Chris

This link is interesting:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3681973.stm

It appears even those who hated her have to admit this country is changed for the better as a result of what she did. Norman Tebbit has an interesting take on the 3m unemployed as well:



...She is blamed for creating three million unemployed. Of course, she didn't. She exposed the fact that three million people were on the payroll who were not doing a job. It wasn't always their fault. But in many cases we were over-manned. People were doing jobs which didn't need to be done and, of course, that was very painful.

And as for Labour doing well to keep unemployment falling, how about these words from the same article, by historian Andrew Roberts:

Of all the many things she created, including New Labour, the greatest was a Britain strong, proud and free. (My emphasis)

So, how has Labour managed to keep unemployment falling? By abandoning the policies that Thatcher successfully fought off in three general elections and by embracing market forces just as she did. In a very real sense, the spirit of Margaraet Thatcher is still at 10 Downing Street.

As for the recession - brought about by a combination of factors, but largely the disastrous entry of Sterling into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism at an unsustainably high rate.

A weakened Margaret Thatcher, in the twilight of her premiership, was ambushed by Europhile Tories in her cabinet and all but frogmarched into the ERM, something she was personally ambivalent about. Clearing up the aftermath required a number of crippling hikes in the Bank of England Base Rate which inevitably hammered the economy.

This is a prime example of Europhile stupidity of the kind that could be exhibited by any of the main political parties in this country. There are still those in the Conservative Party that, incredibly, think the Euro would be a good thing, Blair is famously in favour of it (but is thankfully held in check by Brown and others) and as for Charles Kennedy ... *shudder*