Quote: Ben @ April 10 2013, 8:11 PM BSTThe thing I don't understand with all this Thatcher hatred is how did she manage to get elected three times? It's the same with Blair, he was highly reviled after Iraq, but he won his third election just two years later...
In a first past the post system you only need to be liked by a sizeable minority; it does not matter if the rest despise you if they cannot agree on who they prefer. And Maggie was very lucky in her opponents, as really was Blair.
Well she only won the second cos of the Falklands
That saved her bacon cos she was in for a beating
And the British voters love a nice little war
Quote: lofthouse @ April 10 2013, 8:08 PM BSTJust seen an interview with Thatchers son on channel 4
Sir Mark Thatcher
Umm
Sir?
How the FUCK was he made a Sir?
What has he ever done for that??
He organised some mercenaries to South Africa.
And got lost in a f**king desert
That's about the sum of his achievements
Ffs what a country...
Thatcher had that great secret ingredient in politics, luck. Up until the Falklands she was the most unpopular PM of the century and would have been consigned to history as a short interruption in the post war consensus. In her second term with a higher mandate she pressed on with her plans no matter how unpalatable. She caused such irreparable damage that it became impossible to redress, even if Kinnock had got in in 92 there would of been little he could of done to save the mining or manufacturing industries. Thatcher was also an arch strategist, unlike Heath and Calaghan she fought only when she was ready, when Scargill decided to strike in the summer, a catastrophic error, Thatcher had already stockpiled coal, had the police on side as well as the press. The Labour movement was not destroyed by Thatcher, it was in the end poisoned from the inside by fanatical idiots like Skargill who thought he was untouchable after his success with flying pickets under the Heath strike. Thatcher chose her enemies well and as I said had that extra ingredient luck, but it was not lucky for the country, then or now.
Scargill should have had a proper ballot so he'd have had the country behind him. As it was I always felt there was something suspect about his strike. However he, sure as hell, didn't suffer. Just as guilty as the old bitch when it came to destroying the miners.
Never liked Scargill.
'Never liked Scargill.'
'John Pienaar, Westminster, returning you to the studio.'
You should hear Kinnock on Scargill, the bile is palpable.
I was really annoyed with the way Andrew Neil and Edwina Curry ganged up on Ken Livingstone on daily politics today. Mind I was also annoyed that Ken walked off half way through saying he had gardening to do. Is that the problem with the left now, when the going gets tough the left get going home?
Never liked Ken Livingstone.
Quote: zooo @ April 11 2013, 12:06 AM BSTNever liked Ken Livingstone.
Yea a bit of a disappointment, it is a shame that the left has lacked a coherent and pragmatic leader since the death of Nye Bevan. Michael Foot was to intellectual, Benn to honest and too in the thrall of his conversion to Marx, some like Wilson pretended to be left wing but weren't. Sadly during the second part of the twentieth century labour lacked the truth of their convictions, one thing Thatcher had in common with Attlee was that they were conviction politicians. I often doubt the convictions and motives of many on the left.
Quote: keewik @ April 10 2013, 11:48 PM BSTScargill should have had a proper ballot so he'd have had the country behind him. As it was I always felt there was something suspect about his strike. However he, sure as hell, didn't suffer. Just as guilty as the old bitch when it came to destroying the miners.
Scargill was a hypocritical c**t! Did he forego his salary when he urged the miners to strike? Is he still in that luxury house for life? Socialist my arse!
Quote: Pingl @ April 11 2013, 12:13 AM BSTSadly during the second part of the twentieth century labour lacked the truth of their convictions,
Barbara Castle would have made a great Labour leader; chicks are great at conviction politics (see Kipling's Female of the Species...)
Didn't think I ever see the words Barbara Castle and chick in the same sentence.
Quote: Oldrocker @ April 11 2013, 11:56 AM BSTDidn't think I ever see the words Barbara Castle and chick in the same sentence.
What a woman though, there would have been no need for Thatcher if her and Wilson's 'In place of Strife' legislation had gone through.