Jump to content

Margaret Thatcher dies of a stroke.


Milfner

Recommended Posts

Chrisp65 your last post was a great one and summed things up nicely.

 

With that I have reached Thatcheration point and that is me done with this thread. If my comments have offended any of the Thatcher admirers then I am genuinely sincerely sorry. Hopefully one day the penny will drop, you will see the light and realize the error of your ways ;)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

well worth reading Private Eye, certainly debunks some of the right wing/left wing agenda.

 

Also interesting to read about the Reverend Blair’s company and who he works with...

 

Best cartoon for me:  newsagent gazing at display of titles about Thatcher, saying "I think we've reached Thatcheration point".

 

And we probably have, at least in a couple of hours.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

 

Peter, I think we get the message

Sorry... :)
Don't be, clearly you were the official photographer at the event. I just hope you got paid.
Dont think he'll be getting paid As he seems to have gone to the wrong place as charing cross was packed just now on the news footage

 

 

Come on, lads.  You can do better than this. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thought this was interesting , anyone want to comment / counter argue

 

Claim :She destroyed the Unions' power to protect workers

Counter claim :Her reforms empowered union members rather than union leaders. Previous Conservative and Labour governments had tried and failed to bring unions under the law. The UK's strike record, the worst in Europe, did not help workers. The Thatcher reforms gave union members the right to vote for their leaders in secret postal ballots, and gave them the right to be balloted ahead of possible strike action. These resulted in more moderate union leadership and greatly reduced industrial unrest.

 

 

Oh, Tony.  Not Madman Pirie again.

 

Well, here we go.

 

Her reforms empowered union members rather than union leaders.

 

No, they disempowered unions as a whole, members and leaders.  That was the whole point.  Pirie's idea rested on the notion that union members were being dragged unwillingly into strike action because of things like mass meetings in car parks, votes on a show of hands.  Instead of trying to bring this into line with publicly listed companies (meetings in select W1 locations, less than 1% of shareholders attending, block votes bought off beforehand), there was a new requirement for ballotting and so on.  They still don't like the results, and we are quoted turnout figures broadly comparable with local authority elections to prove that union votes are "undemocratic".  It was always ignorant bollocks, and it still is.

 

Previous Conservative and Labour governments had tried and failed to bring unions under the law.

 

Unions have always been subject to the law.  More so than companies, more so than the uniformed thugs who try to break strikes.  Can you imagine, for one fleeting moment, a union which transgresses rules and regulations as flagrantly as most taxdodging companies do?  Or which routinely criminally assaults as many people in a century as the police do in a year?  No, me neither.  Perhaps "Madman" is referring to Castle and "In Place of Strife", or some tory ideas about possible legislation (I don't mean the tory plans in the 70s to form squads of ex-military and mount a coup, which was being seriously discussed).

 

The UK's strike record, the worst in Europe, did not help workers.

 

Strikes don't help anyone.  Least of all do they help strikers, who typically take many months or years to pay off the debts they accumulate in any strike which lasts more than a short time.  That's why strikes are a last resort, not a decision taken on a whim.  That's why when people go out, and stay out, you know it's a big issue.  The stuff about "the worst in Europe" of course depends entirely on choosing time periods and definitions of strikes to support that claim, and like most of the roaring shite put out by the ASI, it bears a lot more examination.  They could start by disclosing fully the exact stats they are using, where they got them, the rationale for selecting that precise time period, how it compares with other research, and so on.  Could you direct me to where they have done so?

 

The Thatcher reforms gave union members the right to vote for their leaders in secret postal ballots, and gave them the right to be balloted ahead of possible strike action.

 

Yes, that's true.

 

These resulted in more moderate union leadership and greatly reduced industrial unrest.

 

Ha!  No, it didn't.  It resulted in union leaders cautiously examining the dangers of traditional forms of action, as you would expect.  It led to no-one wanting to be the first to test the new legislation, because of the potential costs.  This happened at a time of retrenchment in union activism, for many reasons.  Also a rethinking: instead of taking out "the lads" for several months, a tactic born in the days of the industrial revolution, we will see a very different strategy from unions in the future.  Are you content with that?  I know I am.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

 

 

Peter, I think we get the message

Sorry... :)
Don't be, clearly you were the official photographer at the event. I just hope you got paid.
Dont think he'll be getting paid As he seems to have gone to the wrong place as charing cross was packed just now on the news footage

 

 

Come on, lads.  You can do better than this. 

 

It was actually meant tongue in cheek, any implied insult would have been far more direct!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chrisp65 your last post was a great one and summed things up nicely.

 

With that I have reached Thatcheration point and that is me done with this thread. If my comments have offended any of the Thatcher admirers then I am genuinely sincerely sorry. Hopefully one day the penny will drop, you will see the light and realize the error of your ways ;)

It isn't just pro-Thatcher people who have disagreed with you wishing death on people and hoping they burn in hell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

What's that the kids say? Pwned ? :-)

I don't know, what does that mean?

 

Something to do with chess, they're all playing chess now, vampires and zombies are yesterday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

What's that the kids say? Pwned ? :-)

I don't know, what does that mean?

 

Something to do with chess, they're all playing chess now, vampires and zombies are yesterday.

 

So there's hope for the yoof yet..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

'We are all Thatcherites now..'

 

Well, if that means we are de unionised and scared for our jobs then yes. If that means we've learnt the price of everything and forgotten the value of community then yes. If that means we are now cowed by a need to pay a mortgage in a world of once easy credit due to a disastrous piece of banking deregulation, then yes. If that means we are finding ourselves divided rather than seeking consensus, then yes. If that means we now value personal gain and the acquisition of things over a presumption that society and the common good will prevail, then yes. If that means we live in fear of being outsourced, undercut and opened to competition whilst happily, naively buying chinese bikes and romanian beef, then yes. If that means we've somehow managed to pay for the state funeral of someone that didn't feel the state should provide for the living, then yes.if that means we've come to accept over 2,000,000  unemployed could get a job if they really wanted one, then yes.

 

But look on the bright side, we all have far more material shit around us than ever before. You might not know the names of your neighbours anymore, but no matter, you can buy a korean tablet on credit. We must be happier, look how many dvd's and tv channels we've got.

 

Anyway, onwards and upwards, a fun distraction for all for a few days, especially the Whitehouse brigade, scouring the interweb seeking things to be offended by. I'll have to come up with a new name for the 2014 deadpool. I'll probs go with Scargill. Not sure we'll see him bagging a free state funeral.

Fantastic post Mr Crisp, and a fitting epitaph.

 

She'd probably approve of these words herself! ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We could also say; why has Germany managed to keep manufacturing and we haven’t? Why has Germany got lower unemployment than the UK? etc, etc Was it just Thatcher that ruined it, or dare we say other factors?

 

People want a demon to blame for Britain’s ills and in Thatcher they have the perfect figure; makes history easy, but doesn’t really tell the whole truth does it?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh and I'm going to make an early prediction that this thread will eventually reach 50 pages. The issue of Maggie T is something that everyone has an opinion on.

You win the internet

:hooray:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...
Â