videojetman":2oqkvjet said:
much as i'd like to join in the love in guy's.
all i can say with the deepest respect is this.
maybe maggie is the only politician in history who managed to screw us while in life and in death.
win win for the tories.
time to move on i think.
i'm off to play some floyd on my piano.
Thing is, do you seriously think this is party political?
Do you think that any of the Labour leaders, in recent times, would have done anything hugely different about MT's funeral?
I've always been somewhat divided on her, in terms of her performance as prime minister - but all I would say, is that there's always detractors and supporters, she was in many ways divisive that way. But for all of those decrying what and how she did things (in some cases, with at least some just cause) - you have as much complaint with the other political parties for not being sufficiently competent at the time to provide a worthy and appealling alternative at the ballot box.
Yes, yes, yes, I get, she managed to tap into societal greed and engender an "I'm alright Jack, sod everybody else..." attitude that pervaded, but all the same, it also took there being no other game in town for quite a while, before she went native, and her party largely got complacent.
It took the likes of Blair and Brown, at the right moment in history, to provide an alternative that people would vote for en-masse - and even then, they had to largely abandon some of the traditional and historical aspects of Labour / socialism. Blair was twice the tory that Cameron will never be. Brown's problem was that in reality, he just didn't seem actually any good when he got to lead, had no true mandate, and largely seemed to forget why it was people actually voted for Blair.
I doubt there's many ex prime ministers in recent times, that wouldn't have a lot of haters as well as supporters. But let's not forget - the electorate didn't oust Thatcher - factions in her party did.