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Originally Posted by towny
Sadly, I rarely hear anyone, whether expressing a positive or negative opinion of her, give any of the reasoning behind their point of view.
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Ok, here's some comments and reasons:
MT started off being one of the best things that happened to this country and ended up being one of the worst.
1) The Unions. The fact is that by the end of the '70s the Unions were *much* too powerful, the tail was now wagging the dog and British manufacturing was in a disastrous state. Management had practically lost control of its own business and the Unions were demanding more and more for less and less.
MT unfortunately decided that she wasn't going to just re-dress the balance, she was going to effectively break the Unions' power entirely. Having said that, the Unions didn't particularly help themselves, they *could* have side-stepped her somewhat and moderated their position (which probably would have been better for all in the long run), but instead leaders like Arthur Scargill decided to confront her head on which was a "win or bust" policy and when it comes down to it, the government has the greater power, so the unions lost.
2) Privatisation. Again by the end of the '70s, British industry was in a total mess. Due to a lack of investment, lack of incentive and lack of interest, our manufacturing, transport and production capabilities were in a mess. Our coal and steel was too expensive, our cars and railways were a joke and our water and telephone and power production capabilities were controlled by monolithic organisations that had lost touch with what they were supposed to be doing in the first place.
So things definitely needed a shake-up, but whilst coal, steel, car manufacturing and telephones *can* be run privately, rail, water and power *cannot* and should not be run as profit making companies.
What would have been best was for these to be hived off as independant, non-profit making organisations dedicated to running matters efficiently instead of trying to make money for shareholders.
3) The Poll Tax was another **** up. Local authority spending was another example of the mess the country had got into, but trying to charge the rich and the poor the same amount of tax was guaranteed to get people up in arms.
All of these are examples of things that a) needed to be tackled and b) were tackled in the wrong way.
Unfortunately MT demonstrated that arrogance in power doesn't necessarily mean that people won't vote for you, and, regrettably Tony Blair hasn't even needed three terms in office to realise this and pick up where Thatcher left off.
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This could be a very interesting thread, very aptly timed to coincide with the anniversary of her gaining office. But if it is to be interesting, IMO we need to get some real discussion of the issues going, and avoid lapsing into a kind of tired re-working of a mid-80s Ben Elton stand-up routine.
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"Mrs Thatch! Mrs Thatch... Oh little bit of politics there...!!