'Which Prime Minister would you resurrect?' poll

runaroundpauper

RicoOS wrote: »

I dont think Maggie did eveything right, but you certainly have the blinkers on there.

Maggie may have shut the mines, but its was the NUM and Arthur Scargill who caused them to be shut. When the strike started, there were only a handful of un-economic mines due to be closed. Arthur Scargill, thought he could bring the country to its knees, and insist that we keep subsidising mines that were massively unproductive.

The trouble was that the NUM's intransigence, and inability to accept the reality of the situation meant that by the time the strike ended, virtually all of the mines were un-economic. that was not Maggie's fault in any way shape of form, try blaming the person responsible, Arthur Scargill.

Selling council houses, possibly not such a daft idea, but only if you allow more to be built, so I will agree that she got that wrong.

Yes she dramatically reduced the power of the unions, but if you think the unions were doing the country any good at all in the 1970's, then you need to take a long hard look at what was going on and take off the rose tinted specs.

Maggie wasn't some genius, she wasn't always right, however.

She always tried to do what she thought was the right thing (can any politician these says say that?). She refused to have us cow tow to europe and dramatically turned the economy of this country round.

Yes it was painful, but change always is, the difficult things that have to be done, are frequently going to be unpopular in the short term, that doesn't make them less the right thing to do.

Whats wrong with the country at the moment, is far too difficult to explain here in a few sentences. However most of whats wrong (not all) but most, can be squarely and firmly put at the feet of Mr Blair, and Mr Brown. They racked up the debt, they allowed millions to sit on their bums and do nothing, they introduced mass imigration and the human rights act, they signed us deeper and further into Europe after promising a referendum to get us to vote for them, and then refusing.

Gordon Brown is the man who can probably be said to be the single most responsible person for creating the conditions that allowed the credit crunch to occur, and we all carried on spending vastly more than we earned, with never a thought about, well this is going to be painful when we have to repay it.

The "growth" achieved in the economy from about 2000 through to 2007, was achieved by using debt, so in reality it simply didn't happen, and now, the world is starting to realise this, a correction is not only in-evitable, but neccessary.

We have lived with our heads in the sand and taken no responsibility for 15 years, and now we have no choice but to accept it, we are complaining... who voted them in? us, therefore who is responsible?

There's a strange twist in there somewhere scargils pride was magies hatred mines uneconomical then she starts the ball rolling on the debt wagon led by her pride the bankers then we have to bail them out

katyboo123

Margaret Thatcher with her half mil expenses, definitely my lady of choice. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/oct/28/margaret-thatcher-expenses-claim

What are you all thinking?

Yogibear

RedFaced wrote: »

Thatcher!!! The most popular!!! seriously are you completely MAD?

exactly, she was very popular up here in Scotland:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:NOT

npw32jnw

The problem with this question is that it completely depends on your political persuasion as to which way you vote. (Still not too sure why people have voted for Brown though....)
So, I would assume that most of those voting for Thatcher (easily the best of the conservative options) are tories, and those voting for Blair are labour.

No-one is ever going to agree about any of these choices (even if Churchill had been on it...) because politics is so diverse. Throw in all the different economic theories, and it muddies the water yet further.

Few thoughts from me - Thatcher did the right thing by sorting the unions out - otherwise we would have been in the same place as Greece is now - however she did take it a bit far with the miners - personal vendetta? Major had good ideas but was never strong enough to bring them through. Blair had a sweeping majority to effect change but never really managed to do enough to really stamp his mark on history (other than the war...) - this was partly because of the backroom tensions between him and Brown. Brown was an absolute disgrace for the country because he simply spent spent spent and never considered that it would have to be paid back. He should never have been allowed to call himself Prime Minister. Public sector does not grow an economy. We should really give Cameron a bit of a chance, it seems that he and Osborne have a better plan than others in Europe to get back on track. We all know that the economy is in a bad place, so why are we expecting them to turn it around in just over a year....?

torbrex

Jim Hacker is not on the list

State of Education

sharrison01

jax1305 wrote: »

not to mention taking away my school milk!!

Lose free milk at school or lose a free university education? I'm pretty sure that Blair's "innovation" of putting students into debt puts these respective policies in context...

It baffles me how anyone can vote for a Labour leader over the past 30 years?!? The 78/79 winter of discontent showed what Labour was all about and they then left the country in pretty much the same situation almost 30 years later! I'm not sure which was the better effort but Blair/Brown certainly showed how a massive current account surplus and period of economic boom can be completely wasted to give a couple of generations the chance to pay for it.

I can understand how people dislike Thatcher's promotion of capitalism and all the negatives that it brings but unfortunately that is how the world works and she played the game at the top level. When she came in, Britain was the laughing stock of the world, going cap in hand to the IMF yet in a relatively short space of time she had Europe in the palm of her hand and we were again respected on the international stage, not least by the biggest of the bunch, the US. Privatisation was not popular but let's be honest, no government could run a bath in terms of business acumen! British Gas, Telecom, Rail etc were all shedding money faster than it could be printed by a Labour government and offered shocking services. And of course the right to buy - possibly the greatest bit of politics this country has ever seen! For someone that is supposed to care very little about the working man, this is rather a contradiction in that it gave the working man a job in the construction industry, the motivation to work for something and the pride in being a homeowner. Maybe Blair/Brown should have thought along these lines where a penny spent actually adds value rather than just mass employing people in the civil service to make their stats look good!

savepete

Believe it or not, but I think John Major was one of the best prime minsters Britain has had since WWII.

wallbash

Still with over 60% , she would be my 100%

Maggie Rules .

Moneybot

Lloyd George FTW.................................................................

stevemcol

Margaret Thatcher.....Margaret Thatcher!?!
Are our memories so short? If you traced the routes of this whole mess, that is where all clues would lead. The current crop of idiot bankers were brought up with all the empty values of 1980s Britain.
She was a tyrant. The tories of that era, and today, understood the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
Margaret was interested in the middle classes and the super rich; anyone else could find a suitable gutter and live happily ever after.

No wonder I end up disagreeing with 60% of MSE posters, on most subjects :rotfl: