Not quite.
So while the rest of the world was propping up their ailing heavy industry base and infrastructure against the day things would improve (and they have), Thatcher dismantled ours thoroughly and effectively. Way to go.
(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Wed 21 Apr 2010, 13:05, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

I can't disagree with that
But nobody in the Eighties, either in this country or any others could tell what was going to happen in the future. Unlike other European countries at the time, we went for a purely financial economy. Yeah, that screwed most people at the time who didn't have or couldn't afford the education necessary to get into the financial sector and as a humanitarian decision, it was a shit one.

However, her aim was to fix the economy the quickest way she could. Which she did. The Unions, whilst a good idea in general, had grown too powerful and paralised the country by mobolising the workforce every single time something happened that they didn't like. Thatcher did what she thought she needed to do to get rid of them. Once they were gone, the economy started to recover.

I think the whole thing could have been avoided if power-hungry Union bosses hadn't subverted the unions to feed their own agendas, but that's the problem inherent in Socialism, people are naturally out for themselves.
( Kroney, Wed 21 Apr 2010, 13:11, Reply)

My father in law would agree with you on this one.
Which, considering he worked down the mines during the 1980's is perhaps a bit strange. He thought the sun shone out of Thatcher's arse. Staunch Tory through and through (but by his own admission is unconvinced by Cameron).
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Wed 21 Apr 2010, 13:42, Reply)

Just goes to show
That you can't judge a voter by his party. I think Thatcher made some terrible decisions with awful implications for society on a humanist level, but saying that she wrecked the country isn't fair. Certainly you can't expect somebody like Thatcher to be too worried about the people when she's pursuing her goals.

She didn't wreck the country, but I think it's fair to say that when she fixed the country, she shafted society.
( Kroney, Wed 21 Apr 2010, 13:56, Reply)