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What Did Thatcher Ever Do For Us?
Comments
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http://www.smh.com.au/comment/living-under-the-rule-of-the-iron-lady-20130412-2hqut.html
I think this is a fair summary of what life was like for a young man in Thatcher's Britain.....Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions.0 -
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/living-under-the-rule-of-the-iron-lady-20130412-2hqut.html
I think this is a fair summary of what life was like for a young man in Thatcher's Britain.....
Only for those that didn't bother at education....0 -
Only for those that didn't bother at education....
It wasn't just those that didn't bother with education.
In the same way that we are churning out graduates now without enough decent job opportunities. The bar just got raised and the holes in the trawl net wider."If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham0 -
...she left us a £10 million pound bill for her funeral....Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.0
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posh*spice wrote: »...she left us a £10 million pound bill for her funeral....
Does that include her cremation? I've heard 'the ladies not for burning'0 -
She wanted wealth for all, not a select few and took on entrenched interests in other parts of the economy, not just among the unions
There was an interesting pro-Thatcher programme on Channel4 last night which expanded on your theme.
Apparently, before Thatcher, there was 'consensus politics' whereby the workers and the establishment shared an understanding that it was better if the establishment retained ownership and control of nearly everything, and the workers were happy to live and work in houses and jobs provided by the establishment.
Mrs Thatcher's mission was to take on both the workers and the establishment, and create a bright new world in which everybody would have equal chances.
She hated the fact that the nationalised industries were funded in the main by 'taxpayer bailouts'.
She bribed many workers to support her cause by offering them ownership of their council house at a price which no private company would have been able to offer. She also closed down the mining at huge cost to the workers, but at no cost at all to the establishment.
The Channel4 programme casually referred to Arthur Scargill's 'private army' of flying pickets, whilst showing footage, without comment, of Maggie Thatcher's private army of well-equipped policemen, some on horseback, stamping on the 'enemy within'.
The footage of Mrs T's attacks on the miners, in what was supposed to be a crusade for equality in a democratic society, is probably burnt onto peoples' consciousness in a similar way to the films of napalm bombing on innocent civilians which eventually led to the US's defeat in Vietnam.
The Channel4 film claimed that Mrs T was eventually ousted by the 'establishment' (which is a claim I have never heard before), who replaced her with Mr Nobody.
Mrs Thatcher defeated the workers but was beaten by the establishment, and wealth remains concentrated in a tiny percentage of the population.
But she had opened the casino doors.
The Channel4 programme ended by making the point that Maggie would have been horrified by the size of the public debt which her pupils in the Labour party had created, but it failed to ask what she would have thought about the taxpayer bailouts which the banks continue to benefit from whilst the workers face joblessness, and years in rented homes.
TruckerTAccording to Clapton, I am a totally ignorant idiot.0 -
She hated the fact that the nationalised industries were funded in the main by 'taxpayer bailouts'.
TruckerT
Many Tories in that time had this view. What I have never understood is which of these nationalised industries were created by the state. For example, did the Government say we need a coal industry or an airline or rail company or an energy industry?
In reality these were mainly failed private companies that were unprofitable and which the owners were only too pleased to have the state take on.
Of course the nation could have adopted Thatcherite principles and simply let them fail. No electricity Mrs Jones? Ah that is because of those inefficient electric companies. But its your individual problem to solve. The reality is they nationalised these firms for good reasons at the time.
While I could see a case for allowing private companies to buy them back, why was it done at a knock down price for short term reasons to fund tax cuts?
No doubt the Thatcher solution to the banking crisis would have been to let them fail? The mind boggles as to what the impact would have been.Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions.0 -
Many Tories in that time had this view. What I have never understood is which of these nationalised industries were created by the state. For example, did the Government say we need a coal industry or an airline or rail company or an energy industry?
The Channel4 programme did not address that question - it implied that the nation's essential industries had always been controlled by the establishment. It ignored the fact that Socialism was vilified for it's obsession with nationalisation
In reality these were mainly failed private companies that were unprofitable and which the owners were only too pleased to have the state take on.
Maybe the failed company owners became new members of the establishment
No doubt the Thatcher solution to the banking crisis would have been to let them fail? The mind boggles as to what the impact would have been.
I would dearly like to know what Thatcher would have recommended in 2008 if she had still been compos mentis. I would dearly like to think that she would have recognised her own contribution to the situation. I would also like to think that, if she had still been in power and unable to avoid the bailouts, she would have punished the banks relentlessly and immediately.
TruckerT...According to Clapton, I am a totally ignorant idiot.0 -
Many Tories in that time had this view. What I have never understood is which of these nationalised industries were created by the state. For example, did the Government say we need a coal industry or an airline or rail company or an energy industry?
In reality these were mainly failed private companies that were unprofitable and which the owners were only too pleased to have the state take on.
Of course the nation could have adopted Thatcherite principles and simply let them fail. No electricity Mrs Jones? Ah that is because of those inefficient electric companies. But its your individual problem to solve. The reality is they nationalised these firms for good reasons at the time.
While I could see a case for allowing private companies to buy them back, why was it done at a knock down price for short term reasons to fund tax cuts?
No doubt the Thatcher solution to the banking crisis would have been to let them fail? The mind boggles as to what the impact would have been.
Nationalised industries were NOT bought back by the 'establishment' at knock down prices.
They were sold to ordinary voters who chose to apply or not.
The number of shares that one could apply for was modest.0
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