Thatcher thingy on C4 now

[DodgyAgent]

Historical accuracy and to emphasise this stuff isn't a simple left/right. Not all the bad stuff happened under one party or the other. It still isn't/doesn't.

What it does show is that both the Tories and Labour were ineffectual at sorting out the UKs problems and that it was entirely down to Thatcher that the lights came on and have never been switched off since.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

What it does show is that both the Tories and Labour were ineffectual at sorting out the UKs problems and that it was entirely down to Thatcher that the lights came on and have never been switched off since.

Actually the lights had been on for good 4+ years pre-Thatcher so that doesn't hold a lot of water really does it?

[DodgyAgent]

Actually the lights had been on for good 4+ years pre-Thatcher so that doesn't hold a lot of water really does it?

They had to go off before they could be kept on.. it was part of the fight.

[adubya]

Historical accuracy and to emphasise this stuff isn't a simple left/right. Not all the bad stuff happened under one party or the other. It still isn't/doesn't.

Do you know why the power cuts happened BTW ?

[DodgyAgent]

Do you know why the power cuts happened BTW ?

Miners strikes

[adubya]

Miners strikes

I'm old enough to remember the power cuts, cooking by gas under candlelight. Just checking Peoplesoft's understanding as he seems to think it was the government wot done it.

[BlasterBates]

For those who were around in 1979 I think most people at the time even the ones who didn´t vote for her breathed a huge sigh of relief when she won. Inflation was running at 17% and everyone was getting poor. Our family´s standard of living was going down pretty rapidly. If I remember correctly we had just had our first summer holiday in a tent. My father actually went out and bought some crates of whiskey, which he was going to use to barter with.

That´s what it was all about.

[VectraMan]

Actually the lights had been on for good 4+ years pre-Thatcher so that doesn't hold a lot of water really does it?

Although bodies were going unburied and rubbish going uncollected because of all the public sector strikes in 1978. Not to mention the fact Britain actually did go bankrupt in 1976 and need an IMF bailout. I guess according to anti-Thatcherites that was a golden era that should have continued?

[BlasterBates]

I remember visiting Glasgow in the 1970´s

Anyone who is in their twenties hasn´t seen deprivation in the UK.

[Sysman]

How utterly ridiculous. She made a point of emphasising her humble origins, which is the last thing a snob would want to do.

I obviously didn't phrase that very well.

My understanding of snob in that context is of one who manages to rise from humble origins and then looks down on those they left behind.

Just like my own father did, and it might be hard to understand for those who didn't experience that first hand. The contempt he had for his siblings and peers who didn't manage to get where he did could be appalling at times, and that was a trait that I felt was present in Thatcher.

That was something I cam across in many local government types in that era and in my neck of the woods, and as we know she was brought up in that atmosphere by her father.