Baroness Thatcher admitted to hospital

[dbmtb]

my first role would be to abolish unions and anyone who argued!

Small austrian guy did that a few decades ago. It wasn't pretty.

 

[JohnH]

I don't vote Conservative, but some people in this thread have a very selective memory.

Not at all. The recently departed Labour lite government was in some ways worse than the thatcher one...

There aren't many people in this thread who are giving as balanced a view as you, SR

...but those of you for whom Margaret Thatcher is only a name in history, will never understand the revulsion some people , rightly or wrongly, remember her with.

I was born in 1972, so to me, Margaret Thatcher is more than just a 'name in history'.

 

[brocklanders023]

Having said that, my first role would be to abolish unions and anyone who argued!

Were do you want me then mate seeing as I am from the North and a Union rep? Should I leave my shoes at the door?

 

[JohnH]

Thank God for you JohnH, able to make eloquent arguments where my terrible memory so badly fails me.

Thank you, KIS!

Its hard to make big decisions when you are at the top, not everybody will like or agree with you.
But tough decision have to be made, just look at the mess Brown has left the economy in, and the coilition are having to bend over and take a shafting over the absolutely vital cuts needed to try and save the country from sinking.

Thatcher made tough decisions which didnt suit everybody. But Britain prospered as a whole.

People forget that in the 70s, the UK was about to be over-taken in the economic league tables by East Germany!!! We desperately needed to make our industrial base more efficient, but the unions weren't having any of it, and clung on to their 19th century view that this was a conspiracy between the bosses to shaft the workers. :roll:

If Margaret Thatcher hadn't battled the trade unions for control of this country.... well, take a look at France today...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oc ... -blockades

 

[JohnH]

E.U rules forbid any country from supporting companies like that. Competition rules. If a gov pumps money into a lose making industry then that is classed as unfair competition to the rest of the E.U members.

Correct.

Who took the GB in to E.U?

Edward Heath.

Wanna know who opposed it?
Margaret Thatcher.

 

[dbmtb]

If Margaret Thatcher hadn't battled the trade unions for control of this country.... well, take a look at France today...

Your point being?

At least the French aren't apathetic. They've been presented with something they don't like and are doing something about it. Not that I agree with them.

As pointed out previously, apathy appears to be the British disease. My take is that it's one of the legacies of Thatcherism - that ordinary people no longer feel that what they think matters. That it took a radical shift right for labour to get in - that it doesn't make a lot of difference who you vote for as all politicians are self-serving and the policies they represent are pretty much the same.

 

[mattbrown]

British Leyland, crap cars nuff said.

Since world war 2 we have constantly been over stretching our self because of our "glorious" history, its about time we scrapped the great from great Britain and just got on with being a good bog standard country, look at the Scandinavian countries keep their noses out of all this shit, dont pally up to anyone, and just get on, you dont hear about them starting wars etc, infact you dont really hear them going on about how much they're in debt by either, cuz they have kept their noses clean.

 

[JohnH]

If Margaret Thatcher hadn't battled the trade unions for control of this country.... well, take a look at France today...

Your point being?

My point being that in pre-Thatcher Britain, coal miners deliberately went on strike at the height of the oil crisis and demanded a 40% pay increase. We had no oil, we had no coal, so the lights went out across Britain -- rolling blackouts. (You might like to ask yourself what that did for communities, hospitals and schools...)

After 1979, it was Margaret Thatcher who stopped this country from being damaged any further by spiteful and vindictive trade union leaders -- the kind of damage that we're seeing in France right now.

At least the French aren't apathetic. They've been presented with something they don't like and are doing something about it. Not that I agree with them.

Doing what? How does bringing the country to a standstill help France get out of its massive public sector debt?

For decades, the French people have been treated like spoiled children by a paternalistic government -- what Churchill called "the enfeebling tendencies of socialism". The problem for the French people is that economic reality has turned up at the front door and mummy and daddy can't make it go away.

As pointed out previously, apathy appears to be the British disease. My take is that it's one of the legacies of Thatcherism - that ordinary people no longer feel that what they think matters. That it took a radical shift right for labour to get in - that it doesn't make a lot of difference who you vote for as all politicians are self-serving and the policies they represent are pretty much the same.

I kind of agree with you, but not about the apathy. I think that the legacy of Thatcher is that (unlike the French), we have a population who no longer look to our politicians as parents who'll improve our lives for us. Instead, we have people who get off their arses and improve things by themselves; people like Richard Branson, Alan Sugar, Duncan Bannatyne, Anita Roddick, et al.

 

[KeepItSteel]

Having said that, my first role would be to abolish unions and anyone who argued!

Were do you want me then mate seeing as I am from the North and a Union rep? Should I leave my shoes at the door?

I have a dark secret.
My grandad was scottish and the rest of my family are/were mainly northern.

up the workers! or summink...

 

[tintin40]

E.U rules forbid any country from supporting companies like that. Competition rules. If a gov pumps money into a lose making industry then that is classed as unfair competition to the rest of the E.U members.

Correct.

Who took the GB in to E.U?

Edward Heath.

Wanna know who opposed it?
Margaret Thatcher.

She didn't take GB out once she was in charge.