General Chat

I just feel sorry for her that she had no family at her bedside and she died without their comfort.

I love 'The Guardian'

They do tend to give an unbiased opinion, show the stories from all view points

the guardian columnist on question time was very good pointing out all the damage that woman had done think the bbc chickened out on who they had from the labour party glenda jackson would have been great

Yes that would be because he was completely unbiased wouldn't it :-D :-D :-D :-D

Terryj you seem to be a very negative person - were you personally hurt by the Thatcher government?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW_dBQPAeDY

i am not negative normally very positive in my attitude to life

just hate the bitch for what she did to the industry in this country and her greed is good culture

Terry please temper your response to keep it in line wirth the nature and temperament of this thread

You were obviously very impressed by Mrs T. Terry.

It is now twenty three years since Mrs Thatcher left office. During that time most people have moved on and made the best of any opportunity to improve their lives, in my opinion this is our individual responsibility, and not down to any government. We all have our own opinions of Mrs Thatcher, some negative and some positive. Perhaps there are some people who feel they have more to blame her for,or perhaps that's how they see it, everyone has a story to tell. I can see both side of most of the arguments on this thread, when they are factual, but find it more difficult when they are "adapted" with individuals interpretations, when I am in doubt I go away and check the facts, :-D
but all the arguments and rhetoric will not change history, However, if you have not been able to make a difference to your life in twenty three years with successive governments in power, you can not continue to blame Mrs Thatcher. Perhaps now is the time to move on.

Muffy


I agree with you , I'm keeping an open mind re that Guardian piece


Like all newspapers, the Guardian favours one political party over another, and always has its own agenda

Always has, always will.


it was not my favourite paper back in the 60s, still isn't.


One tries to read a selection of papers, to get an idea of the broad opinion from all sides of the political spectrum. These days, I have to do it on the web.



Brenda ................ I agree with what you say.



People could even hate and like Mrs Thatcher's policies

My brother thought the Poll Tax was terrible .........................


but he loved the privatization of services such as gas, electricity, water. He thought everything to do with them would be much improved over nationalization.


He made a lot of money by buying shares as soon as they were offered to the public. I think some of them were sold at reduced rates to residents or something??? ..................

............... and made his wife a wealthy widow when he died in 1991.



Terry ....................


please do try to temper your words, as Errol has asked several times.

It is very unpleasant to keep hearing your vindictiveness.


Unions needed reining in back in the 1970s ................... otherwise the UK would be a Third World country by now due to money demands from the various unions.

Unions have declined in all countries now ..................... their influence here is less than even 10 years ago ...........

......... the unions do have to get a strike vote from their membership, always have had to do so here ............................ I believe that was not the case in the UK in the 1960s and 70s.


But even so, non-union members cross the picket lines (for example at stores, train stations etc) because they do not agree with the union demand. Police will be brought in to ensure the union members do not block the way, if necessary.


In Quebec, it is even illegal to block the passage of any member of the public during a strike against an establishment.

We were there during a major liquor distribution / store strike.

The picketers had to stand along the curb in front of a liquor store, leaving the pavement and the doorway to the store open and free. They were also not allowed to shout or otherwise attempt to persuade anyone from entering. The store was operating with management staff.



and believe me, I do know about working as a union member, both here and in the UK. .................for almost 40 years.

Well said Paula.

We are all responsible, in some way, for what we make of our lives - even when bad things happen.

I have read where people blame others because:

They panic when they lose control of a situation and so have to blame someone.

They learned it from their parents - who didn't teach them how to take responsibility for their actions.

They can't admit failure so blame others.

They are unable to accept what has happened.

They feel helpless but don't like to admit it.


I'm sure we've all felt like this at times and it can be very difficult to lift ourselves out of those situations - but we at least have to try.

B***ch is a terrible thing to say about a person who has just passed away,
i think we all know that you were damaged in some way during the Thatcher years,for whatever reason.
depending on what generation we where ,whoever was in power damaged us in some way
The best thing Maggie ever did was to stop milk in schools,nobody needed it in the 80s and it was the most horrible milk ive ever tasted,saved a fortune.

she was a strong woman,a woman that never backed down,she saved this country,
if she had stayed in power,we would not be in the mess we are now, :-(

OK Terryj, Perhaps you can explain what Margaret Thatcher did to the industry in this country and how she was responsible for what you call the greed is good culture.

I'm all ears

Roy

No one is perfect but I remember the seventies only too well - costs of everything from oil to inflation were spiralling out of control, a 3 day week, power cuts, wild cat strikes, household refuse lying uncollected for weeks, the dead lay unburied - think of the heartache for those familes.

IMO Margaret Thatcher inherited a poisened chalice in 1979.

In 1981/82 OH and I were at York races and got chatting to another racegoer for most of the afternoon. Then I found out he was a Lancashire miner aged in his fifties. I asked him what he thought of Arthur Scargill and the reply I shall never forget 'Lady don't spoil my day'. I apologised and we talked of other things such as the next winner!

I find it so sad and am ashamed that there are those who rejoice in someone's death. I can understand Hitler and the despots since but not a woman who loved her country, pulled it out of the mire and remember you cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs.

im all ears to .

educate me :-D

If you think Terry is being rude about the late lady, you want to see the Rhondda Leader front page this week.

I just had a quick glance at it this morning, and they have really stuck the boot in. No waiting for the funeral out of respect.

Yes, pits were closing in the 70's and men were having to take redundancy or travel a long way to a pit for work. Many mines had doubled their productivity in the 70's and wages were a long way short of doubling. Thurcroft in South Yorkshire and Tower in South Wales had won praise for record productivity and safety - and many miners were very proud of their pits and their butties (their colleagues).

Whole communities were destroyed for ever. The population of the Rhondda is now half what it was then. Young people work part time in Asda, or they work full time in Admiral in Cardiff. Or they move away.

This is a community who have worked incredibly hard to hew the best coal in the world (Rhondda coal). Yes, they voted Labour almost to a man. Yes, they were cast on the scrap heap by Tories who have never done a day's work to make Britain great. Did Mrs T's father do a decent day's work in his life? No, not really in a little grocery shop. Did Mrs T's husband do a decent day's work in his life - no, either before he sold his family oil business or after. Did Mrs T understand what hard work was? No, she had absolutley no idea.

i survived the thatcher years unlike many spent too much time as a union rep having to tell people we were going onto short time or the co wanted more redunancies when i started at the company in 1973 there were over 1000 employees it dwindled down to 2 to 3 hundred true some would have happened anyway with new methods of production
some of the thing her gov did may have needed to be done but not in the methods they chose we were an island of coal floating in a sea of oil some of that money could have been used to invest in the country instead of lining the pockets of the few

she did a lot for women
like what?
in all her years in office only one women in the cabinet and thats because she was leader in the house of lords
did she do anything about equal pay no
maternity pay and leave no
she let me buy my council house?
someone was interviewed on thurs night and he mentioned that someone suggested giving away council houses to the people living in them to get the society she wanted
oh no she said thats no good for my people ie the middle classes living in the home counties so who ever got that pushed through it wasnt her
what did she do to industry theres hardly any left
she wanted to destroy the labour party by destroying their power base the unions
when she came to power 1 in 7 children were classed as living in poverty when she left it was 1 in 3
she won 3 elections harold wilson won 4 and he was content with a simple funeral on the scilly isles by his holiday home
as he said there is no such thing as an important person we are all of equal worth

Chris...couldn't put it better myself.

We did live through it.

She inherited a sinking ship.....and didn't do a bad job of getting the country back on its feet.
Sacrifices have to be made as they are now,but you don't see many starving people.
Maybe they can't buy a lot of material things,but if they budget carefully they can eat healthily.
Wonder what the country would be like now if it had carried on in the way it was going in the 70's?

Brenda. I hate disagreeing with you. But the facts are staring us in the face. 1979 - one in seven children in poverty. 1992. - one in three.

I question these yardsticks of poverty, but there is now (for the first time in my life) real hardship and real starvation.