Margaret Thatcher RIP?

[Atheist-Lite]

No, not dead today. Maybe tommorow? Just a quick poll to see what people really thought about those special years when we had it so good? If you are American you can replace Thatcher with Reagan....they were conjoined twins afterall.

[JacksSmirkingRevenge]

Baaad. - Even if she did give me a 13% pay rise.

[Horwood Beer-Master]

Can I vote for both "bad" and "slightly before my time" (I was born '81, but didn't pay that much attention to the world as a child).

[Mr P]

Bad... very bad.

[drl2]

I voted Indifferent because as an American I feel obligated to remain completely ignorant of events in other parts of the world except where Fox News tells me they're important because they might be spun to make Obama look bad.

[Drewish]

I voted Indifferent because as an American I feel obligated to remain completely ignorant of events in other parts of the world except where Fox News tells me they're important because they might be spun to make Obama look bad.

Yes... yes... Soon your journey towards the dark side will be complete...

[Atheist-Lite]

Time slipping away and the iron lady is beginning to fade away.

[Elessarina]

Half the time I think it's just "fashionable" to hate Thatcher. There are so many people who do who weren't even born for most of the time she was PM. The country just goes into a repeat cycle.. Labour give us all a great time by spending like a man with 12 arms, the Tories have to sort the mess out by screwing everyone. They're all self-serving arseholes.

Hating Thatcher is just childish IMHO. It's just always easier to blame someone else

[Atheist-Lite]

Half the time I think it's just "fashionable" to hate Thatcher. There are so many people who do who weren't even born for most of the time she was PM. The country just goes into a repeat cycle.. Labour give us all a great time by spending like a man with 12 arms, the Tories have to sort the mess out by screwing everyone. They're all self-serving arseholes.

Hating Thatcher is just childish IMHO. It's just always easier to blame someone else

I don't hate Thatcher. I hate ten wasted years. Here we go again. Here we go again and the lesson of history is that the guy(or gal) with their hands on the steering wheel when things go arse up becomes a legendary lightning conductor for mass angst.

[Drewish]

Values or results? People vote values over and over. If a socialist came into power and then suddenly everything got better, I might question my views. That so many people who were far too young to remember the Thatcher years rail against her does a discredit to any real detractors. I have no clue regarding her, or Reagan to be honest. I know better than to trust what's taught in history class as anything more than narrative building.

[Robert_S]

"The Market" can be as stupid, cruel and oppressive tyrant as any person or committee.

[PsychoSerenity]

"The Market" can be as stupid, cruel and oppressive tyrant as any person or committee.

But Thatcher gave it a good challenge!

[Atheist-Lite]

"The Market" can be as stupid, cruel and oppressive tyrant as any person or committee.

But Thatcher gave it a good challenge!

Moneterism, free market economics=fiscal bankruptcy but you can always print more paper when you are the invisible hand of the markets yourself.

[Rum]

I am old enough to have known life under Thatcher. One's take on her and her politics depend entirely on your won political standpoint of course. What she did may have been, to many people something that needed doing and not many people (ironically) had the balls to do it. She decapitated a number of vested interests. Not just the Unions, which she did a good job on, but also the 'professions' all of which lost status under her market economy thinking. Modern Britain would not be the low wage, free wheeling and flexible economy it is now without her. In the process of destroying union power, which she did, she also destroyed working class communities based around the old industries. These have never recovered and that is why, in my opinion, she is so hated. The solidarity of being working class and even its identity was destroyed.

If on the other hand you lean to the left, as I do, one might ask why she did it. After all France and Germany do rather well with highly unionised economies. And one has to reach the conclusion that first and foremost it was ideology that drove her and her government.

Of course there were lots of issues and comp;ications along the way, which made her job that much easier. An ineffective and unconvincing Labour party was one. Inflation and unemployment also helped the 'fear factor'.

[Elessarina]

Love her out hate her...I can't recall a stronger sole party pm we've had