Campaign to get Ding Dong the Witch is Dead to Number One

[pork pie]

To say nothing of her love for Saddam, Pinochet and most things extremely right wing ; her racist predilictions as recently outlined by the Australian FM ; her govts penny pinchingness that led to the evacuation of our assets in the South Atlantic,leading to invasion by a group of scrap metal merchants followed by the Argentine armed forces,and the Great Victory which confirmed "unpopular at home ? Invent a diversion overseas".The asset stripping of our utilities,placing us at the mercy of others for our vital supplies ; the donation of the railway system to share holders still reaping the benefit of government subsidy whilst the rail system wastes in its own confusion; the selling of council houses built for those who couldn't afford to buy - esp in her ruinous reign of staggering interest rates - without allowance to rebuild the stock of housing,many of these sold at rock bottom prices,then sold on as speculation in very many instances ; turning the police into a state army to support the govts suspect decisions and at the same time turning hamlets,towns ,cities ,counties against themselves, in spite and vengeance.


Taking the milk off children.

These were great days,and she is ,indeed, a great heroine,an inspiration to us all.

Please tell me somebody has been appointed to drive a stake through her shrivelled heart - though I doubt there is one to be found.

Clearly your self-chosen name of wombat suits you, given it is often the polite name for a <abuse>

 

[HovaGirl]

And nothing to do with management, or with government creating an environment for manufacturing supporting long term investment. Only the unions.

Unlike other energy providers of course. And all mines were the same.

Billions had been invested in British Leyland, but they still produced crap cars which didn't sell. The more the strikers striked, fewer cars were built and more money was lost. And because of the high wage demands of the unions, the crap cars were more expensive than they were worth. Hence, they didn't sell. Much the same was happening in the mining industry. Most mines were losing vast amounts of money, which Governments had been subsidising for decades. More mines closed and miners jobs were lost before Thatcher came to power than during her watch. Scargill, being a greedy, self-serving individual, refused all the Government's offers and continued his demands and his long strike, pricing British coal right out of the global market. It couldn't go on.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

I can't really understand why anyone, regardless of the views, would think that Thatcher wasn't a divisive figure.

By Matt.

 

[HovaGirl]

There is a difference between unproductive and uneconomic. The productivity levels Heseltine proposed were on the whole met so I'll let you have a read up on that on your own but redundancies within an economy that is on its knees means only one thing......men on the dole. Redundancies within a growing economy sees the culling of certain industries and the growth of others which is perfectly normal and acceptable.


They knew the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

If there are no jobs, then people go on the dole. It is not up to the State to provide people with jobs which cost taxpayers more money than the jobs are actually worth.

 

[vegster]

She saved the country billions more than that. Show some respect.

She did not save the country billions, the majority of this country paid one way or another and are still paying now. Remember this when your gas, electricity and water bills rise regularly above inflation in order to maintain " Profitability ". Remember this when you ride in your cramped, German made train, paying a fortune for a season ticket despite the rail subsidy given to all the train companies.

Remember this if/when your employer decides to "rationalise " it's staffing levels and there is no one to stand up for you, remember this when your company demands an increase in profits/sales every year yet somehow, YOU cannot expect an increase in wages proportionally despite your increasing cost of living.

You and your family may well be quite comfortable financially at this point in your lives but that will change thanks to her legacy when you are no longer profitable to employ.

I have just started to notice that some Tories are slowly admitting that she had " done some things wrong" or " tended to trust her judgement as being the right way to go". The majority of the Tories have to tow the party line that she was a patriotic saint that saved Great Britain, however, some are starting to break cover and tell the other side. I have more respect for David Mellor now after hearing that he told her in Cabinet that he thought the Poll Tax was a bad idea and that after that, he was out at the next re-shuffle, as was anyone who had a contrary view to hers.

Once the ashes have settled, I think slowly more people will see her in her true light.

 

[HovaGirl]

Oh please. Intelligence did not tell him that.

Well, there you have it. So what reason did he have to go to war?

 

[HovaGirl]

No, no its not......what are you babbling on about?

If you can't work that one out, then you are dimmer than I thought. Not all intelligence gathered is accurate. Some of it is counter-intelligence. Some of it is propaganda. Some of it is lies. Some of it is true. And some of it is just plain wrong. But at the time of the intelligence, it's not always easy to tell how accurate the intelligence is. After the event, when all has been done, and analysed, only then can it be known how accurate the intelligence actually was.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Billions had been invested in British Leyland, but they still produced crap cars which didn't sell. The more the strikers striked, fewer cars were built and more money was lost. And because of the high wage demands of the unions, the crap cars were more expensive than they were worth. Hence, they didn't sell.

And that was only the fault of the unions. Not the design, not the quality control, not the management, not the manufacturing environment. British Leyland has created links with Honda - to get design and expertise from another manufacturer. All nothing to do with unions. There were problems with the unions for sure - but to claim them as the only cause of the car industry demise is asinine.

 

[HovaGirl]

A bit of myth busting around the miners' strike, written by someone alive at the time and living in Sheffield:

It's himself, Phelan: Myths and the miners strike

Key bit here which I never knew:

In 1955 only 9.2% of coal was power loaded, by 1969 this had risen to 92.2%. Jobs were lost in numbers that the Thatcher years never got close to. 346,000 miners left the industry between 1963 and 1968, in 1967 there were 12,900 forced redundancies. Under the prime minister during that period, Harold Wilson, one pit closed every week yet there are few people planning trips to his grave with their tap shoes.

A good article.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Were you there at the end of the broken 70s? Something had to be done. If she hadn't done it, GB plc would have been bankrupt long ago. (Funny how Labour has managed to almost bankrupt the country twice in living memory.)

Out of interest what do you think needs to be done now? The UK economy is a basket case of dead end low paid crap service sector jobs; what are these Tories you love so much doing for the economy which pleases you?

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Well, there you have it. So what reason did he have to go to war?

I wonder. Surprising no-one else has asked that question. You would think there would be something about it in the media.

 

[Randsta]

Will the money go to the miners?

Good year for minors ...with Maggie and Jimmy passing in the last year

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Billions had been invested in British Leyland, but they still produced crap cars which didn't sell. The more the strikers striked, fewer cars were built and more money was lost. And because of the high wage demands of the unions, the crap cars were more expensive than they were worth.

Choice 1 - modernise that industry (notwithstanding the opposition to any change from the unions who absolutely DID need reining in) and attempt to move it forward. Cost; large amounts in grants and subsidy.

Choice 2 - close everything down. Put hundreds of thousands out of work, in the plants themselves, and in the supporting industries and the towns generally, then hand out all the subsidy anyway to Japanese car makers. Cost; unemployment benefits for decades to thousands and thousands of people, social deprivation, increased crime and associated policing costs.

Your memory is very selective.

 

[HovaGirl]

She did take on union self interest and she moved Britain from a heavily regulated nationalised economy to a free market survival of the fittest model.

She knew that keeping us in the state we were in was not viable but it was the way she went about it that riles.

Destroying industry meant disenfranchising half of the country and set up riots, civil unrest and divisions which persist today. Thatcher was completely without compassion or compromise. She took conscious decisions to ruin millions of people's lives and used the organs of state to brutally crush dissent. She's hated and loved dependant on which side of the fence you were on at the time and how people individually benefited or lost out heavily.

Indeed. The great problem with Thatcher's policies, was that almost all of industry was destroyed and, in that, she went too far. She deliberately encouraged the service industries (banking, insurance, etc) which in the end, are just bits of paper shuffling around with invisible money that didn't really exist except as figures on a computer printout. Britain invented the industrial revolution and is the champion of small businesses. She should have invested money in small manufacturing businesses than in putting it all, literally, on paper.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Clearly your self-chosen name of wombat suits you, given it is often the polite name for a <abuse>

That is very amusing. Well done.

(given your user name)

 

[HovaGirl]

About 40% voted for her I believe. And the overwhelming majority of those were in the south. Doesn't really put down the divided nation argument does it?

I can't really understand why anyone, regardless of the views, would think that Thatcher wasn't a divisive figure. Even SHE recognised that.

Oh, she was divisive. Primarily between north and south.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Good year for minors ...with Maggie and Jimmy passing in the last year

Boom-boom.

Savile actually spent Christmas at Chequers with Thatcher. I am not sure what that says about her judgement, and the judgement of those around her.

 

[HovaGirl]

Greed may be an emotive world, but there's been no greater champion of self-interest than her. Even SHE would agree with that.

In defending her, do you have an opinion that the lady herself might actually agree with?

I've said many times, here on NSC, that I never voted for her and always disliked her. But there were certain things she had to do to drag this country back on its feet because we had been living on our "British" identity for decades, but the world was changing, and Britain wasn't. Had she not done half of what she had to do, we would be a third-world country by now.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

She should have invested money in small manufacturing businesses than in putting it all, literally, on paper.

So she has ****ed the economy.....yes?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I've said many times, here on NSC, that I never voted for her and always disliked her. But there were certain things she had to do to drag this country back on its feet because we had been living on our "British" identity for decades, but the world was changing, and Britain wasn't. Had she not done half of what she had to do, we would be a third-world country by now.

As opposed to an economic basket case...which you kind of admitted in your previous post?