The Tories – for those of us old enough to remember 1st hand

last couple of years at school plagued by striking teachers.
search out 'boys from the blackstuff' for some quality zeitgeist tv.
Ronny Raygun and Thatch backslapping each other as they borked the poor and handed out golden handjobs to the already wealthy.
The brighton bombing was however a gruesome chapter that nobody deserved to have inflicted upon them.

In a reflection of todays tory promise to remove targets from the NHS, I remember the only target was stay on budget and these were cut, and they didn't give a toss who didn't get what to acheive this.

Oh, and rioting in the streets, and starting wars for less than legitimate reasons was also in vogue back then to.

Thatcher reduced the top rate of income tax from 83%

That gets a big thumbs up from me

introduced the poll tax, and following riots
totally ruined a proud mining industry
ran down the nhs

is that not enough

rkk01 I may know a little about the Navy, I went to the Falklands in 83 (after Maggies defence cuts) and we were basically f***ed if it wasn't for the Hunter Killer subs and merchant navy we would have more than likely lost. Cutting UK defences isn't the way forward IMO and like it or not Trident is a deterrant that I feel we need, we can't leave it all to the Yanks to sort out they'd probably hit the UK in a friendly fire inocident!

But your points are a good reasoning for spending money on strong conventional forces and logistics support – no relevance to nuke missile subs. The argument here is to cut the IBMs and spend the money elsewhere.

The hunter killers (2 were deployed I believe?) kept the Argentinian navy in port after the Belgrano was sunk, and the diesel powered Onyx supported the special ops (remember footage of here returning to the UK flying a Jolly Roger with dagger). The merchant boats were indeed vital to our ability to go to the Falklands – my father worked in Devonport to convert Atlatic Causeway, Atlantic Conveyor and Rangitera for the Falklands conflict

A good friend was in the S Atlantic on Brilliant – he came back hating Thatcher because of the defence cuts… didn't have the kit needed to properly fight the Argentinians (familiar story today??)

Miners strike, NHS cutbacks, Criminal Justice bill, Poll tax, CSA, Falklands war – It makes me pi*s myself laughing when people choose to ignore this lot, and harp on about 'what a strong leader she was' or 'at least she had balls'. You could say the same about any money grabbing dictator. I for one still have a full bladder and my dancing shoes ready…

I would like to thank Sir Edward Heath for joining the EU. Norman Tebbit provided some good advice when he suggested I get on my bike as his father had done. And last but not least, Margaret Thatcher for signing reciprocal agreements with France that helped me prosper. That other true blue Tory Tony Blair also deserves a mention for saving me the money it used to cost to renew my British Passport.

It was dreadfull under the Thatch and my Brother in law didn't come home from the Falklands.

The years the tories were in power they continually altered the method of counting unemployment to lower the headline figure. Labour put it back to a more sensible method that gave a truer figure.

Paraphrasing but the number 24 comes to mind as the number of times they changed the counting method.

High unemplyment. Managed to stay employed myself but millions didnt.

Well its really low at the moment?

And for all the things they have done in the past Labour haven't got too much to be proud of at the moment. Brown is short of ideas and in partly responsible for the current financial issues the country is having at the moment. Fuel prices is my current issue. And as for the Lib Dems they seem to be promising the world but where is the money coming from…. Oh Trident we will scrap that just as Iran are getting the bomb..

It is time for a change just as it was when the tories had their last run at being in power.

Well fuelwould be higher under the tory escalator which Labour scrapped.
The rest of your post is waffle, "short of ideas" "time for a change" etc

Interest rates.

People having the chance to buy their own council houses.

Getting a job and being in the same job 22 years later.

PFI schemes (that Labour said they'd get rid of but never did, saddling the NHS Trusts with 25 year massive mortgages)

Created train operating companies, train owning companies and Railtrack.
The management bought out the train owning companies from the state(?) and ownership of these companies swiftly sold on to finance companies for some obscene returns. Many party donors in the lucky management. Follow the money!
The public got Railtrack, underfinanced at inception and the shareholders got screwed in the end as the cost of modernising the railways from previous decades of Labour and Conservative under investment came to a head.
The travelling public got some good/some bad franchises that use cash flow from fares to pay the rent on the trains without the flexibility and means to invest in better rolling stock – obliged to be rented from the train owning companies – offering any cattle truck you like as long as it is black.
There, now relax…

The Tories – for those of us old enough to remember 1st hand

They weren't so bad when I were a lad…

Taking us into the European Economic Community
Decimalisation
The Three Day Week – power strikes meant being sent home from school

Yunki
I was at castlemorton, great weekend!
Riots during the 80's, high unemployment, miners being attacked by police, poll tax riots, donor cards insisting you didn't want to be visited by maggie 😆 high interest rates, it was typical tory sh*te, great for the few & dire for the majority.

I remember when government spent what it could afford rather than what it could print.

cranberry – you are aware that the Thatcherite economy was built on a huge deficit and spending more than was earned?

+1 TJ
It was a completely ill-managed economy and who's heard of monetarism since then? ….a completely discredited 'theory'.

Not to mention the fact that both the last recession and this one were caused by the removal of Banking controls at the end of the 80's

I found it interesting last night that GB was uanble to nail Dave with the Euro sceptic/Banking Crisis tie up. It is a simple fact that since Reagan/Thatcher internationalisation has created a situation where pretty much all the worlds economies are interdependant. That being the case it is not possible to simply restrict our domestic banking system. Everyone has to do it otherwise the bankers just hop on a flight or use the internet to carry out their scheming in a different jursidiction.

The significance of Browns G20 success was that he got all parties to agree to the same process, and although I am sceptiocal it just may be that he has been instrumental in closing the unfettered capitalist pandoras box opened by Thatchers lot.

I remember when government spent what it could afford rather than what it could print.

Whats your point caller? is it a misplaced belief in the Victorian concept of thrift? or is your point an economic one?

3 day week

Litter piling up uncollected

power cuts

riots

red braces

yuppies

spitting image

get on yer bike (Chingford Skinhead)

more strikes

giving food to the miners

15% interest rates

*shrugs* whoever you vote for the government always wins. labours just had its turn at turning the country to sh*t, in fact worse than it ever has been IMHO. theyll get voted out, and conservatives will do the same in a different way. theyre all a load of c**ts.

Came in and tried to sort out the mess a Labour government had left us with

Failed, and instead created a society of greed and selfishness, where poor people suffered, where education and health care were neglected and run down, where vast chunks of land were sold off to private developers at rock-bottom prices, where council housing was sold off under the right to buy scheme but nothing done to address the growing need for social housing, etc etc etc….

Tories = CSA= Murdering Ba*tards

This thread and others like it have cheered me up no end. There I was thinking oh bugger here we go again, when all of a sudden DC and the Bullingdon Boot Boys seem to have cocked it right up and made it deeply uncool to be a tory boy once more….. Hurrah!!

Ya dont need a long memory… Their (HERS!)legacy still sits infront of me right now. Deprived South Yorkshire mining communities (all around Donny at least)and no investment to replace what they destroyed. Anyone know Stainforth??

I for one still have a full bladder and my dancing shoes ready…

😀

It was Arthur Scargil that refused democracy in the workplace, bullied workers who wanted to work and fought an unwinable fight. He denied what little democracy there was in that show off hands votes were deliberately miscounted in his favour.

It was a completely ill-managed economy and who's heard of monetarism since then? ….a completely discredited 'theory'.

So what are they doing right now if it isn't monetarism?

Spent the first 37 years of my life in the North East, too many of which were under a Tory government. Thatcher was responsible for cutting the heart out countless communities…as a result of which I could NEVER vote for them.
The eighties were pretty miserable awa thu toon!

Our schools and health care have improved massively under Labour and are too critical to jeopardise.

My fondest memory is being encouraged to "invest" in property and being stuck in a 1 bedroom house worth 10grand less than we paid for it.

Elvis Costello said it all for me

Thatcher did of course provide inspiration for a good few songwriters though…for the angry youth

I miss Thatcher. Spitting image went downhill after she got booted out.

The LibDems aren't suggesting that we unilaterally disarm and get rid of our nuclear deterrent, just that we can't afford and don't need Trident.

Nonsense. Paying for Trident and the SSBN's they'll go in buys the UK more than you think.

Nonsense. Paying for Trident and the SSBN's they'll go in buys the UK more than you think.

Why would that be?

So what are they doing right now if it isn't monetarism?

Well its not Monetarism! Monetarists believe in Government with a small "g" and that Governments are at the root of inflation. Todays macroeconomic policies are more in line with expansionist Keynsionism.

Monetarism is simply managing the economy through money supply and the cost of borrowing (interest rates). It can be used in parallel with other means of economic stimulus such as public spending but in an ecomonomy where the stated aim is 2% inflation and the means of achieving that is varying the central bank rate you have "monetarism".

Thatcher reduced the top rate of income tax from 83%

Why? You a Murdoch or someone?

15% + interest rates

40% negative equity on my flat in London

Sold off all the family silver (Gas, electric, rail, water, BT……………..)

Sent lads to die in the Falklands for political expediancy

Decimated communities that will live with massive problems for generations to come (sth wales, yorkshire coal fields…………..and loads more)

Shall I go on…….

Their (HERS!)legacy still sits infront of me right now. Deprived South Yorkshire mining communities

Hmm.. although Maggie put the boot in for sure, the mining industry had been in decline since the 1930s.. so post-industrial deprivation was inevitable on some scale.

Again, blaming a govt for something that would've happened anyway – the question really is how a different govt WOULD HAVE handled it, and if that would have been better.

Speaking as a non-Tory from a South Wales mining background.

From the 1979 Tory Manifesto 😆

We believe that a competitive and efficient coal industry has an important role in meeting energy demand

Yes they forgot to say we would close communities and import the bloody stuff, sell of the national asset for the rich (tory insiders) to make more money when the market turns….

15% + interest rates

Fair one, that sucks the big one.

40% negative equity on my flat in London

There's lots of people in this type of situation NOW.

Sold off all the family silver (Gas, electric, rail, water, BT……………..)

Like the UKs gold Gordo sold for next to nothing?

Sent lads to die in the Falklands for political expediancy

Iraq? A lot harder to justify than the FI.

I'm no tory BTW, but these comments are very relevent to today.

In 1975 with inflltion at 25% Labour fixed the interest rate at 11%. Totally inappropriate.

In 1981 with inflation at 12% Thatcher set interest rates at a highly appropriate 15%.

Appropriate use of monetarism/monetary policy meant Thatcher got inflation under control and continued use of monetary policy to control inflation is one of the few things I'll congratulate Labour on – or I would if their measure of inflation included house prices and the "basket" were based on what people really spend their money on. It was not including house prices in inflation that meant interest rates were fixed too low in the pre-07 boom.