Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dies, aged 87.

[gee666]

When asked about the injustice of 90% of her tax cuts benefiting the top 10% she replied "well that leaves 10% for the other 90" sums up the *****. Entire communities destroyed by her polices and many families left shattered from the job losses,taxes and a broken welfare system.
The decimation of out industrial and manufacturing system, the privatized former national companies are now either owned by other nations or in the case of BP have their HQ in the states, yeah that turned out well, we all benefited from that.
My dad was down to the pub when he heard and he wasn't alone, I bet a few have kept a special bottle back for this day.
Oh yeah and she's a murderer. Enjoy eternity in Hell Maggie.

 

[mitchell271]

The fact that she was female tends to somehow mask the fact that she her treatment of British mining communities wasn't a million miles away from Hitler's treatment of Jews. Had mass genocide been an option I dare say she would have strongly considered it, as she essentially "killed" many people anyway.

That's how it's taught here (if at all) in Canada. She was the first female Prime Minister, that's it. I did some research on my own later through a dozen different sources and my school library and eventually found out she was a massive ***** if you weren't rich and entitled (and even then she wasn't the easiest to get along with). She did some good economically but a boost in economy at the cost of human life or quality of life isn't a great trade off.

Am I happy she's dead? Not especially. Am I happy she isn't in power any more? Hell yes.

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

I don't hold with celebrating someone's death. I didn't with Bin Laden and I don't now.

That said, I am not going to be too judgemental of those who are less than sad over the news. At least the ones who were actually alive during her term in office.

 

[synchro_w]

Well, like her dislike her, she was a influential figure.
I am just happy that i got to see meryl streep kickass as an actress by playing her in the movie

[i have NO CLASS WHATSOEVER}
DING DONG! THE WITCH IS DEAD! THE WITCH IS FUCKING DEAD!
PHEW! FEELS GOOOOOOD!

As for meryl streep? well, didn't fancy her anyway. [there's a movie ABOUT 'thatcher, thatcher, the school milk snatcher'? they must be getting sooooo desperate in hollywood, never-neverland, everwhere, wherever they made it]

but who cares?!??
DING DONG! THE WITCH IS DEAD! THE WITCH IS DEAD!

i told you i had no class.
i'm gonna do it again...
DING DONG, THE WITCH IS FUCKING DEAD!! WOOHOOO!!
[i don't watch tv, don't read newspapers, etc but generally watch utube but @Wadders? THANK YOU!]
i know my mum, dad & sister will be dancing..they were/are trades unionists.

 

[bobmd13]

I am not sad to hear that Maggie is dead.

Unlike a lot of people here I actually did live and work during her reign. Yes I did say reign because she really did act like a mad monarch while she was in charge.

For Major Chaos, I will list some of the policies that she is infamous for.

1) The privatisation of State utilities. Maggie literally sold the following national companies to the private sector for a pittance.

Electricity Generation and Supply

Water

Gas

Telecommunications (BT which had a monopoly and was raking in a fortune yearly was sold for a pittance)

In all Maggie sold off 42 different public companies between 1980 and 1990.

All of this money was used to fund tax cuts which while loved, are not the best means to help the lower paid escape from the poverty trap.

2) The wasting of hundred of billions of North Sea Oil money. Again this was used to fund tax cuts and was not reinvested in the nation.

3) Right to buy.

Under Maggie, people who lived in Social housing got the right to buy the property that they lived in (usually with a very large discount as previously stated). Yes this was a good idea but the implementation of it was a complete and utter travesty.

The problem arose not because of the Right to buy legislation but because once sold the money was returned to Westminister for use by the chancellor. This meant that under her rule, social housing stock was decimated with virtually no new homes being built to replace the property that had been sold.

This is one of the primary reasons why we have a housing benefit bill of over £22.5 billion per year as of March 2012. Well over 50% of this is paid to people in full time work but on low wages and a huge amount of it is paid to private landlords.

Again the money raised by the sell off of social housing was used to cut taxes.

4) The NHS. (yes our beloved NHS)

Under Maggies reign, it was deemed by her and her cohorts that The NHS should be run by managers from private industry. This is were I have personal experience of her ruinous ideology coming into play. In a 4 year period I saw a 500% increase in administrative managers and staff within a hospital trust. The budgets were not changed to pay for this and it was the front line services that suffered. As a nurse at that time I watched the number of medical staff fall by 40-50%. Staff off on long term illness were kept on the rotas and factored in, meaning that once you had actually 9-10 people in the morning to get 36 patients up and showered/bathed, you ended up with 5-6 people doing it.

Now 5-6 people sounds fine and in surgical wards etc that is not a problem but and here is the big but,yes the acute wards did lose staff, it was the geriatric units which suffered and these wards I can tell you were not somewhere you worked if you did not like hard work.

On top of this wards were closed without warning,and the new managers were paid more (by a long way) than the consultants in the hospitals.

5) Misconceptions.

A couple of folks have said here we would not be as well off as we are today if it had not been for Maggie.

I find this strange as under her leadership we had more people unemployed by a considerable margin (3.3 million that's signing on) and even at its best during her tenure inflation was at 4.2%

I have not mentioned the other policies that she is infamous for mainly the removal of student grants for third level education (which I always find a bit strange since they all benefited from these when they were at university) and probably her most infamous one in the eyes of some MAGGIE MILK SNATCHER. For anyone not aware of this, one of her first policies when put into power was to take the free milk from primary school children regardless of social background.

She decimated whole swathes of the UK with her policies and as you can see even on this forum divided the country on geographical grounds.

I will not go anywhere near what she did to the miners, but nearly 30 years after she did it parts of this country are still feeling the effects.

 

[Daveman]

So tell me, is the kickstarter to build a big dance floor upon her grave already up? I'm sure this has the potential to become the world's most expensive and most visited dancing venue.

You'll have to clean it up first. My uncle promised to me long ago that when Thatcher died, he'd be joining the queue to plant a turd squarely on her grave.

Pleasant guy most of the time, but anytime anyone mentioned Thatcher...

In fairness, having visited many a nightclub in the north east, coming across a shit on the dance floor wouldn't be unusual.

As much as I'm loving the opportunity for off-colour humour, I can't help but feel like it's just sad. The parallels to when all the Americans celebrated killing Bin Laden are too obvious, and he was a terrorist. I'm not saying to mourn her, but "the witch is dead" stuff is a bit crass at least.

You know, she probably died thinking she was right. So I don't know about celebrating...

But yeah, she sucked! The weirdest thing to come out of this news is seeing people defend her policies and say the shit she did benefited the country, that we now have a growing, prosperous country. I shit you not, people are saying that. They say it like it's fact.

Admittedly, the fact that people can say that with a straight face is rather amusing. 0.6% is technically "growing", but keeping a straight face through "prosperous"... I couldn't do that.

 

[Froggy Slayer]

Well, seeing as a senile old woman died I'm not going to be a massive **** and celebrate, am I? The woman who was prime minister, for better or worse, effectively died years ago as she descend into mental deficiency. I didn't agree with her political policies, and would say that some were outright damaging to the country, but I also have to remember basic human decency. Even if you have quarrel, or even hatred for her, please, be the bigger person. I have ideals, and I'm not going to step away from them just because I didn't like the person.

 

[ninjaRiv]

What do you expect really? We live in a country with a Chancellor who didn't know what a regressive tax is and blamed the welfare state for a guy burning his kids to death. Not to mention a work and pensions secretary that doesn't seem to understand the size of living costs. These are the lunatics that have idolised Thatcher for her anti-poor, pro-privatisation, anti-government control stance. Of course they will claim that her polices were good, they've been saying similar things since the 80s.

Admittedly, the fact that people can say that with a straight face is rather amusing. 0.6% is technically "growing", but keeping a straight face through "prosperous"... I couldn't do that.

I'm fresh from reading the comments on Jim Sterling's Facebook posts and it is strange how man say the privatisation was beneficial. People are saying it on Facebook, Twitter, etc. "RIP Thatcher, you were a great woman" tweets are more popular in my feed than I expected. People saying that "even Tony Blair respected her decisions and said they were right." Like that's somehow a good thing.

The whole situation is fucked up. While I don't see a problem with celebrating her death, I don't see the point if she didn't learn her lesson. She went on believing she was right. If she screamed "Oh God, I was wroooooooonnnngggg!" as she went, that would be nice.

 

[Charli]

Yeah I'm ... From the 'privileged southern counties' but I can safely say i'm not exactly saluting her off to her grave either. She was a callous, calculating woman, and while I realize she acted as expected of someone of her background and surroundings (the pressure and control from her friends in high places would have assured she was nothing more than their cute little puppet anyway) and I have no desire to put her face on the body of Satan...

Yeah sorry Thatcher, Not exactly shedding a tear. Party well my Northern friends.

 

[lacktheknack]

You know, she probably died thinking she was right. So I don't know about celebrating...

But yeah, she sucked! The weirdest thing to come out of this news is seeing people defend her policies and say the shit she did benefited the country, that we now have a growing, prosperous country. I shit you not, people are saying that. They say it like it's fact.

Actually, she died in a haze of confusion and terror with no regard to her past actions, most likely. Alzheimer's is basically hell on earth.

OT: I'm not from the UK and I increasingly hate politics (and everyone who talks about them), so I'll just remember that no one is anywhere near as good or bad as people say, and will take my hat off for Thatcher, the first female prime minister of the UK. It's a shame she died in such a bad state.

Also, you're getting much too easy to predict, Escapist.

 

[Timmey]

You know, she probably died thinking she was right. So I don't know about celebrating...

But yeah, she sucked! The weirdest thing to come out of this news is seeing people defend her policies and say the shit she did benefited the country, that we now have a growing, prosperous country. I shit you not, people are saying that. They say it like it's fact.

Actually, she died in a haze of confusion and terror with no regard to her past actions, most likely. Alzheimer's is basically hell on earth.

OT: I'm not from the UK and I increasingly hate politics (and everyone who talks about them), so I'll just remember that no one is anywhere near as good or bad as people say, and will take my hat off for Thatcher, the first female prime minister of the UK. It's a shame she died in such a bad state.

Also, you're getting much too easy to predict, Escapist.

Yes aren't we bad celebrating the passing of a women who ruined, literally, thousands of peoples lives. Just because she was a women doesn't make what she did any better. The only thing worse than people sticking up for Thatcher, is those who do so with no knowledge of what she did.

 

[lacktheknack]

[there's a movie ABOUT 'thatcher, thatcher, the school milk snatcher'? they must be getting sooooo desperate in hollywood, never-neverland, everwhere, wherever they made it]

Won two Oscars, best makeup and best lead actress.

Sorry to sour your celebrations. Also won BAFTAs, a Golden Globe, and a veritable smorgasbord of various UK awards.

 

[Saladfork]

Celebrating over someone's death is in bad taste no matter who they are, but I can't say that Thatcher didn't deserve it.

I don't know what it was about politicians in the 80's but it seems like Reagan, Thatcher and Mulroney (Bonus points if you know who that is) seem pretty well hated nowadays. (That is if anyone even thinks to bring Mulroney up)

 

[lacktheknack]

You know, she probably died thinking she was right. So I don't know about celebrating...

But yeah, she sucked! The weirdest thing to come out of this news is seeing people defend her policies and say the shit she did benefited the country, that we now have a growing, prosperous country. I shit you not, people are saying that. They say it like it's fact.

Actually, she died in a haze of confusion and terror with no regard to her past actions, most likely. Alzheimer's is basically hell on earth.

OT: I'm not from the UK and I increasingly hate politics (and everyone who talks about them), so I'll just remember that no one is anywhere near as good or bad as people say, and will take my hat off for Thatcher, the first female prime minister of the UK. It's a shame she died in such a bad state.

Also, you're getting much too easy to predict, Escapist.

Yes aren't we bad celebrating the passing of a women who ruined, literally, thousands of peoples lives. Just because she was a women doesn't make what she did any better. The only thing worse than people sticking up for Thatcher, is those who do so with no knowledge of what she did.

Can you do anything other than attack people who don't even attack your stance when Margaret Thatcher is brought up? If you're projecting my intense judgmental wrath towards you into a simple farewell post, you need to calm the hell down, regardless of what you've read she did.

Remember, there are intelligent people who liked her and what she stood for, and she got elected twice. See if you can find out why.

(And I generally despise people with the passion of a billion universes when they cheer about the death and suffering of people with Alzheimer's, the absolute worst disease in existence that still gives me nightmares, so you should be happy I'm willing to give people the benefit of the doubt on this one.)

 

[lacktheknack]

Celebrating over someone's death is in bad taste no matter who they are, but I can't say that Thatcher didn't deserve it.

I don't know what it was about politicians in the 80's but it seems like Reagan, Thatcher and Mulroney (Bonus points if you know who that is) seem pretty well hated nowadays. (That is if anyone even thinks to bring Mulroney up)

You're so Canadian.

Most people know that Mulroney introduced GST, and that's about it.

 

[Timmey]

You know, she probably died thinking she was right. So I don't know about celebrating...

But yeah, she sucked! The weirdest thing to come out of this news is seeing people defend her policies and say the shit she did benefited the country, that we now have a growing, prosperous country. I shit you not, people are saying that. They say it like it's fact.

Actually, she died in a haze of confusion and terror with no regard to her past actions, most likely. Alzheimer's is basically hell on earth.

OT: I'm not from the UK and I increasingly hate politics (and everyone who talks about them), so I'll just remember that no one is anywhere near as good or bad as people say, and will take my hat off for Thatcher, the first female prime minister of the UK. It's a shame she died in such a bad state.

Also, you're getting much too easy to predict, Escapist.

Yes aren't we bad celebrating the passing of a women who ruined, literally, thousands of peoples lives. Just because she was a women doesn't make what she did any better. The only thing worse than people sticking up for Thatcher, is those who do so with no knowledge of what she did.

Can you do anything other than attack people who don't even attack your stance when Margaret Thatcher is brought up? If you're projecting my intense judgmental wrath towards you into a simple farewell post, you need to calm the hell down, regardless of what you've read she did.

Remember, there are intelligent people who liked her and what she stood for, and she got elected twice. See if you can find out why.

(And I generally despise people with the passion of a billion universes when they cheer about the death and suffering of people with Alzheimer's, the absolute worst disease in existence that still gives me nightmares, so you should be happy I'm willing to give people the benefit of the doubt on this one.)

Case in point Thatcher was, of course, elected three times, not twice.

There are also a lot of intelligent people who dislike her, perhaps take a look and try see why?

 

[nathan-dts]

This woman was one of the biggest enemies to the working class and reason that the Conservative party has ever shat out. Good riddance.

 

[lacktheknack]

You know, she probably died thinking she was right. So I don't know about celebrating...

But yeah, she sucked! The weirdest thing to come out of this news is seeing people defend her policies and say the shit she did benefited the country, that we now have a growing, prosperous country. I shit you not, people are saying that. They say it like it's fact.

Actually, she died in a haze of confusion and terror with no regard to her past actions, most likely. Alzheimer's is basically hell on earth.

OT: I'm not from the UK and I increasingly hate politics (and everyone who talks about them), so I'll just remember that no one is anywhere near as good or bad as people say, and will take my hat off for Thatcher, the first female prime minister of the UK. It's a shame she died in such a bad state.

Also, you're getting much too easy to predict, Escapist.

Yes aren't we bad celebrating the passing of a women who ruined, literally, thousands of peoples lives. Just because she was a women doesn't make what she did any better. The only thing worse than people sticking up for Thatcher, is those who do so with no knowledge of what she did.

Can you do anything other than attack people who don't even attack your stance when Margaret Thatcher is brought up? If you're projecting my intense judgmental wrath towards you into a simple farewell post, you need to calm the hell down, regardless of what you've read she did.

Remember, there are intelligent people who liked her and what she stood for, and she got elected twice. See if you can find out why.

(And I generally despise people with the passion of a billion universes when they cheer about the death and suffering of people with Alzheimer's, the absolute worst disease in existence that still gives me nightmares, so you should be happy I'm willing to give people the benefit of the doubt on this one.)

Case in point Thatcher was, of course, elected three times, not twice.

There are also a lot of intelligent people who dislike her, perhaps take a look and try see why?

I have. There's this thread.

Now I know about all the bad stuff she did. But I'm forced to believe that she did a hell of a lot of good, and the thing that drives me to believe that is the double re-election.

I'm now perfectly interested in reading up on Thatcher and her policies. I'll do it in a library, though, in a book from the mid-nineties, preferably. I know better than to look up political things on the internet.

 

[ninjaRiv]

You know, she probably died thinking she was right. So I don't know about celebrating...

But yeah, she sucked! The weirdest thing to come out of this news is seeing people defend her policies and say the shit she did benefited the country, that we now have a growing, prosperous country. I shit you not, people are saying that. They say it like it's fact.

Actually, she died in a haze of confusion and terror with no regard to her past actions, most likely. Alzheimer's is basically hell on earth.

OT: I'm not from the UK and I increasingly hate politics (and everyone who talks about them), so I'll just remember that no one is anywhere near as good or bad as people say, and will take my hat off for Thatcher, the first female prime minister of the UK. It's a shame she died in such a bad state.

Also, you're getting much too easy to predict, Escapist.

I didn't say how she died was good. I didn't even say the fact that she's dead is good. Just stating that first, in case you or anyone else gets the wrong idea. I'd prefer it if she lived and learnt a lesson and tried to make up for the thousands of lives she ruined.

The first female Prime Minister, yes. But I don't think she did any good with that. People are no more reluctant than ever to vote for a woman again. "Not another Thatcher" they'll cry. She reinforced the "***** in charge" stereotype.

The fact that you don't really know much about her is obvious. I'm not saying that to insult you or anything, I just think you should make sure to read the posts here detailing her policies, go find some articles on her and maybe watch/read some interviews with her. She was a terrible person. No, I don't think she deserved what she got but yes, I think she was terrible and should have realised she was wrong and tried to fix things. Maybe she wasn't as bad as people say but she was still responsible for the suffering of a lot of people. Well, her and her party. Let's not forget that no matter how bad she was, she was just a Tory.

And this isn't the "predictable" Escapist thing where everyone jumps on board with hate. This is a country full of people living with the consequences of her decisions even now, venting.