Why did everyone hate thatcher?

highlandsflyer":yoiwg09z said:
Pointless?
That certainly marks it out from the rest of the posts on here!
Denmark has one tenth of the population of the UK?
I thought there was no point in comparing the two?
Systems of government, education, welfare, industry are all scalable.

Population size is irrelevant for the comparison not to work HF so I agree with you calling on that point.

However, there are so many other factors involved which do make it a flawed comparison, many of which are cultural and geographic.
Denmark's biggest market is Germany, which is also its nearest neighbour.
We have strong links with non-EU countries within Scandinavia.
We have good access to natural resources shared between fewer people.
Culturally the Danes are less confrontational.
The Danes have been more "free" than the British for centuries.
Denmark has never had an empire or industrial manufacture/natural reserves extraction on a massive scale which entire communities have revolved around.

The history of the two countries makes them what they are - and those histories are very different and Denmark has never had the massive wealth the UK has. But neither has the wealth it has had been concentrated so intensely into the hands of so few, which is what big industry does.

This means a thriving middle class, a better-educated population with higher expectations but it can also limit creativity, which is often the result of having to break rules to get things done.

There are pros and cons with both. I find Denmark quite stifling at times. But that really is a luxury problem compared to what's going on in the UK, which I'm relieved I got out of, which brings me to the real issue - that part of Thatcher's legacy is that plenty of people like me had to leave the UK to get jobs. My university education was paid for by the British taxpayer. But I'm paying my taxes in Denmark. Now that's just stupid.
 
I for one would relish the opportunity to work just three days a week, or be on strike for most of my working life. She spoilt all that!!!!!!! :roll:
 
scottmac":1r0hs1le said:
Walk into a mining community
I can't walk that far.
scottmac":1r0hs1le said:
and explain to a young adult why there was no food on the table when he/she was a kid and Hatchet was in power and I'm sure they will understand.
Labour under Callaghan and Wilson closed more mines than Thatcher ever did. She gets the credit but mining was fncked before she came to power. Not to mention the role the Scargill and the unions played in its demise.
scottmac":1r0hs1le said:
It must be great view from your ivory tower? :roll:
It's a conservation area, so aye it's pretty nice thanks. Happy to say we have the only Tory councillor in 79 seats in Glasgow CC. West End my arse.

Must say I'm surprised that mining is so close to so many hearts. Let's be honest it was a shit job, with shit conditions and shit pay. I'm not sure the youth of today would fancy it as a career choice even if was an option.
 
technodup":3j16dt36 said:
scottmac":3j16dt36 said:
Walk into a mining community
I can't walk that far.
scottmac":3j16dt36 said:
and explain to a young adult why there was no food on the table when he/she was a kid and Hatchet was in power and I'm sure they will understand.
Labour under Callaghan and Wilson closed more mines than Thatcher ever did. She gets the credit but mining was fncked before she came to power. Not to mention the role the Scargill and the unions played in its demise.
scottmac":3j16dt36 said:
It must be great view from your ivory tower? :roll:
It's a conservation area, so aye it's pretty nice thanks. Happy to say we have the only Tory councillor in 79 seats in Glasgow CC. West End my arse.

Must say I'm surprised that mining is so close to so many hearts. Let's be honest it was a shit job, with shit conditions and shit pay. I'm not sure the youth of today would fancy it as a career choice even if was an option.
True, more mines were closed under Wilson and the unions were too powerful, but Hatchet totally wiped out whole communities FFS! :shock: Leaving nothing and not bothering about her actions. :roll:

She used the police to batter working men. The police were brought in from outside where they knew nothing about the mining communities and just laid into blokes whom were trying to keep a roof over their families heads.

Pictures speak louder than words: http://www.strike84.co.uk

As I'm from Scottish parentage and the son of a miner whom worked at Cardowan Colliery, I was interested in the tales that my Dad used to tell of the camaraderie between working men. Yes, I should imagine it was a sh!t job. My Dad used to drill the holes for the explosives to be set (on his hands and knees) and he was buried alive and his mates went back for him and got him out. At the weekend he went cycling and racing with his mates from the pit, but the gist I got was they were all in it together. Whole communities where built around the shipyards, mining and steel. I too, am not sure the youth of today would go down the pit, but remember times have changed and we have no industry in this country any more (thanks to the Tories and continued by Tory Blair, Bankers etc.) plus the internet has created and destroyed many jobs in what is called "progress."

Is the community you reside with an abundance of wealth, by any chance?

RE. Happy to say we have the only Tory councillor in 79 seats in Glasgow CC.

If that makes you happy, I guess you'll have "I'm Alright Jack" on your gravestone? Oh, sorry your mausoleum :roll:
 
Like most politicians we hate them when they are not doing what we want and love them when they are doing what we want

There are by some, rose tinted glasses on when it comes to thatcher and the miners. Successive governments both tories and labour had bowed to the unions so much that it cost more to send men down the mines than they ever brought up, as a mining industry look around at the markets and you will see we never would have competed against most coal producers now let alone then. The ship yards were more victims of their overpricing and overseas cheaper building than thatcher.

I think when some claim those who do not have the same blinkered view that every thing was thatchers fault, they forget many of those who voted her in for 3 terms still had fresh in their memories the winter of discontent..much in the way we are unhappy with the way the tories are currently not great... but no one is foolish to forget 13 years of labour before it.

On the domestic front she gave people choices, what people did with those choices was more up to them than her..on the international front she raised us from a has been country into the key player punching well above our weight that we are today and that is something many of us still wish we had ..a politician who would put Britain first again
 
Usefull link by the coal industry and kinda highlights what I said...even now when there is a trade union presence not not the control it had before, techniques now more advanced than ever, we still import most of our coal need. Why? Our own coal at the momment is still too exspensive to bring to the persons door and is cheaper to fly it half way around the world.

So pro rata imagine how exspensive it was back in the 80's with a heavily unionised, outdated and uncompetitive industry. The thing is this issue had been going on for two previous governments who rather than deal with it, had let the unions run it into the ground and yet expected everyone else to pick up the tab

It's at times like these that we bemoan now days of our current politicians that we seem to have none who will take on the difficult tasks but run away

Thatcher always was a "where's the problem, lets sort it out"..her style always was a sledgehammer to crack a nut but crack that nut she did. Truly a marmite style, was she perfect? absolutely not. Towards the end and the community charge she had lost the plot and although her intent was right the way she went about it was not the best, as could be said about most of her premiership.

She wasn't the best but she was what was needed at some very difficult times..can you imagine say the falklands with foot or kinnock being in charge?

It's right people should have different views but on thatcher much is projected is myth to hide the convenient truth that she dealt with problems others had caused

For me domestically she had some right howlers in the pr dept but internationally, I don't foresee a possible candidate who would ever make anyone feel proud to be british again for quite a while
 
sylus you talk some sence;heard thatcher blamed for everything of late;
they blame her for hillsbrough yet forget how football was in them days ie riots
heysill and all.
ashamed to be british at this moment in time.
 
47
Will anyone talk about Tony Blair like this when he's gone?
He was & still is a W***er

ps... what was wrong with doing away with warm, gone off milk?
 
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