Margaret Thatcher Passes Away

[Anonymous]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/08/17653388-margaret-thatcher-iron-lady-who-led-conservative-resurgence-in-britain-dies-at-87?lite

I have mixed feelings about her politics and her legacy. But she deserves respect for her example of leadership.

[Anonymous]

There's not a lot of love for her in the UK outside of the right wing. Still, I'm surprised at the level of vitriol in the discussion pages over there. I suppose it was a fairly disastrous tenure, and between her and Reagan a huge amount of damage was done at the time. We're still living with it now and will be for the foreseeable future.

[Anonymous]

My family left the UK because of her policies (my father was unemployed for about a year and a half).

I don't think it's possible for Americans to understand the vitriol. You are all so polite in your politics.

[Anonymous]

I was in England at the time and she was like a breath of fresh air. Only she could have taken on the unions and won and someone had to take on the unions because they were out of control with work stoppages, wild cat strikes and general chaos. She also tried to rein in the welfare state with limited success.

I have the utmost admiration for her because she tried to excise a cancer that was eating the body fabric of the UK.

[Anonymous]

PP here: having posted my admiration for Thatcher and how she confronted the challenges the UK face, I will add that I was disappointed in her support for the apartheid regime in South Africa and her opposition to economic sanctions. It was her blind spot - not unlike Churchill who referred to Gandhi as a "half-naked fakir".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My family left the UK because of her policies (my father was unemployed for about a year and a half).

I don't think it's possible for Americans to understand the vitriol. You are all so polite in your politics.

15:15 here. I'm not American, I lived in England during Maggie's reign, couldn't stand her. I was just thinking of the "don't speak ill of the dead" etiquette, at least for a day anyway. I think I forgot how reviled she was, particularly in the north. It's been a while. I wouldn't say Americans were polite in their politics either.

[Anonymous]

I meant 15:53.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was in England at the time and she was like a breath of fresh air. Only she could have taken on the unions and won and someone had to take on the unions because they were out of control with work stoppages, wild cat strikes and general chaos. She also tried to rein in the welfare state with limited success.

I have the utmost admiration for her because she tried to excise a cancer that was eating the body fabric of the UK.

I think she looks better from America.

She certainly did some good with privatization, and her foreign policy looked like Reagan's. But she kind of blew it with British people when she started attacking the social welfare system. And the poll tax was a major, major mistake. How she ever thought that would work, I don't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My family left the UK because of her policies (my father was unemployed for about a year and a half).

I don't think it's possible for Americans to understand the vitriol. You are all so polite in your politics.

15:15 here. I'm not American, I lived in England during Maggie's reign, couldn't stand her. I was just thinking of the "don't speak ill of the dead" etiquette, at least for a day anyway. I think I forgot how reviled she was, particularly in the north. It's been a while. I wouldn't say Americans were polite in their politics either.

No argument from me that she was reviled by many. The unions despised her and those who saw a reversal of the unbridled welfare state that was consuming the nation also hated her. But she had the balls to do what was needed and did not give a damn if it was unpopular. The unions in the US have never been as powerful as they were in the UK and they were ruining the country.

There was nothing warm and fuzzy about her. She was a self-made woman of modest means and English to the core. The US needs someone like her to deal with the out of control spending and if someone surfaces, you can be sure that he/she will be as reviled as she was with some in the UK.

An irony: both Thatcher and Reagan, her political soul-mate, in their final years suffered from dementia/Alzheimers.

[Anonymous]

From the Telegraph - a conservative UK daily:

"The centrepiece of her first administration was the reform of trades unions and the restructuring of the British economy. The top rate of tax was soon cut to 60 per cent from 83 per cent, and a punitive rate of 98 per cent on unearned income was brought down to the standard tax rates. Exchange controls were lifted and VAT was raised from eight to 15 per cent to shift the balance towards an economy where taxes on consumption rather than on income were the norm. Subsidies to loss-making industries were also ended, as British business was told to compete on its own in world markets."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My family left the UK because of her policies (my father was unemployed for about a year and a half).

I don't think it's possible for Americans to understand the vitriol. You are all so polite in your politics.

15:15 here. I'm not American, I lived in England during Maggie's reign, couldn't stand her. I was just thinking of the "don't speak ill of the dead" etiquette, at least for a day anyway. I think I forgot how reviled she was, particularly in the north. It's been a while. I wouldn't say Americans were polite in their politics either.

No argument from me that she was reviled by many. The unions despised her and those who saw a reversal of the unbridled welfare state that was consuming the nation also hated her. But she had the balls to do what was needed and did not give a damn if it was unpopular. The unions in the US have never been as powerful as they were in the UK and they were ruining the country.

There was nothing warm and fuzzy about her. She was a self-made woman of modest means and English to the core. The US needs someone like her to deal with the out of control spending and if someone surfaces, you can be sure that he/she will be as reviled as she was with some in the UK.

An irony: both Thatcher and Reagan, her political soul-mate, in their final years suffered from dementia/Alzheimers.

You undersell how she left office. Her approval rating was in the 20's, and she was despised by her own cabinet members. It wasn't just the unions and the welfare dependents. That is a comforting fiction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You undersell how she left office. Her approval rating was in the 20's, and she was despised by her own cabinet members. It wasn't just the unions and the welfare dependents. That is a comforting fiction.

She won the election three times so the Brits could have dumped her if they wished but they did not because they were not willing to go back to what she inherited. You should mention that the Labor leader Michael Foot, wanted to nationalize the banks.

Yes, she was ultimately dumped by her own party just as Blair was though in his case he read the writing on the wall and decided to exit gracefully. Blair basically built on her legacy with the "New Labor" slogan. His Labor party was not the same as the one that was in power under his predecessors like Wilson and Callaghan in terms of the policies espoused.

I went to school in England and I saw first hand the terrible damage being done to the country by the unions and the welfare state. The difference between her and Reagan was that she was almost clinical in her approach to what needed to be done. Reagan had an element of warmth which went down well. But Reagan did not take over a country that was in free-fall like Thatcher did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You undersell how she left office. Her approval rating was in the 20's, and she was despised by her own cabinet members. It wasn't just the unions and the welfare dependents. That is a comforting fiction.

She won the election three times so the Brits could have dumped her if they wished but they did not because they were not willing to go back to what she inherited. You should mention that the Labor leader Michael Foot, wanted to nationalize the banks.

Yes, she was ultimately dumped by her own party just as Blair was though in his case he read the writing on the wall and decided to exit gracefully. Blair basically built on her legacy with the "New Labor" slogan. His Labor party was not the same as the one that was in power under his predecessors like Wilson and Callaghan in terms of the policies espoused.

I went to school in England and I saw first hand the terrible damage being done to the country by the unions and the welfare state. The difference between her and Reagan was that she was almost clinical in her approach to what needed to be done. Reagan had an element of warmth which went down well. But Reagan did not take over a country that was in free-fall like Thatcher did.

Yeah, but I was there studying at the same time, and I was at Parliament for Question Time when she had to defend the Community Charge, AKA the poll tax. She was in trouble.

[Anonymous]

Do any of you realize the importance of the relationship that Thatcher and Reagan built with Gorbachev? It resulted in the fall of the Iron Curtain—which was far more than just the Berlin Wall.
It’s called FREEDOM! Thatcher did more for the Western world than you realize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My family left the UK because of her policies (my father was unemployed for about a year and a half).

I don't think it's possible for Americans to understand the vitriol. You are all so polite in your politics.

Why did you come here? There's MORE freedom, which is what Ms. Thatcher wanted for England.