Margaret Thatcher, dead - Does anyone care?

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Ozymandias

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I'm keen to know. We're getting all this stuff via our media at the moment that she's some hugely respected statesperson across the globe but I have a feeling that's bullshit. I'd wager you care as much about one of our leaders as I do about one of yours, which is probably nada (unless you're American). So her death is just a footnote in your news.
 

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I don't really know her that much, but she must have done something right if they made a movie about her.
 

monkeystyle

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Generation gap at work here.

I know who she is and I have a pretty rudimentary knowledge of what she's done but I think that people who were old enough to be interested in politics or had an interest in the news during her time as PM will certainly know her enough to care.
 

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I honestly had to Google her when I saw all the crap about her on my newsfeed. I have a good feeling most of my friends posting about her did too actually. I just kind of ignored it.

Woosh.

You missed that one, my man.

:lmao :lmao :lmao
 

The Cork

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Always thought the hate she got was unjust.

Been seeing people wishing she was dead for years, for reasons as petty as her taking away free milk for schoolkids.

Bizarre.
 

Ozymandias

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I think the hate directed towards her was entirely justified. Here's a succinct list of her 'achievements'

1. She supported the retention of capital punishment
2. She destroyed the country's manufacturing industry
3. She voted against the relaxation of divorce laws
4. She abolished free milk for schoolchildren ("Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher")
5. She supported more freedom for business (and look how that turned out)
6. She gained support from the National Front in the 1979 election by pandering to the fears of immigration
7. She gerrymandered local authorities by forcing through council house sales, at the same time preventing councils from spending the money they got for selling houses on building new houses (spending on social housing dropped by 67% in her premiership)
8. She was responsible for 3.6 million unemployed - the highest figure and the highest proportion of the workforce in history and three times the previous government. Massaging of the figures means that the figure was closer to 5 million
9. She ignored intelligence about Argentinian preparations for the invasion of the Falkland Islands and scrapped the only Royal Navy presence in the islands
10. The poll tax
11. She presided over the closure of 150 coal mines; we are now crippled by the cost of energy, having to import expensive coal from abroad
12. She compared her "fight" against the miners to the Falklands War
13. She privatised state monopolies and created the corporate greed culture that we've been railing against for the last 5 years
14. She introduced the gradual privatisation of the NHS
15. She introduced financial deregulation in a way that turned city institutions into avaricious money pits
16. She pioneered the unfailing adoration and unquestioning support of the USA
17. She allowed the US to place nuclear missiles on UK soil, under US control
18. Section 28
19. She opposed anti-apartheid sanctions against South Africa and described Nelson Mandela as "that grubby little terrorist"
20. She support the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and sent the SAS to train their soldiers
21. She allowed the US to bomb Libya in 1986, against the wishes of more than 2/3 of the population
22. She opposed the reunification of Germany
23. She invented Quangos
24. She increased VAT from 8% to 17.5%
25. She had the lowest approval rating of any post-war Prime Minister
26. Her post-PM job? Consultant to Philip Morris tobacco at $250,000 a year, plus $50,000 per speech
27. The Al Yamamah contract
28. She opposed the indictment of Chile's General Pinochet
29. Social unrest under her leadership was higher than at any time since the General Strike
30. She presided over interest rates increasing to 15%
31. BSE
32. She presided over 2 million manufacturing job losses in the 79-81 recession
33. She opposed the inclusion of Eire in the Northern Ireland peace process
34. She supported sanctions-busting arms deals with South Africa
35. Cecil Parkinson, Alan Clark, David Mellor, Jeffrey Archer, Jonathan Aitkin
36. Crime rates doubled under Thatcher
37. Black Wednesday – Britain withdraws from the ERM and the pound is devalued. Cost to Britain - £3.5 billion; profit for George Soros - £1 billion
38. Poverty doubled while she opposed a minimum wage
39. She privatised public services, claiming at the time it would increase public ownership. Most are now owned either by foreign governments (EDF) or major investment houses. The profits don’t now accrue to the taxpayer, but to foreign or institutional shareholders.
40. She cut 75% of funding to museums, galleries and other sources of education
41. In the Thatcher years the top 10% of earners received almost 50% of the tax remissions
42. 21.9% inflation
 

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Sad that she died but she had been suffering for quite some time.

A polarising figure that gets too much undeserved hate. She made the tough decisions that the Prime Minister's before her were too weak to make. She was the one to finally stand up to the unions, decades after it should have happened to get rid of their inefficient ways. She did what had to be done and quicker than anyone else would have had the balls to do it. She moved Britian into the modern age and when she took over Britian was in a terrible state compared to the rest of Europe because two of the three previous PMs had been destroyed by the unions. Compared to when she started she got overall taxes lower, increased productivity growth, decreased strikes and increased foreign investment. She kickstarted the country again.

She did what had to be done and that was always going to divide a country. She was one tough woman.
 

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Sad that she died but she had been suffering for quite some time.

A polarising figure that gets too much undeserved hate. She made the tough decisions that the Prime Minister's before her were too weak to make. She was the one to finally stand up to the unions, decades after it should have happened to get rid of their inefficient ways. She did what had to be done and quicker than anyone else would have had the balls to do it. She moved Britian into the modern age and when she took over Britian was in a terrible state compared to the rest of Europe because two of the three previous PMs had been destroyed by the unions. Compared to when she started she got overall taxes lower, increased productivity growth, decreased strikes and increased foreign investment. She kickstarted the country again.

She did what had to be done and that was always going to divide a country. She was one tough woman.

I get what you are saying, but her critics would claim that she left Britain in a far worse state than when she took over. For example her privatsing everything has not proven a good move, because it has meant that companies like the train ones can raise their prices to unfair amounts (and believe me they are way too pricey) without being challenged, that is only good for the greedy people at the top of those firms.

Whatever the case, this is not the time to debate her legancy, fact is she was a unque and important force in British Politics, and as the first female PM made history. Regardless of what you think of her policies, most still respect her.
 

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I get what you are saying, but her critics would claim that she left Britain in a far worse state than when she took over. For example her privatsing everything has not proven a good move, because it has meant that companies like the train ones can raise their prices to unfair amounts (and believe me they are way too pricey) without being challenged, that is only good for the greedy people at the top of those firms.

Whatever the case, this is not the time to debate her legancy, fact is she was a unque and important force in British Politics, and as the first female PM made history. Regardless of what you think of her policies, most still respect her.

She definitely made some big mistakes as well. The trouble is Britain at that stage was always going through that transitional period, globalisation meant that manufacturing just wasn't cost effective in Britain anymore so there was always going to be mass layoffs during that time. Privatising essentials isn't the best idea but normally government is inefficient at running business so I can see why it would have been done.
 

Ozymandias

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The 'Right to Buy' scheme is a perfect example of her short term thinking. Great at the time, allowing people to get on to the property ladder but, as we're seeing in the UK now, she didn't bother building any more social housing for those who couldn't afford to own. Once again completely ignoring the poor of the country.
 

Troy

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But how was that her responsibility? You said that it worked well early on when she was PM so why would she have changed it? If it started to falter after she left then it is up to the governments after her to change policy and address that issue. There have been four governments since then that have had the opportunity to correct that issue. With hindsight it may have been short term thinking but there have been two decades for other governments to sort out the social housing issues. Plus wasn't that a Labour party policy that the Conservatives simply adopted as their own?