Margaret Thatcher RIP.

[MikeRox]

slowmo said:

MikeRox said:

I think the MyVoice in today's I sums a lot of it up perfectly for me:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/grace-dent-thatchers-children-we-may-be-but-these-death-parties-are-just-childish-8567288.html

Some key excerpts:

I also question how, in 2013, one female with power during the 1980s appears to now be carrying the can for thousands of decisions made by thousands of men. 

Obviously, if you are genuinely an ex-miner or the family of one, the thought of you raising a glass to the end of a very painful era is wholly understandable. I wish you well. The truth is, of course, there is no end to this era. We’re almost precisely in the same state, government-wise, as we were. So, on the other hand, if you’re 25 and have the time and the gumption to stand about in Brixton waving a bottle of prosecco, your time could be used more profitably by doing actual work in politics. The left needs passionate young blood right now. And if you’re still so very angry about milk being snatched in the 1970s – well, believe me, schoolchildren are starving right now and this ire could be used to get milk reinstated.

In fact if you’re truly so angry about Thatcher’s legacy you might have noticed there isn’t time for any parties. Celebrating death seems to me rather childish, when there’s adult work to be done.

I've not celebrated her death as I don't agree with that practice.  Unfortunately some people just feel that's acceptable such is their hatred for the person.  If you remember when Bin Laden died, people celebrated the fact but what made that celebration acceptable to people?  To me it was that he was so hated that it was acceptable to feel jubiliation at his passing.  For these people who are celebrating Thatcher's death you have a similar level of hate towards her as a person.

My point was it wasn't fair for people to act like the pain and hardship she caused didn't happen or matter.  I'm sick of reading from people who were unaffected by the miners strikes how it was somehow everybody else fault but Thatcher's.  Anyway, I can't wait till she's buried and we stop hearing about how fantastic she was for the country (well Southern England).

I'm presuming the post is mainly not aimed at the article I was linking. (Writen by a northern left leaning journalist - posted on here by a Yorkshire citizen born and bred) but like I said, I see both sides to the argument. I think it wasn't so much what was done in the Thatcher era, but the way they went about it.

There was no compassion and no support at all for the people impacted it. I'm now deeply routed in brass banding, so I really do have a lot of links to that era even if I was only a little tyke at the time. Brassed off still manages to bring a tear to my eye, and I advise anyone who thinks it was all roses in the 80s to watch that film as it gives a fantastic look at the impact which Thatcher's policies had on particularly northern communities.

However would I want to be in 70s Britain? Hell no! When I say about all the politicians since thatcher. They have had plenty of opportunity especially in the late 90s to reinvigorate these communities, they also did naff all. Point is, Thatcher did it, no other politicians reversed or even attempted to reverse it. Blair/Brown actually went even further into "Thatcherism" than Thatcher did. They just also bled money into benefits to appease the communities making them slaves to welfare rather than doing anything constructive to give new hope and purpose.

As for the current employment problems. Unemployment is quite high, but employment is also at a record. Could it be more to do with immigration that unemployment is so high at the moment? (I'm not against immigration at all, this is just an observation). Our population is a lot higher now as a result of immigration and so obviously this creates a bigger demand for jobs than there was in the 80s and 90s because quite simply, there are more working age people.