Thatcher Dead

[The6Bells 0]

Being buried on the 20th anniversary of the closure of Easington pit. Sticking it to the miners even in death.

[The6Bells 0]

Anybody else finding this fucker as dull and tedious as I do?

 

Maybe the subject matter? Shall we talk about something else? Did you get your test results back?

[The6Bells 0]

Here's a fun game people can play that might also inform people about their lives. If you are employed locally, figure out when the business that employs you was started, and post the number below that best fits:

 

1. Public sector

2. Pre-Thatcher industry (mining, steel works, etc)

3. Thatcher era industry (Nissan, etc)

4. Post-Thatcher industry (Call centre monkey?)

5. Self employed or (very) small business started before Thatcher

6. Self employed or (very) small business started during Thatcher

7. Self employed or (very) small business started after Thatcher

8. I don't work (dole, student etc)

 

Once you've answered that, now do the same for your father, and maybe even your grandfather.

 

Then we can see if we can draw any conclusions about whether Thatcherism was a good or a bad thing for the North East, based on real examples, rather than the usual socialist rhetoric, which as we all know, more often than not tends to be based on fantasy rather than reality.

[The6Bells 0]

Her's my answers:

 

Me. 3. (or 2. if you consider it was a product of privatisation)

Dad 2.

Grandad 2.

[Christmas Tree 4729]

I heard on the radio today that before she deregulated the banks you were only allowed to take £50 on holiday!!!!

 

Putting the politics to one side I think the 70's were a shit time to live through.

 

 

[The6Bells 0]

I heard on the radio today that before she deregulated the banks you were only allowed to take £50 on holiday!!!!

 

Putting the politics to one side I think the 70's were a shit time to live through.

 

'capital controls'

 

There were all sorts of utterly stupid and outmoded rules too, but people like to hide that behind labels like 'capital controls', which also describe the shit that's going on in Cyprus right now.

[trophyshy 7083]

Her's my answers:

 

Me. 3. (or 2. if you consider it was a product of privatisation)

Dad 2.

Grandad 2.

 

Fascinating stuff.

[NJS 4389]

2 days after she was elected she abolished exchange controls. Billions left the country within hours.

 

But one Japanese factory makes up for it.

 

 

 

[Tom 14013]

[Gemmill 44995]

Number 3 in the hit parade.

[The6Bells 0]

Here's something good for all the people who think they know what Thatcher did or didn't do to industry etc etc blad di blah.

 

Over the course of the 1970s, two Prime Ministers, Edward Heath and James Callaghan, had been broken by the trade unions, while a third, Harold Wilson, descended into paranoia. Foreign papers talked of Britain as the Sick Man of Europe. Callaghan himself told his Labour colleagues: "If I were a young man, I would emigrate." .... by the time she left office .... Taxes were lower, strikes were down, productivity growth was much improved and far from fleeing Britain, as they had once threatened to do, foreign investors were now queuing to get in - a trend symbolised above all by Nissan's groundbreaking investment in the North East of England. The real question, though, is whether this could realistically have been avoided. It is a myth that Thatcher single-handedly ended the era of full employment - in fact, unemployment had already hit 1.5 million under Callaghan.....In truth, Britain in the 1980s was always facing an immensely painful transition, partly because so many difficult decisions had been postponed for so long, but also because the stark reality of globalisation meant that major industries - notably carmaking, shipbuilding and coal-mining - were doomed even before she took power.

 

- Dominic Sandbrook, the author of several history books about Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, including White Heat, State Of Emergency and most recently, Seasons In The Sun

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22076886

[The Fish 10876]

So he's taken the "I'm going to ignore the valid and considered response that disprove my assertions, then talk loudly and often until everybody is bored" approach.

 

We haven't had one of these for a while.

[The6Bells 0]

2 days after she was elected she abolished exchange controls. Billions left the country within hours.

 

But one Japanese factory makes up for it.

 

Would that be the billions Neil Kinnock was planning on pumping into the nationalised industries or implment a national minimum wage or any other amazingly transformational socialist policy? My arse it was. Like all Lanour governments it would have needed to largely stay there untouched, as a guarantee to the wider world that there would be at least something there to underwrite the country's debts once the wheels started to come off. If you want to consider the impact of Thatcher's reign in a serious manner, why not widen your perspective to the full 11 years?

[The6Bells 0]

So he's taken the "I'm going to ignore the valid and considered response that disprove my assertions, then talk loudly and often until everybody is bored" approach.

 

We haven't had one of these for a while.

 

What have I ignored?

[The6Bells 0]

Fascinating stuff.

 

Reality always is.

[The Fish 10876]

What have I ignored?

Perhaps "Ignored" is wrong term, "dismissed" would be more accurate.

 

Oh and it's Parky, Chez & HF that you've ignored.

[The6Bells 0]

Martin McGuinness is condemning the people in Derry having a party to celebrate Maggie's death. You know you're a scumbag when this guy is taking the moral highground. Also quite funny to see him calling her a warmonger - she signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty in the early 80s, I suppose that had nothing to do with the fact he was running around Derry with a sub-machine gun in the early 70s. Scumbag.

[The6Bells 0]

Perhaps "Ignored" is wrong term, "dismissed" would be more accurate.

 

Oh and it's Parky, Chez & HF that you've ignored.

 

Parky is clearly certifiable so I think ignoring him is the best for everyone. As for HF & Chez, which posts?

[Meenzer 15561]

Reality always is.

 

Now there you're definitely wrong.

[ewerk 30672]

Martin McGuinness is condemning the people in Derry having a party to celebrate Maggie's death. You know you're a scumbag when this guy is taking the moral highground. Also quite funny to see him calling her a warmonger - she signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty in the early 80s, I suppose that had nothing to do with the fact he was running around Derry with a sub-machine gun in the early 70s. Scumbag.

 

You really must try harder at hiding your identity.

[The Fish 10876]

Parky is clearly certifiable so I think ignoring him is the best for everyone. As for HF & Chez, which posts?

pretty much all of them?

[trophyshy 7083]

Reality always is.

 

Is it fuck. You'd know that if you'd ever worked at Nissan.

[The6Bells 0]

You really must try harder at hiding your identity.

 

I'm not Martin Guinness if that's what you're thinking.

[The6Bells 0]

Is it fuck. You'd know that if you'd ever worked at Nissan.

 

LOL. So, it's not the fact that the govt. owes you a job, it's that it owes you an interesting job. Brilliant.

 

Anyways, I find it hilarous that it sounds like at least two people on here work in the factory Thatcher brought to the region. Anymore want to fess up to being just a little bit hypocritical about all this 'she tuk urr jubs' nonsense?

[ewerk 30672]

I'm not Martin Guinness if that's what you're thinking.

 

The only English people who give a fuck about Northern Ireland are right wing twats and ex-squaddies, you happen to be both. Now who could you be?