Margaret Thatcher Thread - Read the first post before posting

I won't remember her. She no longer exists and is now wholly inconsequential (only the memory of her has sway with those who choose to hold on to it, and the past). I have neither positive nor negative feelings towards her.

 

It is interesting how the pro-thatcher brigade have somewhat hi-jacked the social nicety of speak-no-ill-of-the-dead in order to suppress any voice that would present an opposing view to their own.

 

Mis-applied death etiquette anyone?

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-death-etiquette

Very interesting article. Thanks for posting.

Is it also disgusting to use that principle, not to honour a person's memory, but for the cheap political ends of suppressing any opposing negative view, and writing an overly rosy view of a person and their ideology in to the history books?

I agree with you Waldo - a lot of history is being re written at the moment. But I think Thatcher would have enjoyed the mawkish sentimentality.

 

Mis-applied death etiquette anyone?

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-death-etiquette

Excellent link Waldo..excellent.

It was't their home to buy, it was subsidised housing owned and built by the state. If people want their own homes they should do what everybody else does and buy their own private property.

That way everybody else can enjoy renting a subsided council property like these people once did when they were in need of a cheap roof over their head.

Selling them off has resulted in neglecting others of this privilege.

Many of the houses sold had been paid for time over in rent.

Most tenants could not afford to save up for a deposit to buy an house whilst paying rent.

Mortgages were not so easily obtained in the 1970/80s as now. A wifes salary was not taken into consideration and the amount given was 2.5 times the husbands salary. Many building society mortgages only given to those who had been saving with them for 6 months at least and who had been with the same employer for a specified time.

Times were very different then to now. When I came out of the army we had to live with my parents for 2 years where our first child was born.

I was born and brought up in a prefab, if the government of any persuasion wanted to build extra council housing they could build these.

Finally what is wrong with wanting to have something to leave your children ?

Is it also disgusting to use that principle, not to honour a person's memory, but for the cheap political ends of suppressing any opposing negative view, and writing an overly rosy view of a person and their ideology in to the history books?

Spot on!

All the predictable tripe from the Thatcher lovers, up to and including them pretending they aren't Thatcher lovers at all by prefacing their hypocritical, politically motivated moralising with such tripe as..

"I'm no great fan of Thatcher myself but..."

The worshippers of selfishness and greed attempt to take the moral high ground? I don't know whether I to laugh or puke.

Ding Dong The Wicked Witch Is Dead!

I agree with you Waldo - a lot of history is being re written at the moment. But I think Thatcher would have enjoyed the mawkish sentimentality.

Or maybe not.

Woody Allen once said that he didn't want to be immortal due to his films; he'd prefer to be immortal by just not dying.

Since 1980, just under 2 million council homes have been sold, and many of them were sold to Labour supporters, and they still support Labour.

500,000 homes have been sold off since 1998. So not really enough to account for her success.

It may or may not change a persons view, if you give them £10,000; but it may well tempt someone to vote in their own interests in the short term. Wasnt changing the beliefs/aims of council tennants one of the aims of the policy?

---------- Post added 09-04-2013 at 17:34 ----------

 

A wifes salary was not taken into consideration and the amount given was 2.5 times the husbands salary.

Its only in recent years that 'wifes' go out to work, those were the days, when mum was at home bringing up the children.

Many of the houses sold had been paid for time over in rent.

With only 5 years until you have a right to buy, not many will have paid for the house in rents first.

Most tenants could not afford to save up for a deposit to buy an house whilst paying rent.

The same goes for those in private rental accommodation. Nobody seems to think it's a good idea for private landlords to have to sell their properties to their tenants at a discount.

Finally what is wrong with wanting to have something to leave your children ?

Nothing. Expecting the state to subsidise it however...

When the Iron Lady came into power the country was being held to ransom by the Unions. We had suffered the 3 day week, firefighters on strike, railway workers on strike , binmen on strike. The country was being crippled by Unions wielding way too much power. She sorted that out, and rightly crushed the Unions .

I wonder if she would have tackled the bankers with the same enthusiasm as she showed, with the unions,if she had been PM now, over their exorbitant salaries and bonuses that they award themselves through their cosy little awards committees?

Just noticed Mrs. T's passed away and reading this thread, noticed one big omission ... no one's mentioned it up to now!

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the greatest legacy on her part (in my opinion) is the development of 'soft-scoop' ice cream whilst working as a chemist at J. Lyon's before she decided to become PM in 1979.

Her job? ... to figure out a way to mix air into low quality ice cream, using emulsifiers and suchlike ... thus enabling it to be pumped into a cornet by a machine, without having to resort to a scoop.

Love it or loath it, Mr. Whippy became popular all over the world, transcending political divisions, race, religion and good taste (my opinion again).

I'm pretty sure that Mr. Whippy dealt the death blow to many small 'proper' ice cream manufacturers, just as Cadbury's did for proper chocolate ... who knows where the likes of Bradwell's would be today without such intervention?