Save Our Forests!!!!!

[PACERC250T]

Home owners have little to moan about the Labour years.[/quote]

Actually it makes sod all difference whether you own a home or not. If you want to move up the property ladder, the jump is enormous so is unaffordable; which exactly the same situation if you're not on the property ladder at all... :? :? :?

 

[highlandsflyer]

My point was the equity boom.

Which would not apply at all to anyone NOT on the ladder.

 

[PACERC250T]

To be honest, I'm in my 9th house and presently looking for my 10th (my wife gets me to finish them - usually by Christmas - and then sells them when I'm at work...) and think that I would have been financially better off if we had rented all these years

Probably all that will happen is that the house will be sold when we're too old to care for ourselves and the money will pay for our care as we dribble and fart our way into our graves.

If we didn't have a house to sell, some of the money we paid in tax throughout our lives would have been used to pay for this care instead, therefore giving us more to spend on holidays, cars and bikes when we were more able; now there's a thought... :? :? :?

 

[Neil]

Comparing her to Hussein, Gaddafi, Pinochet, and Mugabe is a fallacy of the occluded middle.

I think it is a good analogy. There is a really good comparison of the way Thatcher disregarded the well being of her people in favour of making large on the international stage.

Perhaps not to the same degree as the despots mentioned, but on some levels very similarly.

Well opinions vary - but a democratically elected PM who was, maybe, not the most compassionate to some groups in society is a world apart from some despotic leaders who didn't even truly allow democracy, to put it mildly - and that's far from the worse thing they could be indicted with.

Some of what she did, was really Hobson's choice - harsh things had to be done - now admittedly, in several examples, it wasn't so much what Thatcher did, but how she went about it, that many - including yourself, probably - found objectionable - and I have no real argument about that. I get that many then, and now, will hate her.

But all the same, she was elected - three times as PM, and was ousted by her own cabinet / party (somewhat of her own doing, really). The country had two general elections after first voting her in, to get rid of her / her party. Compare and contrast that, to the others you're trying to claim as similar. Uncaring to some, is not the same as those you'd group her with.

In fairness, I'm far from her biggest supporter, I don't think I was quite old enough to vote for the 87 election - and in fairness, I doubt I would have voted for her anyway - but then idealism does tend to be a youthful notion. My argument isn't in support of her policies or politics, merely the job she did as PM and political leader of the country - perfect: hell no; strong and, well, apparently uncaring to some - hell yes.

Now, similar (but perhaps not quite to your degree) her apparent lack of compassion to some groups in society doesn't sit well with me. And I do truly dislike the mindset her era, politics, and governments seemed to encourage to some groups in society (ironic, or otherwise, that choice of word may be) - which I think was a creeping insidiousness that's never really dwindled.

All the same, Blair is hated by many, now, too - I guess history will show whether he's viewed with the same kind of lasting hatred as Thatcher has.

 

[Neil]

Home owners have little to moan about the Labour years.

Actually it makes sod all difference whether you own a home or not.

I disagree with that - I think highlandsflyer made a good point, there.

If you want to move up the property ladder, the jump is enormous so is unaffordable; which exactly the same situation if you're not on the property ladder at all... :? :? :?

That doesn't square with my experience through those years, or for many I saw around the Labour years.

I first jumped onto the property ladder in 1990. Through being realistic with my choice at that point, I weathered the storm of the property crash - and for a few years, was probably in negative equity (not helped by an endownment mortgage at the time). But the long view rectified that, and for me, made the next jump to where I'm happy with (about 4 years back) not that stressful, financially.

Others I know that only got on the property ladder in the Labour years, seemed to experience the same thing.

What I would say, is that when I was moving house, a few years back, whereas it wasn't overly taxing for me to make a fair jump of a few rungs on the ladder - the burden for the first-time-buyers seemed quite demanding - so I think there's mileage in the point that home owners did OK - just those aspiring to home ownership struggled with the housing boom.