Thatcher is Dead

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  • This topic has 43 replies, 17 voices, and was last updated 10 years ago by Avatar photoAM.
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  • #10788
    Avatar photoIan
    Participant

    Plans have begun for Margaret Thatcher’s state funeral.

    It’ll be the first time ever the 21 gun salute is fired into the coffin.

    #29698
    Avatar photoMiya
    Participant

    i hear the song ‘merry christmas maggie thatcher’ in Billy Eliot Musical in my head when read the news, dont know how do the actors feel when they ‘all sing together in one breath’ in London’s victoria theatre tonight.

    http://www.eltonography.com/songs/merry_christmas_maggie_thatcher.html

    #29699
    Avatar photoAM
    Participant
    #29700
    Avatar photoWaiguoren
    Participant

    may she rest in peace

    #29702
    Avatar photoBrendan
    Moderator
    Quote:
    It’ll be the first time ever the 21 gun salute is fired into the coffin.

    BAZOOKAS!!!

    Quote:
    Northern Britain reacts to the news

    LOL!! Probably not far off the mark!

    Jeez I’m old enough to remember the ‘OUR BOYS’ Falklands posters that the tabloids ran for people to stick up in their windows. How retarded. She gave us that, the privatisation of everything, a roller coaster economy that’s still in the toilet, and these…

    And this is a reminder of how the British have always found humour in the worst of things, just as they will in Maggie’s death…

    #29704
    Avatar photooh davey
    Participant

    I think it is pretty easy to judge history from today’s standpoint.

    I think she inherited many problems during her iron reign. She did contribute to the peace in the north of Ireland by signing the Anglo Irish Agreement which was a bridging stone to the Good Friday Agreement. And that was a pretty dark time there back then, late 70’s right through the 80’s onwards.

    Wonder will they use rubber bullets;-)

    #29707
    Avatar photoBrendan
    Moderator
    Quote:
    I think it is pretty easy to judge history from today’s standpoint.

    I’d agree with that myself, as much as I despise what she represented. The late 70’s were indeed a bleak time politically. Beachcomber jackets only made things worse.

    Privatisation was the cornerstone of her time seated in Parliament, and it might be fair to say the U.K. has never really recovered from that debacle. What wasn’t privatised under Thatcher!?

    Also I think the Anglo Irish Agreement was one of the most ill conceived of her career. Far from strengthening security, it only further alienated and enraged a large populous of Northern Ireland. My Father being Irish, from an extended family in Eire, these events were all too present for me growing up. I can remember visiting Belfast from the South, crossing heavily fortified borders, and walking the city streets amidst machine gun wielding Police. Heavy times.

    LATE ADDITION: How did I (almost) forget the POLL TAX!!! I remember getting hit with this out of nowhere! Thinking back this evening I’m feeling nostalgic for all the reasons so many of us in the UK felt no shame in bucking the system. I never did pay my Poll Tax bill, and it was ultimately never collected. It was of course replaced by the Community Charge once Thatcher had stood down, but that’s semantics. Maybe no coincidence that during this time drug use was on a sharp rise as large numbers saw little reason to go to work (if they could find a decent paying job in the first place) only to be taxed left and right. And we all know what the early to mid 90’s looked like in the UK. Bloody awesome, hahaha!!

    Maybe I should be raising a glass to her after all.

    When’s John Major’s funeral!?

    #29718
    Avatar photoIan
    Participant

    thatcher.jpg

    #29721
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    Can anyone British explain why Thatcher is so unpopular? Does the UK hold her responsible for their economic situation, or is it something else?

    #29726
    Avatar photoIan
    Participant

    Have you got all day?

    #29727
    Avatar photoChris Ziich
    Moderator

    American here. No idea what this is about.

    #29729
    Avatar photoGAVVIE
    Participant

    Hindsight is a perfect science. I was wondering why she was the longest serving PM in their history?

    #29730
    Avatar photoBrendan
    Moderator
    Quote:
    Can anyone British explain why Thatcher is so unpopular?

    I’ve noted a few things above, though unless you’re British it’s unlikely that the Poll Tax would mean anything. A simple way of explaining that one would be where as previously property taxes were levied annually based on value, the Poll Tax instead levied a charge on every member of every household who was 18 or over. So for example if you were living at home with your parents aged 18+, both you and each of your parents would receive a bill annually. The Poll Tax was undoubtedly one of Thatchers biggest blunders, not least because a huge portion of the population simply couldn’t afford it.

    Thatcher like Reagan represented the new ‘free market economy’, which amongst other (devicive) objectives sought to remove goverment control (and funds) from the public sector. From a political standpoint the beauty of privatisation was and is that initially it attracts ‘new’ money into the sectors being auctioned, which in turn brings improvement. What history very quickly showed us is that business being business, investors in the public sector were not investing out of the goodness of heart, but to turn a profit. Corners cut and costs improved, not to mention prices raised, and over time we’ve seen an erosion of services that were once bastions of good government. It’s not all Thatchers fault though, once Blair was in power he continued on with privatisation with new zeal.

    Thatcher also brought in what has often been termed as ‘The Big Bang’, when she deregulated the banks. Investment banking was reborn, and the rest as they say is history. I have no doubt she sowed the seeds for the current economic predicament, echoing in sentiments today felt globally by the working classes who’ve seen their cohesive wealth stripped away by financial institutions. We could get into Union breaking here too, something both Reagan and Thatcher were savvy on, but you get my drift.

    The Falklands war is another nail in her now very real coffin. Akin to the Dayou Islands, no one in the UK gave a toss about the Falklands until we started seeing images of young dead soldiers on the news. I was 10 years old at the time and it definitely made no sense to me. Part of that was down to ‘Dave’ who would kick a football around with some of us from time to time. He was a green beret who was called into service when the conflict started. He made it back, but 255 British servicemen did not. But that didn’t so much matter as did the tabloid press rallying behind the war effort, and in turn handing Thatcher another election victory.

    I haven’t read any editorial on her death yet, though I’m positive opinion will be succinctly divided between the working classes who deeply despise her, and the middle/upper middle classes who saw fantastic wealth creation whilst she was in power.

    In spite of all of this, and my very real and tangible dislike of what she represented, I do still have a love/hate relationship with the history. As Davey already mentioned, the 70’s were a grim period, and thanks to a culmination of cultural phenomenon that still have influence today, the 80’s took us far and away from this into an albeit unstable but brash prosperity. Music, movies, fashion… It’s difficult not to have at least a little love for what was going on throughout the 80’s in the UK and U.S. in particular.

    #29732
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    Thanks Brendan. That makes sense.

    I just stumbled on this Youtube clip which is pretty crazy:

    #29735
    Avatar photoWaiguoren
    Participant

    thatcher wasn’t unpopular in general….a lot of people admire her.

    i mean, try to read the comments from bloomberg or any other financial news source, all those guys love her

    #29737
    Avatar photoBrendan
    Moderator
    Quote:
    thatcher wasn’t unpopular in general….a lot of people admire her.

    i mean, try to read the comments from bloomberg or any other financial news

    source, all those guys love her

    Well of course Bloomberg loves Thatcherism, as did all things FT Index.

    Not exactly a representation of the common man.

    #29738
    Avatar photoWaiguoren
    Participant

    she was reelected…she had a lot of supporters….but she was controversial. I have the impression that most people either loved or hated her and that ratio was split sort of 50-50.

    #29739
    Avatar photoBrendan
    Moderator
    Quote:
    I have the impression that most people either loved or hated her and that ratio was split sort of 50-50.

    I have the impression you lack some insight.

    #29740
    Avatar photoWaiguoren
    Participant

    i was born in 87 so you’re probably right…

    anyways, my point was just that a lot of people admired (and still do) her…you’re right, i don’t know if it was 20,30, or 50% of the people….i am aware that a lot of people disliked her.

    anyways, it’s not cause i wanted to start a big philosophical discussion.

    #29741
    Avatar photoBrendan
    Moderator
    Quote:
    anyways, it’s not cause i wanted to start a big philosophical discussion.

    I appreciate that, but this thread has already covered the topic in some detail, so adding ‘sort of 50-50’ into the discussion is ‘sort of’ benign. It would be much like my remarking that some people sort of liked Mao, while other’s did or did not. I could throw in a ratio, but that too would be pointless given that I have no idea.

    I’m not looking to provoke you here either waiguoren, but the history is very prevalent to those who grew up in it. The Thatcher years were some of the most volatile in British history politically and socially.

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