R.I.P Mrs Thatcher

[GreyWing]

Well it is almost as if it was written by Brasseye, you couldn't make it up. If anyone is in any doubt that the stupidity that Margaret Thatcher put an end to the knowledge have to do is read this week's paper, the Barnsley Chronicle.

At the front of the paper they have hundreds of letters of people writing in to condemn Margaret Thatcher. How good old Barnsley used to be, when communities were thriving and doors can be left unlocked..

Then totally unrelated turned towards the back, there is a section to what happens this week in history of Barnsley....

"30 years ago today, The Barnsley branch of the electricians union complained and stopped a local majorettes group from using the community hall to practice as they were using wooden sticks that looked like rifles."

The electricians union? What on earth had it got to do with them?

Rose tinted spectacles anyone...

 

[GreyWing]

Greed prevails. Top management award themselves astronomical bonuses as they cut the workforce, reduce real time wages and change employment terms and conditions to the detriment of the workforce.

The management even award themselves astronomical bonuses when the company is failing. :lol:

.

Mate I feel that shareholders need to be more active and concerned. People need more control of what their pension funds do with the investments.

I've studied the companies act 2006, all the tools are provided by the Government and the law for shareholders to act. They choose not to, then they complain when all goes belly up.

Unfortunately part of the truth is people don't know where their money is invested... Until it's too late. I read somewhere that around 40% of Bernie Madoff's clients have no idea they had money invested with him. That has to change and shareholders need to be more aware of where their investments are, and the ability to move their cash.

 

[Aegean]

Mate I feel that shareholders need to be more active and concerned. People need more control of what their pension funds do with the investments.

I've studied the companies act 2006, all the tools are provided by the Government and the law for shareholders to act. They choose not to, then they complain when all goes belly up.

Unfortunately part of the truth is people don't know where their money is invested... Until it's too late. I read somewhere that around 40% of Bernie Madoff's clients have no idea they had money invested with him. That has to change and shareholders need to be more aware of where their investments are, and the ability to move their cash.

This is absolutely right, I totally agree, but I also think that the 80's and 90's showed that greed did indeed prevail, as did fraud, underhand dealings and outright illegal actions by large institutions such as banks. In the end it all crashed and these idiots nearly caused economic collapse.

It simply shows that people cannot be trusted to run their own industry without regulation. The rules of the game should never be written by those who stand to profit.

 

[fastworld]

what communities did she destroy?

time didn't destroy those communities
thatcher did
were you asleep in the 80's

we're standing on 1000 years of coal
but because we're tied into Europe which Heath and Thatcher took us into we can't use our own energy

290 mines closed under Wilson (pre thatcher labour) in all his time in office, and about 160 under Thatcher.

 

[websaway]

Whatever your take on the history of this topic, don't you find it pathetic that so many people in their 50's and 60's have not moved on from the hatred they have harboured for Mrs Thatcher.
Will all the real world businesses who have lost their livelihoods because of the internet find someone who they can blame, and in 30 years time dance on their grave.

If any entity was responsible for the loss of industry in the 70's and 80's it was the Germans and the Japanese who were busy rebuilding their lot.

People really do need to move on when they are the victims of misfortune, or in most cases feel they are the victims of misfortune, these people always seem conveniently be able to blame someone or something else.

 

[monaghan]

Have to agree with you there, people (in general) don't care, big outcry over coffee shops and tax bills a few months ago, these same shops are still full, supermarkets and unemployed people working for free, these supermarkets are still full of shoppers. If people were really that bothered these shops would be empty. Politics is now just for headlines, if the politicians had to actually do something for the good of society and actually benefit the people who vote for them that would really change the political landscape.

Leave the Thatcher family alone to bury their loved one and get on with sorting today's problems, you can't change the past, but you can change the future by today's deeds.

 

[tifosi]

Margaret Thatcher was a novelty and a sound byte politician who in truth achieved very little other than breaking the strangle hold of the unions on the country - something that was much needed. Some miners paid a high price for this but equal blame must also go to the champagne socialists that ran their unions and picked the fight. Arthur Scargill and the others in the NUM executive did okay from it and the NUM now holds one of the largest pension funds in the UK.

This myth that it broke communities is nothing more than left wing propaganda. I have many relatives that worked in the Nottinghamshire coal fields and all bar none were made for life financially because of the level of redundancy that they received when their pits closed.

They invested the money and went and found new jobs, others in their village pissed their redundancy up the wall then joined the dole queues and blamed Thatcher.

The thing I find most offensive about Margaret Thatchers death is the amount of money we're spending to give her such a lavish funeral. Love her or hate her, she polarised society and certainly shouldn't be afforded what is state funeral in every way but title.

A pretty sound synopsis. Grant it to her, she had balls, when years of the socialist labour government of the mid-late 70s didn't have any. Scargill and the rest of the unions thought they could work to rule (or really strike to rule) because of their battering of heath in 73. I still remember the weekly blackouts... I'd like to see the uproar now if the unions tried that in todays digital age!

The world was changing and the UK wasn't. That was obvious. Germany, Japan, US, the far east. The UK was fast becoming an irrelevance. Yes, mistakes, plenty of them. But, also a lot that was needed at the time.

 

[anthony]

If you type 'Thatcher' & 'weak' into Youtube, it leads you to a video regarding the use of UK air bases by the yanks. Toward the end of the video, Thatcher talks about her reasoning, and you get a really good incite into her thoughts regarding Europe. "Weak, feeble!"

 

[tifosi]

Granted, probably one of her weaker points was her almost xenophobic aversion to Europe. Some of that came though from here time through the Heath era.

Then again a single quote can be misconstrued in many ways, as I always argue with Jehovas witnesses when they start quoting Einstein and God.

 

[websaway]

I think her achievements were made a lot easier because she had a lot more options, certainly than the current government who inherited a huge poisoned chalice. I'd argue that it's the Thatcher government that instigated the style of politics that has taken us to the brink of financial collapse. You can look back and think she made Britain great again or you can look back and think this is where the seeds for this current financial mess where sewn. Thatcherism mixed with Tony Blairs brand of socialism was an unmitigated disaster for this country.

I was a Thatcherite in my twenties but with age comes wisdom as they say and I now believe she lucked into economic success which came at the expense of the countries long term financial well being.

No need to be a thatcherite now but if you were back then again you would probably do the same again. Different policies for different times.
You can set the ship on course but if you are not there you have to trust others to steer it and set the sails accordingly, and that's a big problem with changes in political parties looking for votes and popularity.
If a leader is popular then the policies are normally to suit the people and not the country.

 

[websaway]

What a brilliant global advertisement that funeral was for Britain and London in particular.


Probably works out cheap at 10 million.

 

[Nigel]

What a brilliant global advertisement that funeral was for Britain and London in particular.

Probably works out cheap at 10 million.

Good to see the crowds turn out for Maggie. And pleased that the opponents were just a tiny minority. Agreed that this was a good advert for London and Britain.

 

[deluxedomains]

yeah love or hate her I am glad people respected her funeral.

 

[Pred]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isM1aKgV0zM


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKx3MUqzCcQ

 

[Murray]

Personally I'm a bit horrified thinking such an amount could be wasted on a funeral.

The money should have gone towards the NHS or a charity bettering the lives of the living.

 

[anthony]

Conservatives don't think in that way, they have no care or empathy with the common man, specifically those who are in the pocket of the State. Yet they had £10 million of spare brass (and brassneck) to blow on this self indulgent send-off for one of their own.

 

[Brassneck]

Conservatives don't think in that way, they have no care or empathy with the common man, specifically those who are in the pocket of the State. Yet they had £10 million of spare brass (and brassneck) to blow on this self indulgent send-off for one of their own.

You might want to read this then.....

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...proved-margaret-thatcher-funeral-details.html

 

[websaway]

Personally I'm a bit horrified thinking such an amount could be wasted on a funeral.

The money should have gone towards the NHS or a charity bettering the lives of the living.

Have you considered the exposure that London got on worldwide tv.
Have you considered how many people visited london and how many people bought services and goods, Travel, hotels, restaurants, security etc. etc.etc. ?

So it did better the lives of the Living in a very compassionate as well as commercial way.

 

[Murray]

Have you considered the exposure that London got on worldwide tv.
Have you considered how many people visited london and how many people bought services and goods, Travel, hotels, restaurants, security etc. etc.etc. ?

So it did better the lives of the Living in a very compassionate as well as commercial way.

There are better & cheaper ways to get London in world news.

 

[Brassneck]

There are better & cheaper ways to get London in world news.

Examples?

According to this - http://www.visitbritain.org/insightsandstatistics/inboundtourismfacts/ - the average inbound tourist to Britain spends more than £500. So that's just 20,000 extra tourists to break even. I imagine the kind of tourist interested in all the pomp of such events is probably American, Chineses etc and spending much more than that average.

Stephen.