Thatcher dead

[mancitymick]

Like her or hate her it's disgusting they are going to spend over £10 million on her funeral when they have been cutting spending and taking money off the most vulnerable people in the country and then having the cheek to say "We can afford it". Fucking joke this country.

£10 Million. They should of book it through the CO-OP (Free bufett included) for a fraction of the price

 

[mammutly]

Like her or hate her it's disgusting they are going to spend over £10 million on her funeral when they have been cutting spending and taking money off the most vulnerable people in the country and then having the cheek to say "We can afford it". Fucking joke this country.

I've never been particularly interested in politics, but like a lot of people the cost of this funeral makes me really fucking angry. It's more than a disgrace, it's an absolute smack in the face to society. Fitting, I suppose.

 

[mayo31]

Don't know if it has been posted but makes interesting reading.

http://theboyphelan.blogspot.ca/2010/06/myths-and-miners-strike.html?m=1

very interesting read. Sure PB summarised this earlier

I hadn't seen that particular piece but funnily enough I was just re-reading her autobiography to refresh my memory and was just on the Miners Strike. Those self-same figures were quoted there as well so I think whoever wrote that blog picked those up from the book.

It (the book) talks about Scargill's guile and Ian Macgregor's lack of it. At one point, after the strike started, the NCB and NUM held their first meeting. No one but Scargill was allowed to speak for the NUM and he reiterated his opposition to pit closures other than on the grounds of exhaustion or geological reasons and that unless the NCB agreed to this, there was nothing more to say.

At that point, Macgregor suggested that they should keep the lines of communication open between a small group but Scargill said that he would only talk if they agreed to his pre-condition of pit closures. Naturally the NCB refused to do that and the talks ended. As they got up, Scargill apaprently asked if the NUM could continue to use that room for a private discussion and Macgregor agreed as it seemed a reasonable request. So the NCB team went out and spoke to the waiting media

However, when the NUM finally left the room and met the waiting media, Scargill then claimed the NCB had refused to meet any of their requests and had walked out.

The other interesting thing is that they had put together a very generous redundancy package and (according to Thatcher) did not anticipate any compulsory redundancies needing to be made, as they calculated that the required job losses would all be met by voluntary redundancy, mainly involving the men who'd done 30 years and would have been retiring soon anyway. Any sensible union leader might well have huffed and puffed and won some extra concessions but would have ultimately agreed on the basis of no compulsory redundancies. But not our Arthur. He wanted a fight.

I no fan of thatcher but you right here, Scargill was a dickhead who shafted a whole load of his members by being so stubborn and having such a massive ego.

I would not be surprised if the fact he was fighting a women also played a part in his decisions.

He knew he had the support of men, a lot held views like him in the strength of the unions.

Shocking really. A book by David Peace called GB84 is a good read.

 

[Ducado]

I have refrained from posting in this thread, mainly because some of the nonsense being posted was not really worth arguing with, people have their own realities and some of them are a lot different than mine

I am in my mid 40’s I left school at the height of the recession in the 80’s and yes things were very grim, hardly a day went by without news of some factory or other closing down , I had a short period of unemployment, but have been in work ever since, and so has every member of my family, and here is the strange thing out of the people I went to school with everyone I still know about have done OK for themselves, and we were all working class, so not everything is as some people like to paint it.

Another fact is that during her periods in office the North West had loads of Tory MP’s, they only started to lose them from 92 onwards, and it included many areas of Greater Manchester, strange that working class people voted for her and actually liked her, and that included many Union members.

Her biggest problem (and it alluded to by quite a few) is that she was a very high achiever, and this was her blind spot, she thought that if she could do it everyone could! Unfortunately not everyone is as motivated to the degree she was.

I don’t think everything she did was right not by a long shot, but much of what the left blame her for would have happened anyway and it was happening anyway, and that whoever was in power would have had to take measures that were very painful.

I honestly think some people are just following along with the vocal minority, and are not in full possession of all the facts, and paraphrase Morrissey “It’s so easy to hate”

 

[Davs 19]

I have refrained from posting in this thread, mainly because some of the nonsense being posted was not really worth arguing with, people have their own realities and some of them are a lot different than mine

I am in my mid 40’s I left school at the height of the recession in the 80’s and yes things were very grim, hardly a day went by without news of some factory or other closing down , I had a short period of unemployment, but have been in work ever since, and so has every member of my family, and here is the strange thing out of the people I went to school with everyone I still know about have done OK for themselves, and we were all working class, so not everything is as some people like to paint it.

Another fact is that during her periods in office the North West had loads of Tory MP’s, they only started to lose them from 92 onwards, and it included many areas of Greater Manchester, strange that working class people voted for her and actually liked her, and that included many Union members.

Her biggest problem (and it alluded to by quite a few) is that she was a very high achiever, and this was her blind spot, she thought that if she could do it everyone could! Unfortunately not everyone is as motivated to the degree she was.

I don’t think everything she did was right not by a long shot, but much of what the left blame her for would have happened anyway and it was happening anyway, and that whoever was in power would have had to take measures that were very painful.

I honestly think some people are just following along with the vocal minority, and are not in full possession of all the facts, and paraphrase Morrissey “It’s so easy to hate”

.



I honestly think you're wrong.

 

[mackenzie]

My Aunt is a Maggie lover.
Was texting her today and she said that Maggie sorted out the Unions and allowed the average worker to break free of the Union stronghold and to do what they want; work.
I laughed at the idiocy of that statement and asked what about those people who never worked again after she got in.
Not had a reply yet.

 

[malg]

I have refrained from posting in this thread, mainly because some of the nonsense being posted was not really worth arguing with, people have their own realities and some of them are a lot different than mine

I am in my mid 40’s I left school at the height of the recession in the 80’s and yes things were very grim, hardly a day went by without news of some factory or other closing down , I had a short period of unemployment, but have been in work ever since, and so has every member of my family, and here is the strange thing out of the people I went to school with everyone I still know about have done OK for themselves, and we were all working class, so not everything is as some people like to paint it.

Another fact is that during her periods in office the North West had loads of Tory MP’s, they only started to lose them from 92 onwards, and it included many areas of Greater Manchester, strange that working class people voted for her and actually liked her, and that included many Union members.

Her biggest problem (and it alluded to by quite a few) is that she was a very high achiever, and this was her blind spot, she thought that if she could do it everyone could! Unfortunately not everyone is as motivated to the degree she was.

I don’t think everything she did was right not by a long shot, but much of what the left blame her for would have happened anyway and it was happening anyway, and that whoever was in power would have had to take measures that were very painful.

I honestly think some people are just following along with the vocal minority, and are not in full possession of all the facts, and paraphrase Morrissey “It’s so easy to hate”

I honestly think you're right.

 

[mammutly]

Her biggest problem (and it alluded to by quite a few) is that she was a very high achiever, and this was her blind spot, she thought that if she could do it everyone could! Unfortunately not everyone is as motivated to the degree she was.

The other, rather obvious, problem with that is there can, by definition, only be a few very high achievers.

Under Thatcher, the gains of the few came at the cost of the many. The notion that any one of that 'many' could theoretically climb to the same heights doesn't detract from the fact that the majority never could.

 

[Banned Tosspot]

I have refrained from posting in this thread, mainly because some of the nonsense being posted was not really worth arguing with, people have their own realities and some of them are a lot different than mine

I am in my mid 40’s I left school at the height of the recession in the 80’s and yes things were very grim, hardly a day went by without news of some factory or other closing down , I had a short period of unemployment, but have been in work ever since, and so has every member of my family, and here is the strange thing out of the people I went to school with everyone I still know about have done OK for themselves, and we were all working class, so not everything is as some people like to paint it.

Another fact is that during her periods in office the North West had loads of Tory MP’s, they only started to lose them from 92 onwards, and it included many areas of Greater Manchester, strange that working class people voted for her and actually liked her, and that included many Union members.

Her biggest problem (and it alluded to by quite a few) is that she was a very high achiever, and this was her blind spot, she thought that if she could do it everyone could! Unfortunately not everyone is as motivated to the degree she was.

I don’t think everything she did was right not by a long shot, but much of what the left blame her for would have happened anyway and it was happening anyway, and that whoever was in power would have had to take measures that were very painful.

I honestly think some people are just following along with the vocal minority, and are not in full possession of all the facts, and paraphrase Morrissey “It’s so easy to hate”

I honestly think you're right.

I honestly think you're right about Ducado's honest post if I'm being honest.

 

[hilts]

I have refrained from posting in this thread, mainly because some of the nonsense being posted was not really worth arguing with, people have their own realities and some of them are a lot different than mine

I am in my mid 40’s I left school at the height of the recession in the 80’s and yes things were very grim, hardly a day went by without news of some factory or other closing down , I had a short period of unemployment, but have been in work ever since, and so has every member of my family, and here is the strange thing out of the people I went to school with everyone I still know about have done OK for themselves, and we were all working class, so not everything is as some people like to paint it.

Another fact is that during her periods in office the North West had loads of Tory MP’s, they only started to lose them from 92 onwards, and it included many areas of Greater Manchester, strange that working class people voted for her and actually liked her, and that included many Union members.

Her biggest problem (and it alluded to by quite a few) is that she was a very high achiever, and this was her blind spot, she thought that if she could do it everyone could! Unfortunately not everyone is as motivated to the degree she was.

I don’t think everything she did was right not by a long shot, but much of what the left blame her for would have happened anyway and it was happening anyway, and that whoever was in power would have had to take measures that were very painful.

I honestly think some people are just following along with the vocal minority, and are not in full possession of all the facts, and paraphrase Morrissey “It’s so easy to hate”

Sometimes it is just easier to blame Thatcher it was the thing to do in the 80's, we are of similar ages and my experiences are the same, i honestly don't know of any one of my mates, lads i went to school with or blokes from the boozer who have been out of work for any length of time.

Passing the buck is a british pass time