocked the Russian economy into shape; Mussolini the Italian; Franco the Spanish. Tomorrow belongs to...

VfM4meplse · 18 November 2011 at 12:25PM

Let's be fair, how many of those polled actually remember politics pre 1970s?

Margaret Thatcher was the obvious choice as she is still known as the Iron Lady. Anyone who lived through her leadership will remember times of cruel poverty and a cabinet that quaked in their boots. Besides which, after her ill-health over the past few years she's not fit to govern a damn thing, if she ever was. I'm surprised at people's rose-tinted memory of her...!

dzug1 · 18 November 2011 at 12:31PM

Well I suppose if you define knocking Britain into shape as making the poor poorer and the rich richer then maybe

She had a very narrow view of 'Britain' which I suspect was confined to certain parts of England anyway

apt · 18 November 2011 at 12:53PM

If you wanted a leader who could take Britain into a second recession Thatcher's already done that and got the t-shirt.

Fairzo · 18 November 2011 at 12:55PM

Hell fire, how soon people forget or ignore how others were affected - if they were around at the time at all.

This is something better to sign up to http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/2979

Azari · 18 November 2011 at 1:07PM

This is a classic example of a self selecting sample.

The type of person who believes that the myriad interrelated problems we face, many of them based on factors originating outside this country can be solved by someone 'knocking the country into shape' are likely to take a similarly naive and simplistic view of the type of person required to do it.

People with a deeper and more realistic appreciation of the problems involved are unlikely to vote for anything so unrealistic.

dunstonh · 18 November 2011 at 1:09PM

I'm surprised at people's rose-tinted memory of her...!

You cannot ignore the fact that she turned around this country from being virtually bankrupt and close to being reclassified as the first developed economy to be reclassifed as third world into something that we could be proud of. The later years were not as successful and errors made but she was certainly the right person for the job at the right time. Just held on too long. Very tough decisions needed to be made and she made them. Not the fudging and pandering and useless compromises that have been made since.

phillj · 18 November 2011 at 1:11PM

It's thanks to the policies she started in the 80 and continued by successive governments of all colours that we're in this bloody mess now!

MSE News: Margaret Thatcher 'leader to knock Britain into shape'

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