Happy "Thatcher Out" day everyone

[doodab]

He inceased red tape. He complicated the tax system. He started the removal of ACT. He started the fuel escalator.

Admitedly Labour made all the above worse. But he started it.

However I admit bonking Edwina was a good achievement. I could not have managed that.

I think Ken Clarke is more to blame for the fuel escalator & tax tinkerings. Probably Lamont has his fingers on that as well.

Major kept Britain out of the € and gave us the TESSA forerunner of ISAs.

[NotAllThere]

...In fact reading this LINK he does seem a bit of a hero.
...

In March 1995, Major refused to answer the phone calls of United States President Bill Clinton for several days because of his anger at Clinton's decision to invite Gerry Adams to the White House for St Patrick's Day.

[BrilloPad]

I think Ken Clarke is more to blame for the fuel escalator & tax tinkerings. Probably Lamont has his fingers on that as well.

Major kept Britain out of the € and gave us the TESSA forerunner of ISAs.

Major tried to keep us in the ERM as long as possible. Complete muppet. Currency unions can only ever work after fiscal unity. And it cost us a few billion to discover what a muppet he was.

He was lucky there was no election coming up. In fact, he was jolly lucky to be competing against a red haired Welshman.

[TheFaQQer]

Major kept Britain out of the €

So did Gordon Brown, but I don't see many applauding that decision.

[doodab]

So did Gordon Brown, but I don't see many applauding that decision.

Major actively negotiated the opt out before it was created.

FWIW he also proposed that the euro be created and used in parallel to national currencies, which may have provided many of the benefits without the need for tight fiscal union.

[sasguru]

With knobs on.

And interest rates at 12%.

Aye. Was made redundant from my graduate job after 10 months. Was paying 33% APR on a £10K Barclays loan I had converted from my student O/D (no subsidised student loans then).
No jobs. Life looked bleak. Made me determined never to have to be poor again.

[BrilloPad]

With knobs on.

And interest rates at 12%.

And it was proposed to send them to 15%....

[BrilloPad]

Aye. Was made redundant from my graduate job after 10 months. Was paying 33% APR on a £10K Barclays loan I had converted from my student O/D (no subsidised student loans then).
No jobs. Life looked bleak. Made me determined never to have to be poor again.

A victim of the very brief IT recession in summer of 1992. But it boomed for many years after that. The good old days of contracting.

[doodab]

It was quite a painful one. My dad's business went under and we lost the house.

[Ignis Fatuus]

She created the conditions for making "you" I.T. contractors rich beyond what you could have been under a Labour government. She was a strong leader and she shook this country out of a cramped socialist regime.

I'm not going to enter the whole Thatcher thing, but I will just point out that what you say here is demonstrably untrue. I started contracting before Margaret Thatcher became prime minister: under Sunny Jim Callaghan contracting was at least as well paid as under Thatcher.

There are many other things that could be said in Thatcher's favour, but creating the conditions for IT contractors' success is really not one of them.