this is a serious question, so if you could, serious answers please.

sat listening to radio 2, some woman has just been on talking of Thatcher’s successes.
can someone please point any of these out to me.

The Falklands?

mr whippy.

Maintaining the status quo between the “haves” and “have nots”

Broke the stranglehold of the unions that was bringing the country to it’s knees in the late ’70s which encouraged much greater amounts of foreign investment (Toyota/Honda/Nissan as an example)

She broke the union stranglehold on the labour market and british industry.
Revitalised the country, that was a complete shit hole.
and smashed the Argies in the Falklands

She was more successful at destroying British industry than the Luftwaffe..

mr whippy

Oh yeah, and that.

…try the search function. This one has been done to death recently.

funny how british industry thought she was great.
so not sure I follow that one.

opened up the city, right to buy council homes, changed the way Britain was seen in the world, negotiated the EU rebate etc etc

Well, Britain in the 70s was a pretty unappealing place for many really. Massive income tax and not a lot to show for it. So that changed in the 80s; how much of that was due to Thatcher, and whether the UK became a better place for her input, is something not everyone agrees on….

Irritating the hell out of TJ and Elfin.

right to buy council homes

depends if you think affordable social housing is a good thing or not.

negotiated the EU rebate

although not enough to make us anythign other than a net contributer.

She did unite most of the country when the poll tax was brought in 😉

poll tax that worked well

she did a lovely resigination speech iirc

Britain in the 70s was a pretty unappealing place for many really. Massive income tax and not a lot to show for it. So that changed in the 80s;

what was the unemployment rate in the 80’s and the noirth/south divide and the overall tax burden
Ta

Reducing the top income tax rate from 95%

Irritating the hell out of TJ and Elfin.

Oh yeah, and that 🙂

industrial output fell 3% in her years to 25% of the economy, so not the devastation Labour are still claiming now, the devastation came in the 90’s under Blair/Brown where industrial output fell more like 10% to just 12% of the economy.

The big winners under Labour were bankers and estate agents and public sector.
manufacturing was just argued over and no one did anything to help it, or rather we all wanted cheap bike bits from China.

Sancho – Member
industrial output fell 3% in her years to 25% of the economy, so not the devastation Labour are still claiming now, the devastation came in the 90’s under Blair/Brown where industrial output fell more like 10% to just 12% of the economy.

do you want to try and make less simplistic?

the devastation came in the 90’s under Blair/Brown where industrial output fell more like 10% to just 12% of the economy

Did industrial output actually ‘fall’ or did other industries just increase faster and thus make up more of the overall total?

what was the unemployment rate in the 80s and the north/south divide and the overall tax burden

How you view that depends on how you view the omelette / broken egg ratio.

Privatisation of a lot of stuff that should never have been operated by the government because the private sector was or would have done it perfectly well? e.g. Sealink, all the motor manufacturers…

The Falklands?

The re-occupation of the Falklands was a military success (in its own terms, I suppose) but the total lack of anticipation and preparedness was a huge failure, which is why Peter Carrington (showing a degree of personal integrity uncommon in politics) respected the tradition of ministerial responsibility and resigned at the time:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6546223.stm
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/112604

Reducing the top income tax rate from 95%

Wrong. Top rate of income tax was never 95% (despite Beatles lyrics). Thatcher cut top rate from 83% to 60% in 1979.

right to buy council homes

Nope, there had always been a right to buy, just previously you had to pay the market price – what she did was gerrymandering IMO

Removing any possible ambiguity about who your enemy was.

See also: Call-Me-Dave

Oh… and fuelled some cracking satirical comedy. Ie: Spitting Image

Reducing the top income tax rate from 95%

Depends on how you look at it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Wilson

By 1974, the top-rate of income tax reached its highest rate since the war, 83%. This applied to incomes over £20,000 (£155,247 as of 2012),[17], and combined with a 15% surcharge on ‘un-earned’ income (investments and dividends) could add to a 98% marginal rate of personal income tax.

what she did was gerrymandering IMO

Spot on! Taken to its logical conclusion by ‘Dame’ Shirley Porter

Vote for me and you can have a cheap house

Thatchers greatest success has been to privatise profits and nationalise loses. Something that continues to this day. The idea of cross subsidising has gone out the window.

It wasn’t gerrymandering at all – gerrymandering is redrawing political district lines for partisan gain.

Encouraging the right to buy was a good thing – if you wanted proof just visit any estate where a good percentage of people had bought versus an estate where they hadn’t.

one would be nice and tidy and the other a sh1thole.

(everyone I saw, anyway…)

She personally ordered the hereford hooligans to have some fun at princes gate. Good job they didnt **** it up.

It wasn’t gerrymandering at all – gerrymandering is redrawing political district lines for partisan gain.

Silly old district auditors getting that one wrong then:

Definitely not gerrymandering then?

Though I suppose for the actual dictionary definition of gerrymandering, you’d have to look instead at what Call Me Dave is up to now. That sticks to the more traditional trick of actually changing borders to your advantages

Tories eh? Got to love ’em.

Encouraging the right to buy was a good thing – if you wanted proof just visit any estate where a good percentage of people had bought versus an estate where they hadn’t.

one would be nice and tidy and the other a sh1thole.

The 70’s wasn”t that bad a time, life got worse in the 80’s, most council estates were working class before the 80’s, she created the underclass that dragged them down to a new low.

Irritating the hell out of TJ and Elfin.

Yeah but me and TJ irritate the hell out of people like you, so you’ve autopwned there. 😆

We’re as successful as Thatcher! Woot! 😀

Encouraging the right to buy was a good thing – if you wanted proof just visit any estate where a good percentage of people had bought versus an estate where they hadn’t.

What like mine, where there are loads of privately owned flats which are mostly inhabited by people who need to claim housing benefit as the private rents are over twice what the HA rents are, thus costing the taxpayer more than if they were all still social housing?

I’m struggling to see much she did that was actually beneficial to Society.

But then, she din’t believe in Society, did she? 😐

As above. In addition, in a mans world a woman dared to stand up and boy did she do so.

My favourite NuLabour success was having the balls to face down their traditional voters/habits and ban smoking in pubs. That took serious balls IMO (no not Ed, although he may be serious 😉 )

din’t believe in Society

Well in the famous quote she wanted people to take responsibility for themselves rather than rely on society. Perhaps she could have said it better.

Yeah, it was a proper clause 4 moment, that one Hora 🙄

Well in the famous quote she wanted people to take responsibility for themselves rather than rely on society. Perhaps she could have said it better.

I think that sums it up pretty well – and what is wrong with that sentiment?

and what is wrong with that sentiment?

= I’m alright jack **** everyone else.

Essentially.

Oh look; it’s happened…

I once dreamt I slept with Thatcher. I woke up neither happy or sad, just where the **** did that come from 😐

= I’m alright jack **** everyone else

what complete bs.

I don’t mind paying taxes to support people that fall on hard times as long as they then put a bit of effort into trying to get back from those hard times.

my mother worked at a school for maladjusted girls. As soon as it came time to leave the school they nearly all became magically pregnant in order to get benefits and housing. I do mind paying taxes to support this type of reliance on society.