trousers

Having spent the best part of 30 years commuting into London I can vouch for that. Except when Verbal is posting whereby I have to admit that I'm talking a load of old nonsense

Was just watching the BBC news channel and they were reporting from the Yorkshire coal field 'heartland'. They interviewed a "working class" woman who had benefitted from the 'right to buy' scheme that Thatcher introduced and she said that there was almost a sense of intimidation at the time from those that lived around her that made her feel compelled to support the more militant contingent of the striking miners in order to feel part of the community. She said many others felt the same. The interviewer asked her if, in hindsight, she would have liked to have been more overtly praiseworthy of Thatcher's policies and she said she wished she could have been as Thatcher had changed her family's life for the better. Now, I'm not holding this up as a "there you go, the miners families were on the wrong wavelength" argument - I accept there were winners and losers in what happened - but I thought it was refreshing for the BBC to highlight that not all "working class" families in Yorkshire (and one assumes other parts of "the north") were anti-Thatcher. I think this simply highlights that everyone has different experiences of the Thatcher era and that we should have both empathy for those that suffered but equally respect for the views of those who had a more positive experience of "Thatcherism".

*like*

I don't think you'll find many people to disagree with that. But maybe there simply wasn't a "one size fits all" solution to the problem? Not on the same scale, obviously, but look at how many people Cortese has upset and trampled upon to reach his goal. As Thatcher said herself: "If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing" If there was a way of fixing the country in the late 70s / early 80s without affecting any sections of society would any sane politician have spurned such an opportunity? (Ok, so maybe Thatcher wasn't 100% sane....)

Source?

We can fine tooth comb everything Thatcher did for another 50 pages and we'd still be where we started: half the country will say she was predominantly good for the country and half will say she wasn't. I don't think everything she did was right in the execution but the general underlying philosophies were right IMO. I do wrestle with the human impact of some of these 'necessary' changes the country faced and, yes, I often ponder whether sowing the seeds for the eventual collapse of the financial markets was the right thing to do for 'mankind' but I also equally ponder on how things would have turned out if we had gone down a less capitalist path. At the end of the day I'm not 'academic' enough to analyse the social/economic effects of every political decision so your average man in the street typically goes with their gut feel. On balance, I think Thatcher did more good than bad for the country. That's my gut feel based on my life experiences, not someone else's. other people have different life experiences and will therefore come to different conclusions. No one is right or wrong.

May I be so bold as to suggest he's missing the point ever so slightly? I don't think the majority of those that are 'angry' with the left wing reaction are saying that she should be beyond criticism at this time. Rather it's the nasty and vicious nature of the criticism. Rather than saying "I didn't like her, she ruined the lives of many people" you get "F***k the evil witch - rot in hell you c***" It's the level of intellect people are using that is attracting the criticism, not the criticism itself per se IMHO of course

This

I was close. I've got Arthur Scargill. He couldn't even win this one FFS...

In which of his palatial residencies did he write that...?

It does amuse me slightly when the very people accusing Thatcher of being "spiteful/nasty/revengeful/uncaring/etc" exhibit the very same character traits when vilifying her. I guess the standard reply to that one is "it's the only language she understood so we're just giving as good as we got"

That picture won't display on the capitalist device I'm using on my privatised train over a privatised comms network

If Derek Hatton isn't a leftie then I'm an arse...

Nope

HTH

I didn't read anything into it... just idly posting it on a football forum.

Thatcher would have loved this and taken the attention as a compliment, but I guess the irony of that will be lost on those downloading it...

Daily Mirror, surely?

Luke Shaw ‏@Luke_shaw344m Weird how your life can change so quickly

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p017gnb8 Blair on Thatcher: "When you decide, you divide"

Ian Collins ‏@iancollinsuk7m Can we finally stop the silly 'it's all Labour's fault' - that was THREE years ago. Move on. Let's stick to Thatcher's fault - 34 years ago.

I thought that too initially but the "canary" is facing the wrong way.... He's a member of the US and British Titanic Societies, so could be that I guess... (tenuous connection with Southampton purely incidental of course...)

I can usually find these things from a simple earlobe shot. Take your pick KRG

http://fullfact.org/factchecks/Growth_Labour_manufacturing-28817

Can anyone make out the logos on his tie?