It's all Thatchers fault.

tomterm8

Sol00 wrote: »

Jeez!! Top rate tax was 83p??

Don't worry, old bean, no one actually paid it... that's what accountants are for.

RabbitMad

Sol00 wrote: »

Jeez!! Top rate tax was 83p??

Yes but indirect / "stealth" taxes (Fuel duty, vat etc) did rise as income tax rates dropped. When people quote figures such as the top 1% of earners paying 22% of the tax take after the drop as opposed to only 15% before and the lowest 10% went from paying 9% to 7% or such stuff and then go on to quote the "Laffer curve" I don't know whether they have factored in the effect of indirect taxes.

The latest budget was basically a lets rob the poor budget through indirect tax.

Alistair Darling is more a sheriff of nottingham figure than a robin hood as the mirror made out.

WhiteThierry

stephen163 wrote: »

Thatcher is a hero. She saved us years of anguish by speeding up the inevitable - the abolishment of excessive trade union power and the forcing of nationalised industries to compete globally.

The harsh fact people need to wake up to is the old fashioned British engineering could not compete globally. So you are left with 2 choices, subsidise them to high heaven and restrict cheap imports, or throw down the challenge to the British economy to adapt and find its own niche in the world. We did the latter and despite what a lot of people might say, we haven't done too badly since.

the reason we now have an energy crisis so bad, we've become dependant on energy from abroad and are now at the mercy of other countries, the reason we're starting to RE-OPEN mines at a huge cost to the taxpayer, the reason nearly 200 British servicemen and 100000+ iraqis lost their lives over our lack of energy. oh yes a certain Thatcher.

its easy for people in their nice jobs and houses to say thatcher was a hero, but if you've ever been to some of the villages most affected by her policies you would see it was a national disgrace what she did.

anyway, i'll agree with churchill and attlee and add harold wilson into the mix, no-one did as much in the 20th century to turn us into a 21st century civilized nation, he abolished the death penalty, legalised abortion and homosexuality and made divorce a hell of a lot easier.

Jennifer_Jane

tomterm8 wrote: »

Don't worry, old bean, no one actually paid it... that's what accountants are for.

Well, my brother-in-law did, I can remember him complaining about '19s 6d' in the £ (£ = 20 shillings for the very young ones (lucky you).

Just wanted to go off-thread to congratulate Generali on his new job - best of Aussie luck mate, or some such idiomatic phrasing. This means that Generali cannot come back to be our Prime Minister, which is a shame. So, I would vote for Joanna Lumley.

Also, to congratulate Generali on managing to use the word 'psephology' (the statistical analysis of elections - thanks, Wikipedia). I shall try to use at least once in life.

Thanks for a great thread!

Jen
x

stephen163

WhiteThierry wrote: »

the reason we now have an energy crisis so bad, we've become dependant on energy from abroad and are now at the mercy of other countries, the reason we're starting to RE-OPEN mines at a huge cost to the taxpayer, the reason nearly 200 British servicemen and 100000+ iraqis lost their lives over our lack of energy. oh yes a certain Thatcher.

In my infinite ignorance I thought the re-opening of British coal mines was due to its soaring market price. When the plants were closed, coal was as cheap as chips and Britain were trying to sell it for the price of caviar.

Why should the taxpayer subsidise miners?

chewmylegoff

Sol00 wrote: »

Jeez!! Top rate tax was 83p??

the top rate of tax on "unearned income" (e.g. bank account interest) was 98%.

WhiteThierry

stephen163 wrote: »

In my infinite ignorance I thought the re-opening of British coal mines was due to its soaring market price. When the plants were closed, coal was as cheap as chips and Britain were trying to sell it for the price of caviar.

Why should the taxpayer subsidise miners?

the same reasons we subsidise everything from transport to whole countries ie scotland, should we just abandon our railways because they're not profitable,subsidising industry benefits the ordinary people of britain, as i said before, if you go to some of the old mining villages around barnsley, doncaster, nottinghamshire you'll see some have only just recovered or are just recovering or will not recover for the long term future, because of thatcher. I can assure you, taxpayers money has, is and always will be spent on much less important things than keeping people in jobs, and its a pretty lame arguament to suggest thatcher was right to decimate whole areas just to ease a few peoples tax burden

nickj_2

Old_Slaphead wrote: »

Who was the last half decent PM we've had (have we had one?)

i don't know if we've had one , but i would quite happily have joanna lumney running the country :T:T:T

ukcarper

I might be wrong but I don’t think the true cost of closing a pit was ever used it was straight profit/loss it didn’t take into account the lost of tax or any knock on effects.

Dylanwing

Thatcher solved the problems of the Trade Unions, but created far more, and many of our problems stem from her, and NuLabour have just compounded her errors. Council House sales have created a lot of the housing problems, privatisation has created over-priced energy, reliance of other Countries, expensive public transport, and problems of water supplies. She decimated manufacturing, created the benefit ghettoes, and shifted the taxation burden from the rich to the poor. Not forgetting wasting all our money from Oil and Gas on tax cuts for the rich, instead of re-investing in the UK infastructure. All this carp about 'market forces' is fine when things are going well, and your economy will look better than the mixed ones, but when things go belly up, you are horribly exposed.
NuLabour are compounding her errors by continued 'modernisations', privatisations and not taking control of key industries, and adding to them by wasting money on BS Consultants, Computer Systems, pointless non-jobs & red tape. Oh yes, and allowing jobs to go overseas.
If the PO goes, we will see the "benefits" of the private sector. Higher prices, less staff, worse service, but better PR/ spin - And no benefits at all, because the money saved is going to a handful of Directors and shareholders.
The reason why Thatcher is so "loved" - She understood the power of the Press and helped certain media Dictators in their aims.