Margaret Thatcher

You're right, she was booted out and she had a few angry tears to wipe off her face when confronted by the press, following the announcement of her fall.
The Poll Tax riots with thousands of people fighting against police on horse back at Trafalgar Square is still quiet fresh in my mind. That was what sealed her fate in politics, along with policies in European matters and the feeling that she was to lose the election for her party. She tried a mild comeback when she announced she was going to be at the back seat of John Major's driving force, this announcement sending shivers to the back of many in her own party. RIP.

 

ok doubting thomases, anyone who can stay in power for 11 years, and win 3 elections, WITH A MAJORITY each time, has got to be doing something right and she was unbeatable in a parliament debate, and helped dissolve the Soviet Union, and thumped the Argies when they thought a woman would be a pushover oh but of course you cant please all the people all of the time only some of the people some of the time

 

That was the part I liked, she resurrected a dying national pride! That was her strength, Foreign policy. But back home, discontent was brewing and eventually boiled over. The "loadsofmoney" culture survived her though, with the fat cats still at large.
Twenty plus years later we are harvesting what it was sown.

 

The Poll Tax riots were an excuse for the professional benefits claimers, the bad back brigade, so called students on Mickey Mouse courses and the unemployable to go on an orgy of wanton destruction and mayhem. Remember the smashing of cars, the looting and the desecration of the Cenotaph by urination.

The Poll Tax is still there and you are still paying it, only now it is called the Community Charge, or Council Tax. It is supposed to be used to pay for local services. Previously, only people who owned their own house, even if they were struggling with a mortgage, paid for local services when the bill was called "rates". That was inherently unfair. The cost of local services, if available to everyone should therefore be paid by everyone. That's fairer. Personally, I don't agree with any local taxes. Local services should be funded by central government via general taxes. However, the fact remains that the charge that Thatcher tried to introduce is still there, albeit under a different name, but regardless of the banner under which it flies, you have to question that if it was so bad, why did it not only remain in place during 13 years of Blair/Brown stewardship, but they actually allowed it to increase year on year far in excess of the rate of inflation, yet facilities decreased. You paid more and you got less.

 

Broadside, We are still paying more and getting less, believe me.
My Local Council have just increased the Council tax and now talking about an extra charge to take away garden rubbish.
Also I don't know when you last visited these shores, for a number of years now we have a household rubbish collection once a fortnight. All in the name of saving money! BTW my wife works for the NHS it would take to long to tell you about the cutbacks happening there.

 

JB I well believe you. I'm told that approximately 35% of your council tax goes to paying pensions for council workers. I don't know how accurate that figure is but it would not surprise me. They close old folks Derby & Joan clubs and shut libraries to save money, then spend a fortune on laptops, tablets and i-phones for councillors. My son, who lives near Colchester, tells me that the bin men wont collect the bin from your garden, you have to put it outside your house, but if you put it out on the wrong day, or if it is the wrong bin !! the council will fine you. And I well believe you about the NHS. I have a long standing friend who was trained in the old way of nursing, as an SRN, and she is in despair of how things are spiralling downwards.

 

The reason she survived that long was a very big windfall, "Money" from north sea oil. with out that she would have fallen at the next election. Lady luck. Falklands war, any leader in power would have done the same.
Soviet Union, give her merit for that. Pissing on the miners was the worse thing she ever could have done. We Brits are paying for that big time, pensioners dying in the cold, can't pay the gas bills. Can go on and on.
I have no respect for her...... By the way my father was a miner.

 

regardless of who likes or dislikes the lady she certainly still commands strong presence even in death due to the 8 hours discussion about her in britaiins parliament - not too many people alive or dead have that sort of influence and the funeral will be interesting to see if there are demonstrations either for or a gainst her - wow what a woman - so many guys would be increidbably intimidated by her

 

"There is no such thing as society" - Margaret Thatcher, 1988

"There is no such thing as Margaret Thatcher" - Society, 2013