The Lady's not for turning !!!

[Cyberman]

How this country misses Thatcher and government competence!!


I have just heard that at long last cannabis is to be reclassified because declassification has been such an enormous failure.

This follows closely on the heels of the U-turn on the 10% tax rate, and another U-turn is rumoured soon over 42 day holding without trial.

Is there anything this lot have been competent at, considering that inflation, interest rates and thus the economy now also going down the pan!!!

[Bagpuss]

Thatcher left office almost 20 years ago, have the last 20 years been that bad? I'd say the 80s were far more grim than the 90s or the 00s

[Cyberman]

Thatcher left office almost 20 years ago, have the last 20 years been that bad? I'd say the 80s were far more grim than the 90s or the 00s

The 80s were the years of change with regard to privatisations and neutering of most unions. The past 20 years have seen good things but the foundations for good economic growth were laid under Thatcher's policies.

The last 10 years have seen change for the sake of change with no real improvement and in fact some retrograde steps such as the destruction of pensions through removal of the tax credit since 1997. Thanks to that we now see the results with strikes such as that at Grangemouth. I could go on................

[thunderlizard]

Let us not forget that it was Gordon Brown who invented the 10p starting rate in the first place, back in '99. So it's really more of an S-bend than a U-turn.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Thatcher left office almost 20 years ago, have the last 20 years been that bad? I'd say the 80s were far more grim than the 90s or the 00s

I totally agree they were grim times. It's a myth that Thatcher never did a U-turn of course, just as it is that she was competent.

She increased taxes and public spending and was the author of many of the worst Quango excesses that continue to this day, but her fans will never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Not to mention being incredibly lucky with her enemies... a bunch of Latin American meat packing glitterati got her re-elected in 83, while Scargill was an absolute godsend.

Unless you were a miner of course.

Indeed although she U-turned more than once over the miners alone.

[thunderlizard]

Anybody remember "I fight on. I fight to win"?

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Anybody remember "I fight on. I fight to win"?

Indeed - shortly before she resigned!

[Cyberman]

I totally agree they were grim times. It's a myth that Thatcher never did a U-turn of course, just as it is that she was competent.

She increased taxes and public spending and was the author of many of the worst Quango excesses that continue to this day, but her fans will never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

She reduced some taxes which is something New Lie can never be accused of. The 60% top rate of income tax to 40% was one. Another thing for sure is the Tories never kept raising taxes during boom times, which is unfortunately the reason that New Lie will be unable to revitalise the floundering economy with tax cuts. The only U-turn I recall is on the poll-tax.

On competence, Thatcher was a revelation compared to New Lie. She achieved most of her aims in neutering the unions, growing the economy, home ownership, promoting private enterprise, winning the Falklands War and getting value for money for the taxpayer. She even fought and won the 7 Billion rebate from the EU that Blair so meekly gave away.

Now compare that with New Lies' catalogue of failures in all areas. The only 'success' is to waste as much taxpayer's money as possible.

[NickFitz]

She reduced some taxes which is something New Lie can never be accused of. The 60% top rate of income tax to 40% was one. Another thing for sure is the Tories never kept raising taxes during boom times, which is unfortunately the reason that New Lie will be unable to revitalise the floundering economy with tax cuts. The only U-turn I recall is on the poll-tax.

On competence, Thatcher was a revelation compared to New Lie. She achieved most of her aims in neutering the unions, growing the economy, home ownership, promoting private enterprise, winning the Falklands War and getting value for money for the taxpayer. She even fought and won the 7 Billion rebate from the EU that Blair so meekly gave away.

Now compare that with New Lies' catalogue of failures in all areas. The only 'success' is to waste as much taxpayer's money as possible.

Thatcher was an evil witch. She was rotten to the core, and the truth was not in her.

Your faith in her, which I shall assume to be sincere and not trolling (since so many people adhere to the same deluded misinterpretations of history as yourself) is symptomatic of a lack of knowledge of, or an inability to understand, the actual facts of life for the general population under her regime.

A cherry-picking of whichever superficially attractive historical details (mainly falsified and distorted) might allow you to support your attitudes, thereby evading the risk of having to face up to the fact that she was, like every other politician, a self-serving bastard, does not suggest an informed opinion, but more a religious faith.

There are no easy solutions. There is no fairy godmother. There never was a golden age. But I can assure you that, for the majority of people in this country, life was a bloody sight worse under Thatcher than it is today.