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Worst women
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Who are the 10 women to have most ruined Britain? Diana Spencer? Shirley Williams? Margaret Hodge?
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How can anybody possibly believe Thatch was anything but an unmitigated disaster for Great Britain, if only for the poll tax, have you forgotten she was the milk snatcher when abolishing free school milk?. I was absolutely in ecstacy when the pictures of her leaving Downing St in tears in the back of her car after being ousted from power, that anniversary should be declared a public holiday. She will go down in history as one of the biggest political mistakes our country has made. She introduced the concept of greed is good, destroyed whole communities especially in the mining industry.
To all the Thatcher-bashers:
During the Labour government (1974-79) there was inflation over 20% per annum. Marginal rates of income tax went up to 98% in some cases. Nationalised industries were in a mess and costing a fortune. Wages were being pushed up by the militant power and abuses of the Trade Union bosses. Basic services were being crippled by strikes.
When Thatcher came to power, the trade unions were democratised. Strikes could only happen if the workers voted for it. Workers could only join a trade union if they wanted to. Workers could not be forced to go on strike, or to join a union, if they didn't want to. The trade union leaders who made the disastrous decisions previously would have to be elected by their members. The trade union reforms were the best thing that any British prime minister has done in the last 40 years.
I was only 10 when Thatchescu came to power, but I remember the strikes which happened almost every week. I remember being in tears when I was 8 because I couldn't watch Blue Peter because of the power blackouts. I remember asking my parents why there was a bucket of sand outside the back door, because the firefighters were on strike.
The decimation of the mining and steel communities (etc) was a blessing because it stopped billions of pounds of taxpayers' money being poured down the drain in supporting defunct old industries.
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Thatcher started going off her trolley from about 1988 onwards; the poll-tax was a disaster and the Single European Act 1986 (which introduced majority voting and eroded the veto) was a catastrophic act of treason. But in the early 1980s a lot of good was done. The continuation of the Labour government after 1979 would have been a continuing catasrophe far worse than the late 1980s ever was.
Oh, and incidentally - the political chattering classes in some parts of the media in the 1970s sometimes discussed, with some seriousness, whether it might be necessary to have a military coup to preserve the structure of society and to prevent the onset of communism.
PS I am a centre-left social democrat, and as such I am delighted that Thatcher helped to kill off the threat of socialism.
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ansteyg - if Tweed is so deranged and bourgeois and nincompoopismatic as to not have the benefit of reading all my spectacularly brilliant and informative answers, then you're welcome to copy and paste my previous answer into a new answer of your own so that Tweed will have the benefit of such historical knowledge. :-)
Margeret Thatcher ripped the heart, soul and compasion out of this country. Remember her mantra, "there is no such thing as society", that was her belief, and she set about dismantling the social structures and personal inter-dependancies that had been built up following the second world war. She created a country where people were reduced to statistics on a financial summary statement. She created a country where perfectly feasible industries were closed down to suit her own political ends with not one thought for those whose lives she ruined along the way. She created a country where Greed was not only Good, but Greed was God. With the age old tactic of divide and rule she set about the working people of this country with a wicked viciousness. She is responsible for the break up of the United Kingdom resulting from the complete alienation of Scotland and Wales. The lack of respect for people that eminated forth from her and her disgusting bunch of cronies eventually filtered down into general society, and we reap the rewards today. Pre-Thatcher was not perfect, I don't think anyone thinks that change was not needed, but to go about it as she did was criminal. May she rot in hell.
33 and Scottish, I should add. Chillum, thank you for stating so eloquently much of what I think of Thatcher. I was walking into the library at Stirling Uni the day she left Downing Street and will never forget the scenes around me as folk watched it happen on the telly. for the first time in my life, I felt that this country would move forward positively, and that optimism was shared in those around me. I'd never felt that in my life before...really all we'd known was Thatcher.
And Chillum great name...made me laugh (and cough!) xx
Is Britain ruined? I think (after a recent visit) that there is some hope left!
If the question was about who inflicted most harm, Thatcher, Diana, Parker Bowles and Victoria Beckham would be up there, and Harriet Harman, Cherie Blair, Christine Hamilton and any manufactured personality of your choice would be mentioned in dispatches. special mentioned would go to Rebekka (spelling?) Wade for the utter bile spouted to those who seem least able to see it for what it is.
I think the reason why people have such strong feelings initially towards Margaret Thather (whether they be good or bad) was because she was the first woman who showed just how tough we could be. She was in power at a time when women were still somewhat stereotypically the 'little wifey' and were not seen to be the sex to be reckoned with. When Margaret Thatcher came to power she rocked people's opinion & beliefs and made them scrutinise everything they thought to be true.
I don't believe I have a particular opinion myself about Margaret Thatcher as I am too young to be able to know first hand the effects of her power and whether they were good or bad.
What I do believe with any person in the media, be it politics or pop, there will always be some that like them and some that don't. It is a personal opinion which everyone is entitled to.
PS. I do not agree that the Spice Girls or Girls Aloud have the power to make any significant effect on the country. They will both soon be mere blips in our history (if that).
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