It's all Thatchers fault.

ad44downey

bo_drinker wrote: »

http://news.uk.msn.com/features/article.aspx?cp-documentid=16585034

I always knew it was all Mad Maggie's fault. Thanks for confirming it.

kennyboy66_2

Generali wrote: »

Thatcher has become a [STRIKE]bogey[/STRIKE] hero figure among people who were too young to realise what was going on at the time and are too lazy to find out for themselves these days.

.

Corrected your spelling mistake.

Reaper

ebonylight wrote: »

I still think the Prime Minister should be Sir Allan Sugar.

Somebody with a high opinion of themselves but a weak track record in business. Despite that he spouts opinions as if he knows what he's talking about and lined his pockets nicely.

Yup. Sounds like every other politician we've ever had.

kennyboy66_2

Generali wrote: »

No I hadn't.

TBH, it probably chimes more with my view (unsurprisingly).

It misses one of the things that Thatcher did was that she attacked 'corporatism' in the UK - the professional classes were undermined as much as organised Labour through things like the Big Bang and taking off restrictions on professionals competing.

The only thing I can think of as evidence of attacking 'corporatism' was reform of stock exchange in 1986.

I don't think that undermining professionals (which she did when it suited - Teachers but not Police) without actually reforming professions really is something to claim as a sucess.

She did of course discover Penicillum and invented the internet, so wasn't all bad.

mvengemvenge

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

Good article. I wish I'd written it but I would have mentioned the buying of votes through right to buy and the destruction of the council housing market.

Key points for me are:

1. The destruction of real work (Engineering) and the move to poncy non-jobs (Finance). Deregulation of the financial markets to ensure those in poncy non-jobs could flourish (by the cheap credit bubble).

2. Income tax fell, especially for the rich. Indirect taxes rose, especially for the poor. The rise in indirect taxes outweigh the reductions in income tax for the poor while the rich are laughing all the way to the bank..

GG

I agree with every single word. You've summed it up perfectly.

iltisman

Her big mistake was leaving the BBC to carry on lurching to the left and hypnotizing the gullible with their edited "news".

Generali

kennyboy66 wrote: »

The only thing I can think of as evidence of attacking 'corporatism' was reform of stock exchange in 1986.

I don't think that undermining professionals (which she did when it suited - Teachers but not Police) without actually reforming professions really is something to claim as a sucess.

She did of course discover Penicillum and invented the internet, so wasn't all bad.

The police aren't a profession.

She introduced much more competition into the areas of Law, Accountancy, Conveyancing and Private Medcine.

For example, in 1979 most professionals couldn't advertise.

Generali

kennyboy66 wrote: »

Corrected your spelling mistake.

Sorry old boy. Are you saying that the break Thatcher made with the disastrous policies persued by Lab and Con in the 1970s was a bad thing? Not a view I've heard expressed before but one I'd be happy to discuss.

RabbitMad

Generali wrote: »

Sorry old boy. Are you saying that the break Thatcher made with the disastrous policies persued by Lab and Con in the 1970s was a bad thing? Not a view I've heard expressed before but one I'd be happy to discuss.

I assumed he was saying that Thatcher was / is a hero to many of us. I believe that she and the policies she advocated allowed my working class family to achieve more in life than we would otherwise have been able to.

And I would disagree with you about wanting McClown to win the next election. Yes, if he does Labour would never be elected again but the damage caused to this country will mean that my children's* children will still be paying for it when they are my age and they have a far lower standard of living than we have.

*I currently (Unless the missus has forgotten to phone me) only have 1 child aged 2.

Sol00

Jeez!! Top rate tax was 83p??