Bring back Maggie

[oracleslave]

Explain.

<waits, probably until time itself shrinks to a singularity of nullness, for an answer>

Try holding your breath.

[sasguru]

I didn't realise there was a union for people on the dole !

Why people get peed off with you Thatcher lovers is the way you patronise people into little categories. Mrs T got in thanks to the working class swapping allegiances, not the black and white, wrong and right world you have imagined. Until the debate moves away from dole scroungers (redundant workseekers) Vs the intelligent middle/upper class (supposed), we might as well stick with childish insults.

Indeed. The cretinism of some Thatcher supporters' black and white world is apparent. How many have made the connection that the completely free market that Thatcher espoused and created and that Labour were too cowardly to change has now imploded in our faces?

[minestrone]

Indeed. The cretinism of some Thatcher supporters' black and white world is apparent. How many have made the connection that the completely free market that Thatcher espoused and created and that Labour were too cowardly to change has now imploded in our faces?

Yes, exactly, we are currently in a 3 day week, the electricity is going off at 6 for the night and I have not had my rubbish collected for 3 weeks.

It was all much better before Thatcher.

[Bob Dalek]

Yes, exactly, we are currently in a 3 day week, the electricity is going off at 6 for the night and I have not had my rubbish collected for 3 weeks.

It was all much better before Thatcher.

Overall, it may have been. Which, really, is worse? The Winter of Discontent or the current situation of "The UK is now akin to a credit card-thrashing, out-of-control online gambler", begat by Maggie?

[Bagpuss]

My issues are not with the market reforms but the vindictive destruction of certain industries, some woulds still be here with a little reform and Goverment help, forget the dogma, the free market doesn't always work, just look at the banking crisis. The Germans are the worlds biggest exporter, and we should be competing with them. Why we had to go completly toward a service industry economy beggars belief. The service industry is on it's knees, so what now?

It retrospect I give Thatcher 5/10

Yes, exactly, we are currently in a 3 day week, the electricity is going off at 6 for the night and I have not had my rubbish collected for 3 weeks.

It was all much better before Thatcher.

We had a similar situation of shortened weeks and strikes under Ted Heath.

[minestrone]

Overall, it may have been. Which, really, is worse? The Winter of Discontent or the current situation of "The UK is now akin to a credit card-thrashing, out-of-control online gambler", begat by Maggie?

I would say that a non interrupted electricity supply which could handle a working week more than 3 days would be a metric of how the country was doing. You would say smoking in pubs was more important.

I'm sorry but I have entered into a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.

[deano]

Indeed. The cretinism of some Thatcher supporters' black and white world is apparent. How many have made the connection that the completely free market that Thatcher espoused and created and that Labour were too cowardly to change has now imploded in our faces?

But the current situation has been created not by the free-markets but by the banks, which are not free-markets at all. They are driven by Governments setting the interest rates at which they can borrow money and by thousands of regulations enforced by quango's such as the FSA.

If banks were truly allowed to be free-market players then the weak banks would have been gobbled up years ago by the better run ones before they gave away money they hadn't got to people who couldn't pay. As it is the banks were allowed to practice in a non-free market way because the regulations meant that sound finances were not the primary concern of either the banks or of the shareholders.

[Bob Dalek]

I would say that a non interrupted electricity supply which could handle a working week more than 3 days would be a metric of how the country was doing. You would say smoking in pubs was more important.

I'm sorry but I have entered into a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.

Damn you, sir! You have confounded me by quoting the oldest cop-out phrase of all.

[minestrone]

My issues are not with the market reforms but the vindictive destruction of certain industries, some woulds still be here with a little reform and Goverment help, forget the dogma, the free market doesn't always work, just look at the banking crisis. The Germans are the worlds biggest exporter, and we should be competing with them. Why we had to go completly toward a service industry economy beggars belief. The service industry is on it's knees, so what now?

It retrospect I give Thatcher 5/10



We had a similar situation of shortened weeks and strikes under Ted Heath.

That was because those industries where taking the piss, the nation was buggered over a barrel because of the miners, they shafted Ted Heath with their demands of 40% pay rise. The whole of British Leyland night shift were sleeping in tents out the back of the factory. This was all going on while the state was paying for these companies to operate.

Someone had to put a stop to it and that person was never going to be popular.

[Bagpuss]

But the current situation has been created not by the free-markets but by the banks, which are not free-markets at all. They are driven by Governments setting the interest rates at which they can borrow money and by thousands of regulations enforced by quango's such as the FSA.

If banks were truly allowed to be free-market players then the weak banks would have been gobbled up years ago by the better run ones before they gave away money they hadn't got to people who couldn't pay. As it is the banks were allowed to practice in a non-free market way because the regulations meant that sound finances were not the primary concern of either the banks or of the shareholders.

You make it sound like a few small rogue outfits caused this. Some of the biggest names in banking have been involved/burnt/bancrupted.