Margaret Thatcher's toxic legacy

[AtW]

As always, "Labour speaks for the masses", but in truth it looks after it's own, and only the selfish vote Labour.

Nu Liebor are scum for sure.

[Jeebo72]

ironically my company did not raise money in the UK, why? .

Because we feel sorry for you on £200 a day ...

[DodgyAgent]

Are you serious? Financial Markets existed BEFORE her and after - ironically my company did not raise money in the UK, why? Because there is no true high VC market here, banks ain't investing properly (speculation on markets does not count). So no - Mrs Thatcher did fk all good as far as I am concerned, effectively she did screw up this country even though electorally she benefited at the time.

Just as I wont begin to say that I know much about Russian politics, I would imagine that you know little of Thatcher and the politics of the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.
But I suppose that doesnt stop you on having your usual entrenched position.

[Doggy Styles]

Just as I wont begin to say that I know much about Russian politics, I would imagine that you know little of Thatcher and the politics of the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.
But I suppose that doesnt stop you on having your usual entrenched position.

Those who do not know history cannot learn from it.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to make the same mistakes.

[AtW]

Because we feel sorry for you on £200 a day ...

I am not on £200 per day, I am a permie, but not a jealous one.

[AtW]

Just as I wont begin to say that I know much about Russian politics

You don't know much indeed, but it did not stop you from telling everyone on here your uneducated views

I would imagine that you know little of Thatcher and the politics of the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

I liked Thatcher, she had great external PR - the Iron Lady and stuff, however now that I read up more history it seems to me that she is responsible in a large part for screwing up this country only because she could not find reasonable compromise: destroying unions may not have been a bad thing, but destroying industry in order to destroying unions certainly was.

[Mich the Tester]

You don't know much indeed, but it did not stop you from telling everyone on here your uneducated views



I liked Thatcher, she had great external PR - the Iron Lady and stuff, however now that I read up more history it seems to me that she is responsible in a large part for screwing up this country only because she could not find reasonable compromise: destroying unions may not have been a bad thing, but destroying industry in order to destroying unions certainly was.

Bear with me, AtW. When I first went to boarding school there was a sort of introduction round. Lots of kids were saying how ‘daddy’s the Bwitish Ambassador to Saudi/Singapore/Moscow etc’, one kid told us his dad ‘owns half of Northamptonshire’ and when I asked ‘yes but what kind of work does he do’ he answered ‘he doesn’t, he owns stuff’. My Dad was a salesman, which met with sneers of derision. Happily for me, the next kid said his Dad owned a truck rental company. Ah, I am not alone, I realized, and that kids became my best mate for the next 30 years and is still my best mate.

Now then, what has this to do with Margaret Thatcher? Well, it turns out my mate's Dad actually wanted to be a truck driver but was shut out from working because someone in the Trade Union didn’t like him, which meant he couldn’t work in the region where he lived. He couldn’t get government contracts because they were all given to union cronies by labour ministers. Being a smart chap, he started by renting out trucks to drivers that did have union recognition, but still met with union resistance. In 1979, Margaret Thatcher had become prime minister. She immediately set about destroying the closed shop practices of unions and started giving government contracts to non-unionized businesses. That meant that my mate’s Dad was able to expand his business and before long was able to send his son to private school; something of which his parents had never been able to dream of doing. Margaret Thatcher went too far in some cases, and that’s what happens in drastic situations, but she broke the stranglehold that trade unions AND the ‘old school tie’ brigade had on British business. That liberated enterprising people to build strong businesses that still thrive today. It also liberated idiots to build tulipe businesses that sooner or later went seriously wrong. As long as the first lot can overpower the second lot, we’re better off thanks to Mrs Thatcher.

[AtW]

She immediately set about destroying the closed shop practices of unions and started giving government contracts to non-unionized businesses.

She helped bury British Industry - maybe she wasn't the initiator of that, and unions and their practices sure helped big time, however once you start closing down whole effing industry then something is wrong with such strategy.

Granted Nu Liebor are lieing ****s who would not spend few billions on Rover but would bail out bankers with 200-300 times more money, yet they have not closed whole industries, maybe because Thatcher's initiatives already done the main damage.

[DodgyAgent]

She helped bury British Industry - maybe she wasn't the initiator of that, and unions and their practices sure helped big time, however once you start closing down whole effing industry then something is wrong with such strategy.

Granted Nu Liebor are lieing ****s who would not spend few billions on Rover but would bail out bankers with 200-300 times more money, yet they have not closed whole industries, maybe because Thatcher's initiatives already done the main damage.

So are you saying she should have gone out and borrowed money on the slate to pour into manufacturing? It is an entirely fair criticism that she should have invested in infrastructure projects to keep Engineering alive. The damage to British manufacturing was done well before she arrived. The rest of the country was supporting inefficient industries in order to keep the Unions happy. By the time she arrived there was no more money left.

Those (and you are one of them) who cannot see history within the context of whatever was happening at the time are naive.

[Mich the Tester]

She helped bury British Industry - maybe she wasn't the initiator of that, and unions and their practices sure helped big time, however once you start closing down whole effing industry then something is wrong with such strategy.

British industry was dead in the water before she started; most of it was nationalised and subsidized by the taxpayer. She just threw some dirt on top of the coffin as it was lowered into the grave.

Now then, if you grew up in the USSR, you might be familiar with the products of such industrial giants as Lada, Zil, Volga and so on. Would you believe me if I were to tell you that many 1970s British cars were actually worse than that? New cars delivered with no wiring or one side unupholstered simply because of a strike on the production line while the conveyor belt kept running. Cars which were rusty on the inside when they were new, because the factory workers went home at 5 and left whole bodies lying out in the rain.

Mrs Thatcher exposed British industry to competition; much of it failed catastrophically because years of protection had weakened it. The industries that survived have done well and are still doing well.