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Gorbachev, Obama lead tributes to Thatcher; miners say good riddance

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Good riddance to the miners.

-10 ( +12 / -22 )

Great lady, RIP

-2 ( +13 / -15 )

Margaret Thatcher was a great champion for liberty. She fought the good fight against communism and socialism(though not without fault) and it's only the rent-seeking socialists that have much negativity to spout. RIP.

-7 ( +16 / -23 )

Ahh Thatcher, the original austerity and neoliberalism hero who destroyed EU and US with the help of Reagan...

-9 ( +11 / -20 )

"Gerry Adams, leader of the Sinn Fein republican party, said she had played a “shameful role” in the Troubles in Northern Ireland."

Oh really. And he didn't? Despicable murdering hypocrite that he is.

14 ( +17 / -3 )

the leader who put profits before people and war before reason....

-2 ( +12 / -14 )

Good riddance to the miners

I cordially invite you to a pub in the Rhonda Valley, Wales .... please talk like that there. Heavens sake, Jello Biafra had people like you in mind when he wrote 'Holiday in Cambodia'.

3 ( +13 / -10 )

"Ahh Thatcher, the original austerity and neoliberalism hero who destroyed EU and US with the help of Reagan..."

I believe the EU was created after Thatcher and Reagan left their respective offices.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

You could squeeze the juice from a sack of onions into my eyes and I'd still never shed a tear over her passing. She made the UK what it is today and if anyone thinks that's worth cheering about go and live their for 12 months. Preferably in somewhere like Oldham, Nottingham or South London. Great country if you are very rich but for the rest, they struggle to survive.

4 ( +13 / -9 )

I cordially invite you to a pub in the Rhonda Valley, Wales ....

You can add Durham, Northumberland, Yorkshire, Derbyshire etc to that list.

2 ( +8 / -6 )

Reports and images are coming in from the UK of street parties springing up across the nations - "ding-dong the witch is dead" is the catch-cry. Yes - it seems morbid to those of us who didn't live through her regime - but it shows how divisive Thatcher was. Liked and loathed in equal measure it would seem.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

Margaret Thatcher was a great champion for liberty. She fought the good fight against communism and socialism(though not without fault) and it's only the rent-seeking socialists that have much negativity to spout. RIP.

Called Nelson Mandella a terrorist. Good friends with Pinochet. Not the kind of thing that a champion of Liberty would have on their CV.

5 ( +14 / -9 )

Good riddance to the miners.

Possibly one of the most flippant, disrespectful posts that I've ever seen written on here. Hang your head in shame for belittling the struggle that hundreds of communities and tens of thousands of people across the country had to go through. I am no socialist and I'm not celebrating her death. I did celebrate her end to power though.

2 ( +12 / -10 )

Reports and images are coming in from the UK of street parties springing up across the nation

A champagne socialist celebration! Afterward, they can riot and go on a looting rampage to set fire to antique shops and grab the latest iPhone model.

She made the UK what it is today and if anyone thinks that's worth cheering about go and live their for 12 months.

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants from around the world have done just that in the last few years. Many, after passing thru countries like Germany, France, Holland, etc. It is a VERY popular country among those from less fortunate lands.

-3 ( +7 / -10 )

A great leader on the world stage, kicking ass in the Falklands and playing a role against the background of the Cold War.

Mixed legacy back home though. Many people blaming her for the bloated financial sector - but on the other hand that was generating a huge percentage of UK tax receipts for a number of years and the eventual crash started in the US anyway. But the fact that she abandoned so many people to become unemployed and see that as a long term option to sit on the dole was a big mistake.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Reports and images are coming in from the UK of street parties springing up across the nation

Yes, in Brixton for example - you can find it on Youtube. People in hoodies carrying 2-litre bottles of Strongbow and the like.. Meanwhile most the the residents are watching from the windows worrying it will affect property prices.

3 ( +9 / -6 )

@daveskecks

A great leader on the world stage, kicking ass in the Falklands

Great leaders don't send young people to die fighting over a couple of rocks and then bask in the glory of their sacrifice. A great leader would have negotiated and got the Argentinians out of the Falklands through diplomacy. But that wouldn't have given her the thrill of directing a war or an electoral boost among the less intelligent, more jingoistic Brits.

0 ( +10 / -10 )

Negotiate and Argentina are not two words that would usually go together. Even their current President refuses to speak to the people of the island despite the recent vote that had just three of the populace seeking change from their current governance. I'm not a fan of Thatcher and the war could most probably have been avoided by sending over a couple of ships when Argentina started getting a bit frisky but to suggest that we could have negotiated an agreement with Argentina is incorrect.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

@lucabrasi

I would say the less intelligent Brits are the ones that actually believe the war was engineered for an electoral boost. Have you read the recently declassified papers? The invasion truly surprised people and there are many, including the US at one point, who thought it logistically impossible for the UK to take the islands back.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

'Good riddance to the miners' A truly foul post. Those communities, families and children were devastated and thrown into poverty.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

Living in Japan I heard nothing but unreserved praise for her.

Visiting the UK it was shocking to discover besides admiration the depth of loathing among many towards this very same person.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

I wasn't in the UK so I can't speak of her domestic policies, but on the world stage against the Russians she was exactly what the world needed.

5 ( +10 / -5 )

And that's saying something.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

@JeffLee 'A champagne Socialist celebration.' Erm....I take it you are not British. Street parties and celebrations in Brixton, Leeds, Rochdale, Glasgow, Liverpool etc. are hardly areas of champagne socialism. These were the areas destroyed in the 80s.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

Wow ! Just saw the street celebrations in West Belfast on youtube, anyone would have thought that a cure for cancer had been found and that world peace and the end of poverty had been announced simultaneously.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

She was a good politician!

0 ( +6 / -6 )

You were a great one, Ms. Thatcher. You'll be missed by all who love freedom. No matter at what age you might've died, it would've been too soon.

-5 ( +6 / -11 )

She was a good politician!

Now that's getting really rude....

3 ( +7 / -4 )

The woman was a great puppet for the elite to get their aims complete. People like Kissinger were her mates, a slimeball with zero empathy for anyone. She was groomed to become one of the "establishment" in a way similatr to Obama was in the States. She was merely a puppet for others and was easily infuenced by those of the elite that she looked up to. She did not care about Britain but wanted to see a Britain that she thought was right. She was under total control of the bankers and the corporate elite and the selling off of British industries shows that. She managed to increase GDP in the UK by encouraging foreign firms like Nissan to open plants in Britain at rates that were not offered to British companies. I am not against Thatcher alone but all of those who followed her and made Britain a dump in which the wealth gap between rich and poor is the largest ever, where there is less social mobility than the early 60's.

Her legacy is Britain 2013, where the poor, and poorly educated are blamed for the countries woes and only now are people realising they have been ripped off and left with nothing by a bunch of toffs.

2 ( +8 / -6 )

Another WAR CRIMINAL never put to trial before her death. How can anyone mourn her?

-2 ( +7 / -9 )

ebisen

Because most people are decent and do not speak ill of the dead. All those people celebrating and having parties are being absurd. Better just to say nothing and get on with your lives.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Better just to say nothing

WHAT? And just conveniently forget the irreparable death, damage and suffering she caused?

1 ( +6 / -5 )

Miners: We come to bury Thatcher, not to praise her.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

She made the UK what it is today and if anyone thinks that's worth cheering about go and live their for 12 months. Preferably in somewhere like Oldham, Nottingham or South London. Great country if you are very rich but for the rest, they struggle to survive.

Bollocks... I really wish some people would stop painting the UK as some Third World backwater... if you are on benefits then yes life can be difficult, likewise those on a basic pension. The VAST majority of people in the UK can live quite well on their wages. I am an NHS Administrator earning less than £20K a year and I'm not grubbing around in the bins for food.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

@Thunderbird2

Try living on 20K a year in London on that money. Britain is nit third world but is going downhill fast, more so in the last 5 years than at any other time i have seen. Last time i went i was so shiocked at how bad things were. In some places like seaside resorts or further up North, there was not so much negative change but for those on lower wages the life is very bad. Let's not forget millions of workers are getting housing benefits and tax credits due to low wages and high housing costs. This problem started with Thatcher and destroying social housing and giving corporations more power. Without drastic change the UK will a completely divided society within a decade. There are already gated communities going up in London in recently working class areas where the residents have been driven out mostly due to gentrification.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

@ Thunderbird2:

Well, if there were less gov't in the UK today, there'd be more wealth for all. Liberals and socialists need the poor, as the more poor there are who meekly accept gov't handouts in exchange for voting Labour Party, the better for the Labour Party. As Ms. Thatcher so succinctly said it, "You (the Labour Party) want the poor to be poorer and the rich to be less rich."

BTW, have you ever seen a poor liberal/socialist politician?

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

In other words, Thunderbird2, the Labour Party and the socialists epitomize the threat seen by Benjamin Franklin when he said (to paraphrase), 'Those who favor security over freedom will end up with neither.'

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

And let us not forget during the Falklands war she gave the order to sink a ship outside the exclusion zone that had heeded British orders and was moving away. Hundreds of teenage conscripts drowned in freezing waters. And she preety much applied that same logic to those in Britain who were not rich or influential.

Before thatcher the UK was not prfect but most of us lived a good life of sorts. Post Thatcher, Britain became a country of haves and have nots with the government firmly on the side of the haves. thatcher took the UK back to the 1890's and was proud of it.

There is no party in my street celebrating her death but I think I might start one any time soon.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

The miners allowed their unions to bring Britain to its' knees so they should shoulder the blame for their own demise, along with Thatcher who actually did something about it.

Not that I would expect such honesty with so many on the left always in such haste to blame someone else for their lot in life...

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

"And let us not forget during the Falklands war she gave the order to sink a ship outside the exclusion zone that had heeded British orders and was moving away. "

This is a disputed fact. War's hell, and if you don't like the outcome, don't start one.

I wonder indeed what the outcome would had been had Britain at the time had a limp-wristed politician ready to appease the Argentinian dictator.....

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

And let us not forget during the Falklands war she gave the order to sink a ship outside the exclusion zone that had heeded British orders and was moving away. Hundreds of teenage conscripts drowned in freezing waters.

There are numerous accusations that could have been thrown at her but her decision to sink an enemy ship in a time of conflict is not one of them. As of April 23, 1982 the UK made it clear that the exclusion zone was larger than 200 km and the Argentine Argentine Rear Admiral Allara, who was in charge of the task force that the Belgrano was part of accepted that saying it was just too bad that we lost the Belgrano"

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Baka Gaijin... I'm not left or right, I don't see myself as political at all... I just say what I see. I work in one of the most deprived parts of Glasgow... and I don't see any people begging, grubbing in bins for a meal... most have cars, they dress well enough and the supermarket is always busy. Yes people are out of work and on the dole, but they have housing benefit, child benefit, work pensions as well as state pensions... and yes the people are not well off in the Gorbals, but neither are they tramps living off scraps and handouts. There is real poverty here, but it is NOT the grim picture people are painting.

Thatcher divided this country like no-one else since Cromwell. Sacrificed the manufacturing heart of Britain to the City. The '80s were the worst times I have ever lived through... with greed everywhere (Harry Enfield's Loadsa Money character showing the ugly side of this new culture in a light-hearted way), riots and the worst fashion mistakes since flares with inserts.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

Madvets - the miners were the providers of energy power which drove Britain in the 7o's. thatcher did not want such power in the hands of working class people. The miners fought for the people - Thatcher fought (and won) for the ruling class. Working class people - who create the wealth - are now worse off. Those who profit from the labour of others are now much richer. Seem a fair deal to you?

0 ( +5 / -5 )

"the miners were the providers of energy power which drove Britain in the 7o's. thatcher did not want such power in the hands of working class people."

They were also the people that turned off the power to the whole nation, especially in winter, when they didn't get what their unions demanded. Have you never heard of the Winter of Discontent? No wonder the people voted in Thatcher to deal with the dictators drunk on power heading the unions.

Please don't mistake my views on Thatcher, I'm one of those rare people that hold both positive and negative views on her. And whether you like it or not, the miners do have their own part in their downfall - and the bitterness at their defeat at the hands of the uncompromising Thatcher government has not subsided. Whilst it is true that the effects were devastating on many of these communities, it is also clear to anyone looking at that point in history with any notion of impartiality that regular people had absolutely had enough of the trade unions holding a gun to the head of the entire population, and that something had to be done.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

it is also clear to anyone looking at that point in history with any notion of impartiality that regular people had absolutely had enough of the trade unions holding a gun to the head of the entire population, and that something had to be done.

Madverts, yes something had to be done, but putting millions on the dole wasn't the right way to go about it. It wasn't just miners - it was car and steel plants as well... manufacturing in general.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

and there are many, including the US at one point, who thought it logistically impossible for the UK to take the islands back.

You seem very young and not getting the context at all. The Faklands war was not UK vs Argentine. That's was Thatcher showing her teeth to the US. Argentine was one of the American pet dictatorships so Washington knew the British attack was totally unnecessary, whatever the goal. The US would have weighted on Buenos Aires to make them leave the islets and get back to normal, giving them something in exchange. But Thatcher was too proud. She preferred 1000 persons killed for officially defending 2000 (that were mostly threatened of having their street plate translated into Spanish). She couldn't know the casualties in advance, OK, but she was ready to lose more UK soldiers than the number of inhabitants there.

How can anyone mourn her?

Carol and Mark are rich heirs, they can cry sincerily. The money from the sales of grandpa's grocery store not so much, the money of Daddy a little more, the savings of Mummy from her wages as Primy not really.... but there are the tips she was getting at little baitos, selling cigarettes and war toys.

Because most people are decent and do not speak ill of the dead.

In North Korea ? It's revisionism, negating history when you don't acknowledge the antics of former political leaders. .

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

She was loathsome. And so are the other dead and alive members of the same gang: Pinochet, the apartheid leaders, Gorbachev, Francis and all the others.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

"It wasn't just miners - it was car and steel plants as well... manufacturing in general."

This had already happened through the scourge of doomed left-wing nationalization policies throughout the seventies, long before Thatcher. She acted more like an administrator of all those non-profitable institutions going to the wall.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Actually, although the US claimed to be neutral they gave weapons (most notably the stinger SAM) to the British forces and was actually prepared to offer a warship to the UK if we lost either the Invincible or Hermes.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Whilst the decline of Britain's manufacturing industry had started in the 70s (and possibly before) the way that she destroyed communities was and still is unfathomable. The decline could have been managed in a substantially better way than it was done. Her policies destroyed communities. It created unemployment levels at simply unimaginable figures for a leading industrialized country and despite the alleged economic benefits, the social impacts did not justify what she did.

Incidentally, I hold Arthur Scargill with similar contempt.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Anything is possible with hindsight Heda. The fact is the unions were too powerful and were out of control. Their brinkmanship hurt the British people a whole and ultimately caused their demise. In fact, I really don't see how they could have been castrated by any other means than been taken head-on as they were by Thatcher.

I wasn't expecting any of the Thatcher haters to acknowledge the miners very own contribution to their implosion, but it was certainly worth mentioning.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Oh, and I live not 80 miles from that low-life Roger Windsor. Had the unfortunate experience of actually meeting him years ago, the same scum that flew to Libya to beg funds from Mad Dog Gaddafi to continue the strikes.....people lose sight of the evil at the helm of the unions.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

I am a Thatcher hater. But then I'm from the North East of the England and I saw what her policies did and that has nothing to do with hindsight.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Oh and I don't blame the miners, I still find that initial post to be reprehensible. But I also hate Arthur Scargill.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Good for you for the hate.

Personally, even being born and bred in the NE, I'd like to look at both sides and insist the miners and their unions shoulder equal responsibility for the results with Thatcher.

But trust me, I wasn't expecting to get any sense from the radicals.....

1 ( +3 / -2 )

yet you defend Thatcher. Coal, Steel and Shipbuilding. All gone. Communities destroyed.

The miners didn't close them. Neither did the steel workers nor the ship builders. They all went within a matter of years and when an area is almost solely dependent on heavy industry anyone could see what would happen. It happened on Tyneside, in Glasgow, in Belfast, in Liverpool, in Yorkshire, in countless other areas.

The impact of her government's policies can not be understated. And anyone with half a brain could see what would happen.

And for what it's worth, I would quite happily have voted for John Major's government but voted Lib Dems because they weren't Labour and were the only viable option in my city. I am more right than left but could never have voted for the tory party under her.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

The toughest, most persistent and intelligent British MP or PM in the House of Commons since Sir Winston stood at the podium. I heard her when she spoke at Ft. Bliss. A powerful speaker. I used to watch her masterful work on CSPAN and CNN back in the day and was always impressed by her debate skills. I never saw her match in any discussion on any topic.

Farewell to one of Britain's finest and one of my country's staunchest allies in the world and for all time. God bless you, Baroness Thatcher.

RR

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

"left-wingers quickly began planning jubilant parties"

They have no honor.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

I have no concern of the opinions of Gerry Adams though whatever he said he will also know that it was during her Premiership that a dialogue was started with the IRA.

But I do hate her for what she did to communities, for creating towns and villages with nearly 50% unemployment. For the way she treated the working class. I also hate Arthur Scargill. As I said befor, I would have voted Major but the only option in my area at the time was lib dem. my hatred for her and what she did is balanced based on growing up in a region that she decimated. I support her actions in the Falklands War and now she dealt with the Iranian hostage crisis.

But as a person I hated her. I think I'm entitled to that opinion. I do not celebrate her death, nor do I mourn her passing.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Readers, please do not bicker. Focus your comments on the story and not at each other.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

“It was another time, a time that was called the Thatcher years, the Reagan years, which caused significant economic and social damage, and excessive liberalization,” he said.

Couldn't have said it better than myself.... It's all true....

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@Romeo 'I never saw her match in any discussion on any topic' Foot generally destroyed her in debate ( in fairness very few could match him intellectually ) although she did get the better of Kinnock ( not hard ). She wasn't a great debater like Foot, Wilson, McLeod or Macmillan. Next to Reagan she seemed like an intellectual giant, rather like Bush next to Blair, but I think your judgement of her skills may be based on watching the likes of Sean Hannity.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

"Nelson Mandela is a terrorist"

Whom are you quoting there please?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Anybody out there prepared to defend her Mandela quote or 'friendship' with Mr Pinochet? Some really interesting and considered points about her economic policy but a deafening silence on this. The last post got a thumbs down but I've yet to hear so much as a 'nobody's perfect'.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

My understanding is that she described the ANC as a 'typical terrorist organization'. Tory MP Teddy Taylor said 'Mandela should be shot' ( he claimed it was in jest ).

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Thatcher was asked by a journalist for her response "to a reported ANC statement that they will target British firms in South Africa?" She replied: "when the ANC says that they will target British companies. This shows what a typical terrorist organisation it is."

http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/it-widely-reported-british-prime-minister-margaret-thatcher-criticised-anc-calling-it-te

1 ( +2 / -1 )

In 2006 David Cameron has made another decisive break with the Conservative Party's past by admitting that Margaret Thatcher had been wrong to brand Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) "terrorists" during the struggle against apartheid. She called Mr Mandela by association, a terrorist. She was a bigoted ideologue.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So, she did call the ANC a 'typical terrorist organization'. Glad we got that one cleared up.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"So, she did call the ANC a 'typical terrorist organization'. Glad we got that one cleared up."

Did I suggest otherwise? You might want to keep that knee in check.

Up above you poster modz was attributing a quote to Thatcher that was woefully false. And the quote in question as I pointed out, was after the ANC had threatened to "target" British companies and has been regularly quoted out of context.

There are enough things to attack Thatcher on without being dishonest IMO.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@madverts You misunderstood me. The 'glad we got that one cleared up' was an invitation for someone to move to her relationship with Pinochet. I'll buy anyone a pint who can do it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"'The ANC is a typical terrorist organisation ... Anyone who thinks it is going to run the government in South Africa is living in cloud-cuckoo land' - Margaret Thatcher, 1987 (http://ind.pn/fLcyxZ)

or from this article in the Telegraph

"David Cameron made another break with his party's past yesterday when he declared that Margaret Thatcher had been wrong to describe Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress as terrorists during the struggle against apartheid in the 1980s." (http://bit.ly/5b8oqN)

Sorry Madverts, perhaps Is should have left the actual quotation marks off, but its not splitting hairs as such when she is on record as categorizing the ANC as a terrorist organization that its logical extension was that Mandela, as the ANC leader, was as well.

@Jimizo Her association with Pinochet is well documented, they were great friends in his later life and she claimed the the ex dictators incarceration was "callus and unjust" -- this is of someone, who seized power in a military coup of a democratically elected government, and under whom between 10 and 20 000 people were killed or disappeared. (http://bit.ly/147M0Jm)

Thatcher was also the only European leader to support the Ivory trade and gave her support to the butchers in the Khmer Rouge (http://bit.ly/X4dYlq)

Clearly the woman had no conscious. or sense of human decency/empathy.

According to the independent

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@modz

Thatcher was a neoliberal ideologue at best and more accurately a fascist

Yes, this is the precise classification.

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

The unions killed UK manufacturing and mining jobs. Pretty much the same for the US auto and textile industries.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

"Sorry Madverts, perhaps Is should have left the actual quotation marks off, but its not splitting hairs"

There is no splitting of hairs, your quotation was invented by yourself. Even the real quote has been repeatedly taken out context as the question that initiated the response is always omitted. A simple Google search proves the press's repeated obfuscation on the matter. Critic the woman for her real flaws, which are many - not manufactured ones, or be relegated to league of the intellectually dishonest....

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

YGhome,

As a supporter of the dictator Assad, I find your comments on Thatcher amusing...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The plight of (or lack of planning by) the (fill in any displaced worker here, miners, auto workers, textile workers) is a lot more complicated than any one politician. For example, if the miners still had reason to be mining coal we would have one group of people who were concerned about the effects of CO2 and smog from coal used for power generation. The UK has laws about that. I suppose citizens living with those laws have healthier lungs but the coal miners are out of a job. Would you rather live in China? You can't have it both ways. Thatcher may have opened the UK up to competition but the miners were doomed from the beginning. Look at all the EU regulations and how they drive costs up and jobs out. Would you rather live without those regulations? Should the miners have gotten certification in other trades? This is a lot more complicated than simply saying "Thatcher was bad." What Thatcher did was subject people to competition that they simply weren't ready for. Now the EU is run amok and it's Greece's turn in the barrel. The pendulum always swings. Thatcher had her flaws but she did try to drag the UK (some of it kicking and screaming) into the 20th century. She did see off the Argentine dictators. Did help end the cold war. Maybe she wasn't a Churchill but she was far more than a Gordon Brown.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Madverts, instead of coping with an opinion, in your last comment you are coping with the person holding that opinion.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Much as I think that Thatcher was a great Prime Minister who grasped the nettle that needed to be pulled, I can understand why she is a divisive figure.

Old mining and manufacturing towns in the North were devastated in the wake of Thatcher’s reforms, and although I primarily blame the unions and the weak-willed pre-Thatcher politicians of the 60s and 70s for getting them into a state requiring such drastic measures, I believe Thatcher could have handled the way it happened a lot better and given those communities time to find alternative industries instead of allowing them to collapse virtually overnight and allow the towns to descend into into a spiral of unemployment, crime and drug abuse that still persists in many towns in the North, Scotland and Wales. But she kept the UK out of the federalization of a single European currency.....that's what got her ousted by her party. She obviously has kept the UK out of some of the mess the rest of Europe is in now.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

(At dinner party for politicians.)

Maid: "And what about the vegetables?" Margaret: "Oh, they'll have the same."

Her handbag symbolized her power. The men around her all looked like wimps.

She made for some brilliant 'Spitting Image' footage.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

As I am living in a country under the rule of a leftist administration, I have this admiration for the courage Thatcher had to face the parasite unions that walk hand-in-hand with leftist politicians, that not only implement populist laws in deterioration of economics (Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador and Brazil) but also in deteterioration of freedom (the four leftist countries I mentioned are implanting laws aganist freedom of press). Englain may not be in perfect shape economically, but if Thatcher hadn't shaken the country from the Coal Age in the 1980s, England would be now the in worse conditions. For those complaining: you live in a free country, still one of the world powers economic and culturally. If you think it's not good, then move to the heinous hell that is Argentina right now, and see the difference of living in a industrialized, free country and living in one where economy is ruining and you can't post free opinions in the midia.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

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