Should Maggie Thatcher get a State funeral.

[anobium]

Maggie didn't start the miners dispute she inherited it.
People seem to conveniently forget the 3 day week in the early 70s and the threats made at the time by a certain Mick Maghey to involve the troops in the dispute.
It quietened off a bit when Wilson was in power only because he gave into them but as soon as the Tories got back in Scargill made sure even without a mandate that it flared up again.
She was the only one with the b***s to take them on, oh for somebody like her now.
The 2nd best PM of the 20th century imho.

 

[joe-90]

She had Nth Sea oil money to buy off the miners.

 

[tim west]

The 2nd best PM of the 20th century imho.

With Blair as the best ever.

 

[gangman]

She is given credit for the defeat of the Argentinians, that's mainly why the Tories won the next election. She didn't defeat them, the military did. The Government were advised by the military, they done the strategic planning, all the War Cabinet done was ok things.

I think the only thing that was really down to the Government was the decision to send the Task Force. Though they had to do something because they had announced the cutbacks in the military in that area. That was one of the reasons for the invasion, they thought the British wouldn't fight for the Falklands.

As for the sinking of the Belgrano, that was a military decision, and I think the right one. Their naval forces were out to sink our carriers, they knew, correctly, that if they sank one or both of our carriers we would have turned the Task Force around. By the time we could have prepared a second force the Falklands would have been heavily fortified and the military cost then would have been much worse. I remember all the b******s about it being outside the exclusion zone, so what. Do you remember that woman castigating Thatcher on a tv interview, I bet she never had any close relatives in the South Atlantic.
They were a threat to our ships, if they had attacked we could of been defeated, as it was the sinking of the Belgrano meant that their naval forces backed out probably saving lots of British lives.
Some say that there was no threat when the ship was sunk, it was sailing away from the exclusion zone. But it had been sailing towards towards the zone, getting into position to attack our forces from the south. That attack never happened because their carrier force didn't have the weather conditions to launch an attack. They would have attacked if possible so something had to be done to stop them. Sinking the Belgrano worked.

 

[anobium]

The 2nd best PM of the 20th century imho.

With Blair as the best ever.

I would class Blair as the 2nd worst, leave you to guess who was the worst

 

[tim west]

leave you to guess who was the worst

I would say a tie with Maggie Thatcher and Ted Heath as the worst.

 

[ellal]

Sinking the Belgrano worked.

Yep...it guaranteed conflict which got the b*tch re-elected!

 

[anobium]

leave you to guess who was the worst

I would say a tie with Maggie Thatcher and Ted Heath as the worst.

As an ex trade union member I along with many other trade unionists had no time for the extremists at that time who used their muscle to terrorize those who did not wish to follow their route
I was at that time in the building industry and on more than one ocassion was forced to stop work on the basis of some lame excuse.
Usually the union reps were unskilled but were backed with *brothers* who whilst lacking in brains department usually compensated for this by their muscle.
Remember the *flying pickets*, no not the group but the real ones.
A certain TV comedian was a member and was put away for a few months for actual bodily harm, this was the sort of stuff that went on regularly in those days.
Maggie put a stop that, but Ted wasn,t strong enough.
Shades of it returning ie the tanker drivers.
I doubt that from your witty responses you were not a member at the sharp end of industry, maybe a member of *equity*
For all their faults neither of them walked out of the job halfway through a term of office unlike a certain Wilson or Blair.

 

[Norcon]

When you see the level of vitriol directed against Maggie it just proves how great she was IMO. It also give's an indication of the bitterness that the left wingers still harbour.
Of course she made mistakes. What PM doesn't ?.
No pain, no gain.
History will record in decades to come that her mistakes were miniscule in comparison to bliars folly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

[Shytalkz]

Hear hear

 

[JohnD]

When you see the level of vitriol directed against Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot it just proves how great they were IMO.

People hating your actions doesn't prove them right.

 

[tim west]

from wiki:
Programme: Nationwide

Thatcher On the Spot
Perhaps the most famous interview occurred in May 1983 during a general election special of its "On the Spot" feature. Mrs Diana Gould, a geography teacher from Cirencester, persistently challenged Margaret Thatcher about her ordering of the sinking of the General Belgrano when it was sailing away from the Falklands. Mrs Thatcher denied that the Belgrano had been sailing away, but Mrs. Gould quoted map references and continued to push her point across, encouraged - so the Conservative party claimed - by presenter Sue Lawley. When Mrs Thatcher asked her whether she accepted that the Belgrano had been a danger to British shipping when it was sunk, Mrs Gould told her that she did not. Thatcher then proclaimed that "I think it could only be in Britain that a British Prime Minister could be asked why she took action to protect our ships against an enemy ship that was a danger to our shipping", and was extremely angry about the BBC for allowing the question.
Thatcher's husband Denis lashed out at Roger Bolton, the editor of the programme, in the entertainment suite, saying that his wife had been "stitched up by bloody BBC poofs and Trots".
As a result, Thatcher became increasingly hostile to the BBC and never again set foot on BBC premises. She often gave access to rival networks first and only would meet the BBC at Downing Street.

 

[JohnD]

It must have been terrible for her to be publicly challenged by a well-informed citizen, when she was lying

 

[gangman]

Prehaps not that well informed if she thought the Belgrano wasn't a threat.

 

[Norcon]

When you see the level of vitriol directed against Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot it just proves how great they were IMO.

People hating your actions doesn't prove them right.

But we are not talking about savage dictators.
Indeed it surprises me that the left directs its most vitroilc and venomous attacks on honourable people like Margaret Thatcher and not evil dictators from banana republics .
Maggie is a hero to the loyal people of Ulster.