Maggie Thatcher death discussion thread - Mod rules in first post

I think Alexi Sayle summoned it up well when he said Thatcherism was bigotry and prejudice dressed up as policy.

Happyman42 wrote: »

......and failed.
Her 'society' is more divided than when she arrived, more embittered and disenfranchisment is now generational as a result. The free market policy she created (and which has had to be fed and fed by successive governments) has seen all of Europes economies lying in tatters.
She sold out every political and moral principle to expediency (the Unionists, being a prime example, but also would have sold the Falklanders if things had been more advantageous to her aims) and we should always remember that. Fair play to those who will not let her legacy be revised or forgotten, just because she has died.

So you're now blaming Thatcher for the ruin of all European economies?? do you want to blame her for the bubonic plague or extinction of the dinosaurs while you are at it?

Thatcher didn't create capitalism or the free market. She applied it to the UK. She left power in 1990 and the whole financial collapse started 17 years later. Successive governements in the UK and across many countries had 2 decades to regulate the financial services sector globally. They failed.

Go ahead though blame the "witch" for everything.

AEDIC wrote: »

I see what you are saying, however there is a little bit of the evolution of embitterment at work here.

If you actually look at how divided the UK was at the end of her spell as PM and compared it to now I would wager the divide is bigger now. Simply because children (and sometimes sadly granchildren) of those that lived through the Thatcher era have just grown up with 'we hate Thatcher' on their t-shirts without really knowing why.

Dont get me wrong, she wasnt popular even with her own party towards the end, but the number of people that I have heard spewing absolute hatred over the past 24 hours that could have only been toddlers (or werent even born) is staggering.

That's what I mean about the generational disenfranchisement she engendered unlike any other leader ever.
I think those trapped in the great swathes of community she laid bare know very well who to blame and why.
I think a lot of her Irish sycophants (that she has owned for a long time) need to ask themselves why she engenders such bitterment and hate as well.

wonderfullife wrote: »

So you're now blaming Thatcher for the ruin of all European economies?? do you want to blame her for the bubonic plague or extinction of the dinosaurs while you are at it?

Thatcher didn't create capitalism or the free market. She applied it to the UK. She left power in 1990 and the whole financial collapse started 17 years later. Successive governements in the UK and across many countries had 2 decades to regulate the financial services sector globally. They failed.

Go ahead though blame the "witch" for everything.

Thatchers model of deregulation of the financial services industry has not been tamed yet. It is an all devouring greed fueled monster, as we have seen to our cost.

Grandpa Hassan wrote: »

There was plenty of opportunity for those who came after to reverse it before things went t*ts up. But those that came afterwards created the scale of the problem by stoking the flames of capitalism even more. It really is a hell of a reach to blame her for something that happened a decade and a half later. What about Blair, Brown, Bush, Clinton etc?

It still hasn't been controlled and might never be, until it brings the whole thing down. That is why responsible leaders don't unleash that kind of deregulation. As we can see it was for very short term gain for relatively few.

I wonder if the BBC could be a bit more critical and honest in their coverage of her rotten legacy if the Tories were not in Government.
I never look to the BBC for any fair coverage of Ireland and Irish history, that's not their job, and I would be suspicious if they suddenly did. But the biased revisionism they show at the moment is ridiculous.
Fine have your dewy-eyed montage of a hard working woman and all the former advisers that worked for her and some snippets from her cabinet colleagues.
But this must be balanced by other programs bringing up the history brought up by people who did not like her, hate her even.

Either David Cameron has been interfering with a free press and balance of viewpoints on her death, or maybe a behind the scenes order has come from their royalty to present her as one of their own. After all, they will be attending Thatcher's funeral.

TheUsual wrote: »

I wonder if the BBC could be a bit more critical and honest in their coverage of her rotten legacy if the Tories were not in Government.
I never look to the BBC for any fair coverage of Ireland and Irish history, that's not their job, and I would be suspicious if they suddenly did. But the biased revisionism they show at the moment is ridiculous.
Fine have your dewy-eyed montage of a hard working woman and all the formers Tories that worked for her and some snippets from her colleagues.
But this must be balanced by other programs bringing up the history brought up by people who did not like her, hate her even.

Either David Cameron has been interfering with a free press and balance of viewpoints on her death, or maybe a behind the scenes order has come from their royalty to present her as one of their own. After all, they will be attending Thatcher's funeral.

Seriously?

The BBC is renowned for being anti Tory.