Maggie was years ahead of the current health Nazis. She helped reduce the exposure of our vulnerable young to the risk of future cholesterol issues caused by drinking full fat milk.

There you go again, RK, comparing Nazis with HS people who are only obeying orders.

I am sure she would hate the thought of the state spending any money on her funeral, so I really hope it's coming out of her estate.

I can't get all this "don't speak ill of the dead" bullshit, if someone was an awful human being, why shouldn't you voice your opinion just because they are dead??

And as our fathers or grandfathers fought to liberate the camps, did you know what was happening to British soldiers in Palestine? Read this

Or that the Stern Gang (Jewish Freedom Fighters/Terrorists) offered to fight for the Nazis against the Allies? Read this

Or the murder of two British Sergeants? Read this

History makes for interesting reading, it's rarely black and white. Ironically the first use of a truck bomb was by Jewish Terrorists (or should that be freedom fighters?) against a British Police station

And no, I am not anti-Zionist or Right Wing, but I do read a lot of history. I also find it quite ironic when an Israeli denounces an attack as terrorism

List of terror attacks in Palestine

I used to hate that silver top school milk, especially when (1) warm and (2) previously enjoyed by blue tits.

I think she should be Sainted and interred at the recently closed Maltby colliery, turning it into a shrine. I'm sure the local community would approve.

Well he must be right!

Being a siplementary benefits claim officer during Maggies reign I saw first hand the destruction she caused. Changed my polotics completely. Maybe the unions had enjoyed too much power, but once that had been reduced they did not need destroying along with the industry they covered.

I will not rejoice at her or anyones death, but I will not shed a tear either.

Charlie - it's a fairly recent phenomenon. People have observed that the easiest way to get a Nobel Peace Prize is to kill lots of people, and then stop.

c.f. Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Nelson Mandela... I'm waiting for Gerry Adams and Osama bin Laden.

Not sure about the sainted bit, but I agree her corpse should be put down a mine shaft.
People who are then so inclined, could pay a small fee (say £10.00) to take a crap down the very deep hole. I think it would work wonders, and the national dept could be paid off by next thursday.

Don't worry Gareth. I still live in hope that those people she helped to live more honourably instead of holding the country to ransom will realise how much she helped them. One day everyone will thank her legacy of giving working people the right to better themselves instead of pulling the rest of the country down to their dirty level.

Yes, best of luck with that. I really wouldnt hold my breath were I you.
Xx

She won. You lost. It worked for the country brilliantly until Bliar and Brown got their filthy mitts on it. You'd think after 30 years people would decide that blaming her isn't working for them. Maybe doing something about it and making their life better would lead to a nicer, less spiteful life.

This thread is ace! It's brought a bit of passion (and especially humour) to our forum. FWIW I don't have anything to say about her death whatsoever.

It worked for the country brilliantly?
Ah, well if you're not going to be reasonable and start talking utter nonsense...
She sold off everything we had. She sold it off to her peers. It was never hers to sell. Privitisation can never be cheaper or more efficient. As soon as you have shareholders to pay you're already dealing with higher costs. She created a country that went from an industrial giant to a yuppy crazed financial center. Industry is still reeling from her bungling decisions.
She should be glad she wasnt made to run through the streets naked while being whipped by the widows of the miners whis lives she destroyed.

She got off very lightly. I hope the bitch burns in hell.

Yeah, the National Coal Board, British Rail, British Steel and British Leyland were all providing top class goods at knock down prices due to not servicing shareholders weren't they? Or perhaps they were already more expensive at point of sale than privatised companies, despite being heavily subsidised in taxes too.

Greedy miners were holding the country to energy ransom for extortionate pay rises, British Railways were expensive and famed for never running on time, British Leyland were turning out world class competition to Volkswagen such as the Allegro made with British Steel that was overpriced and of such poor quality that cars were rolling off the production line already rusty.

She did what was necessary and crushed the lazy, unionised, subsidised national industries that did very little except turn out overpriced, poor quality goods and services at great cost to the tax payer and also the direct customer.

As I said - she won. Great Britain won. The only people that are bitter about it are those who lost their easy meal ticket paid for out of the public purse.

she sent my friend to his death .... but he went willingly and i know Mark would have been first in the queue to get on the boat to the Falklands ... good or bad some things she did were shite but some things she did for this country were right at the time ..... killing the unions was right i remember the power cuts and all the strikes in the car plants ...... some of the things were so wrong ... the pole tax ....selling everything off .. we are all paying for this now.. .... who is worse her or the nobbs in charge now

Greedy miners? You have any idea what minets were earning then? You have any idea what working conditions were like? You are displaying a staggering level of ignorance. I can't listen to your ill informed drivel any longer. We have never agreed Brewster. And that will never change. You wade into subjects that you have no idea about. Time and time again you do this before it becomes clear you are trolling. Just because you make lots of noise, certainly doesn't make you right.
Im out. Ill leave you to grieve your Iron lady.

She won, we ALL lost.

Unfortunately she died of old age and outlived many of those that she inflicted suffering and misery on and I can take no great pleasure in a frail old woman's passing. Those who measure life through wealth, hold her in high esteem. In my country she was almost universally hated for reasons that those who hold her in high regard could never understand. I would have prefered she had died in her prime, and I would have then danced on her grave and raised a glass in joy and celebration with many of you, and many of the great friends and family who alas have now passed away. My thoughts are with them on this day.

are them in office any better..... no nothing changes.... we are all losing now

Or to paraphrase, Gareth - "I have no counterargument to your just points so I'll just call you ignorant and run away."

Enjoy your Maggie's Dead party. Don't blow your hands off with those fireworks. An amputee coal miner is about as much use as a, err, well any British coal miner these days.

we all vote for bullshitters who lie to us so they can line there pockets.... she was the right person at the right time ... but messed up like all the politicians

The thing is, Volumex, I genuinely believe that nearly everything she did as PM was borne out of a desire to make the country a fairer, more prosperous place. The only people who are bitter are the socialists who wanted to have their share "fairer" than everyone else.

i agree she did what was right at the time but as usual some thing were good and some bad

Brewster, I really dont have the time to argue on here. We will never agree, and i think the only thing we can agree on is the futility in us continuing this. I think i have laid out my feelings on Thatcher, im sure no one will be in any doubt which side of the fence im on.

As for your insistence that privatisation is great.... Ill agree with you, IF you can give me one single example that a sell off to the privste sector made that srctor, moreefficieny, less costly and privided a better service.
In all cases, services been degraded, while money is creamed off the top to shareholders, instead of being re invested. ..
Privitisation should have been illegal. It wasn't theirs to sell. It was mine, and it was yours.

The unions may have been powerful but they were mostly reeling from what had gone before. Everything needs to be placed in correct context and perspective. Regrettably you, as always, wish to ignore this in favour of sound bite.

During the lifetime of many 70’s union members & leaders they had suffered the thirties depression, forced labour camps and then fought for the country that so undervalued them. Many of these workers had lived through times of great unfairness and wanted that to change. For decades the working class were exploited and these folks wanted to redress the balance. Did they go too far, want too much, and too quickly? Undoubtedly

You can say what you want about the 70’s hard times but the fact is the economic hardship was felt by ALL sections of society. This is one thing thatcher did change. Every economic downturn since has been distinctly unfair, the more wealthy you were the less likely you have had to endure the pain. Just look at today..

To insist Mrs T’s motives were to create a fairer, more prosperous place are a farce. The majority of people were only ever credit card & debt prosperous. It was a greed culture that has led to the debt culture we find ourselves in today. We Brits have one of the largest personal debt burdens in the world. The largest sector of our economy is finance, much of which is based upon us buying and selling our property / homes.

Many of our European neighbours kept their industrial powerbase ticking over, we laughed at them and said they were stupid. Today they are still building / Making stuff and exporting their products to the developing world. They didn’t lose their bottle and fall into the “They can make it cheaper elsewhere, so let’s sell up” trap as far as we did. We lumped almost all our eggs into the finance basket, rode the wave but eventually screwed ourselves. We still have a slim chance to innovate but we stuck in niche markets.

Nationalisation doesn’t work argument…… Oddly our European neighbours didn’t agree and they didn’t destroy their nationalised industries, they actually embraced and developed them. Today many of those companies now own and manage much of the UK PLC that Mrs T sold to them… Perhaps she should be known as the “Irony Lady”

Yes I hold socialist beliefs and value not for profit culture & business. You can spit on my beliefs and even suggest that I would seek to have my share fairer than everyone else. But this just isn’t true. You know me, have I ever behaved or acted in any way that was unfair. I suggest I have always been shown and proven to hold fast my beliefs, even to the point others have exploited me!

Sadly I feel it’s often those who feel they should be entitled to more who seek the fairer share. Their assessment is never based on evidence, they just know they deserve it.

If, like me, you worked in industry around the time that Thatcher came to power you'll know that British manufacturing industry was totally screwed long before she came to power. I worked in several iconic British companies: Colchester Lathe & Royal Ordnance amongst others - run-down and rotten to the core with demarcation the norm. Unbelievably depressing experience and so nearly stopped me becoming an engineer at all. I also visited Ford Dagenham - the worst of the lot. At the same time, Nissan Sunderland was just starting up. Which of those manufacturing sites is still thriving? It tells you all you need to know.

I don't think any union members would remember forced labour camps....?

My brother-in-law was auditing in Fleet Street (early 80s) and I still recall him being told he could not move a particular chair, something to do with union rules

The problem with a two-party system is that one *has* to be the diametric opposite of the other on any subject, irrespective of whether the viewpoint has any rationale to it.

Like a few of the other posters here, I was there and working before, during, and after Thatcher's rule. I was a member of a union for thirty years - but I also refused to pay a political levy long before it became a legal right so to do. I believe that a union is there to provide a common negotiating position between employees and employers, not something with which to hold employers to ransom; not something to featherbed employees with pay rises and position based on time of employment instead of ability; not something to provide rigid demarcation between jobs. There's little doubt to me - recalling the piled rubbish and the power cuts and Red Robbo pulling out the Leyland workers once again and Scargill's megalomania - that limiting the unions' powers was essential. Instead of representing the workers the vast majority were there for the political ambition of their leaders.

Thatcher made a major mistake with the 'right to buy' campaign. It was an obvious and not very successful attempt to bribe votes from council tenants; since it removed rental properties while paying way less than replacement costs and still leaving the councils with a duty to provide housing could only leave a shortage of cheap rental housing that persists to this day; net result is ridiculous rents paid to third parties who, remarkably enough, charge all the market will bear.

Privatising national infrastructure industries... not convinced that selling me something I already own at a knock down price so I can sell the shares immediately and make a quick buck and then watch the mess of cross-selling and downright fraud that the delivery of those services descended into should ever have been legal. Once again, it's a classic case of 'all the market will bear' disguised as complex pricing 'schemes' and companies who employ more people as sales 'executives' persuading me to swap from one to the other than they do on the infrastructure? Does water from one supplier taste better than from another? Does the gas smell sweeter? Is the electricity more sinusoidal? Now we end up in the position that we have to beg foreign governments to allow their (mostly government owned) companies to build us a nuclear power station or two...

I could go on.

There is no doubt that Thatcher was a strong person; she had her views and policies and stuck to them - whether they made sense or not. Unlike probably most of the people here, the nature of my job was such that I met her several times. In a social context, she was friendly and reasonable and persuasive; as a politician she was a demagogue as extreme as any other.

I'm interested in this. It wasn't long before that many of these industries were nationalised - I'm not sure any of them started as government bodies (railways, mines, steel etc were mostly started in the industrial revolution by private individuals). What makes going in one direction right but going back the other way wrong? I'm genuinely interested to understand this