Thatcher poll: worst or best

Moby

Thrugelmir wrote: »

At the time Mrs T came to power. The UK was in desperate need to regeneration. Double digit inflation, poor Government finances, powerfull unions holding the country to ransom for unjusitfied pay rises. Japan was taking the leading the way in manufacturing process and new management styles. The IRA were planting bombs on the UK mainland.

Unless you were there in the 70's. Difficult to explain how different the country is today.

How we could do with a Churchill or Mrs T today. As the problems faced aren't just going to disappear. They need tackling head on.

Absolute tosh of course. She made things worse not better....and I was there in the seventies. I thought Wilson was better.

Fella

cepheus wrote: »

Follow the link. Things got worse for years not weeks, and there was no long term benefit. Unemployment soared and has never recovered to this day. Thatchers 'success' is an illusion for the rich, who did a lot better.

In the post-war era, the UK’s growth rate averaged 3 per cent a year. Since 1980, it has averaged 2.2 per cent.

What a ridiculous & deliberately misleading quote. Here's a breakdown of the figures:

The economy grew 3.03 per cent a year in the 1950s
3.18 per cent a year in the 1960s
2.07 per cent in the 1970s
3.09 per cent in the 1980s under Thatcher
2.77 per cent in the 1990s (when her legacy remained)
1.77 per cent in the 2000s

From this excellent article which debunks this & other myths:

http://www.cityam.com/article/five-myths-about-margaret-thatcher-must-be-refuted

angrypirate

StevieJ wrote: »

Correct funny how time befuddles the brain, or is it Rosy coloured specs. Inflation doubled when the Tories took over in 1979.
UK inflation
1975 Aug = 27%
1978 Aug = 8%
1979 Aug = 16% (election May 79)

Ok, now lets think about this sensibly like intelligent human beings (if there are any on here).

When the BoE sets the base rate, how far in advance are they forcasting inflation and how long do the expect any change to kick in? They expect all changes to take at least 6 months to start to kick in. Yes, thats right, for the inflation figures in August 79, you'd be looking at the interest rate changes no later than February 79. Now, remind me who was in government in February 79?

ukcarper

angrypirate wrote: »

Ok, now lets think about this sensibly like intelligent human beings (if there are any on here).

When the BoE sets the base rate, how far in advance are they forcasting inflation and how long do the expect any change to kick in? They expect all changes to take at least 6 months to start to kick in. Yes, thats right, for the inflation figures in August 79, you'd be looking at the interest rate changes no later than February 79. Now, remind me who was in government in February 79?

Perhaps thats why Labour increased interest rates from 12% to 14% in feb 1979.

StevieJ

angrypirate wrote: »

Ok, now lets think about this sensibly like intelligent human beings (if there are any on here).

When the BoE sets the base rate, how far in advance are they forcasting inflation and how long do the expect any change to kick in? They expect all changes to take at least 6 months to start to kick in. Yes, thats right, for the inflation figures in August 79, you'd be looking at the interest rate changes no later than February 79. Now, remind me who was in government in February 79?

Unless the inflation was a direct result of an increase in Vat rates in the first Tory budget of 1979? BTW as ukcarper states in his post Labour had already addressed an increase in inflation from 8% to 10% with a Feb79 rate increase.

Sir Geoffrey Howe had been `Shadow Chancellor since 1975. In his first Budget he raised VAT from 12.5% (on 'luxury' items) and 8% (on most other goods) to a single rate of 15%.

StevieJ

Of course if increases in inflation are a direct result of increases in taxation the reverse is also true, so the apparent taming of inflation in the early years of the Thatcher administration was merely a result of the Vat increases dropping out of the annual figures. To be fair though moneterist policy was beginning to bite in the middle of the Thatcher reign where inflation figures were heading for 2% before increasing into the Lawson boom.

CLAPTON

Murphy_Gooner wrote: »

Typical up you're own !!!! comment.

Maybe if Thatcher had put more into manufacturing rather then these city types which have brought this country to where we currently are because of their greed. And who is it bailing them out? yes its the tax payer.

Germany seem to be thriving well with their manufacturing and exports.

what sort of thing should they have put in private manufacturing companies... do you mean big subsidies ?

what sort of thing did they put into the 'city types'; certainly they deregularised the financial services but did they give public money into these people?

I'm not sure whether the germany government gave massive subsidies to BMW or whether they simply had more flexible workers and better products.

coastline

Economic growth wasnt that different from any other period..

Average growth. Under Thatcher, GDP rose by 29.4 per cent — an average of 0.6 per cent growth per quarter. (That’s the same as the average growth rate from 1955 to 2013.)

grizzly1911

CLAPTON wrote: »

what sort of thing should they have put in private manufacturing companies... do you mean big subsidies ?

what sort of thing did they put into the 'city types'; certainly they deregularised the financial services but did they give public money into these people?

There was no need to subsidise them they merely allowed them free and easy access to play with ours.

We as taxpayers are just subsidising the road crash that happened a decade or so down the line as the gamblers played ever more fast and loose. Easy money so the politicians thought.

CLAPTON

grizzly1911 wrote: »

There was no need to subsidise them they merely allowed them free and easy access to play with ours.

We as taxpayers are just subsidising the road crash that happened a decade or so down the line as the gamblers played ever more fast and loose. Easy money so the politicians thought.

The road crash occurred about about 15 later.

During this time every major political party supported the policies and am unaware of many ordinary people being against them.

Presumably you long for the days of exchange controls where one couldn't take one's own money out of the country on holiday.
And long for the days where women found it difficult to get mortgages without a man's guarantee.

Take a more balanced view.
With greater freedoms there are greater risks but that doesn't make greater freedoms undesirable but does mean that the risks must be managed better.

Of course there was insufficient regulation but no-one seriously wants to go back to the pre 1980 days either.