Margaret Thatcher

[Royalcorpsoftranspor]

R.I.P Maggie, passed away by a stroke today.

[belle]

RIP Mrs Thatcher. A truly GREAT BRITAIN. The likes of our country will never see again.

[cyprusishome]

RIP Lady Thatcher. A great leader, Iron Lady, This lady is not for turning. You will never be forgotten.

[Jonnie]

here here!

[Jo Valentine]

Her politics and decisions might not have been to everyone's liking, but a Politician with such determination and charisma is so rare. Rather have her than the grey men in suits any time. What a Woman!
Jo Valentine

[rocking]

What a sad day for Britain. As said before never will we see the likes of her again. For those who remember the 70s general strikes bodies piling up could not be buried, lights off at 10 pm, 3 day week, rubbish in the streets, no one could control the unions they governed, then came Maggie, thank God. Pity Cameron is not a bit more like her. Even those who disagreed with her came away respecting her.

[Cyprus8]

Total respect for an amazing lady!

[ElectricianPete]

Elvis Costello said it all

[metin]

May she R.I.P.
I will never forget the way her cabinet treated her at the end of her reign........she will be remembered in history as the first and only female Prime Minister in the UK. As Boris said, she will be remembered long after the 'grey suits' have been forgotten.

A truly remarkable woman.

[paddywack]

RIP Lady Thatcher. A great leader, Iron Lady, This lady is not for turning. You will never be forgotten.

Especially if you live in any mining community

[sylv]

I think some of the comments made in the press and media are absolutely vile and beyond disrespectful. Maybe you didn't agree with her policies but to hold celebration street parties just shows how far some citizens of the UK have sunk. I can't even think how her children must be feeling at such moronic behaviour. Shame on those people that have taken part in these events.

[Sandman]

The pro Thatcher stance here doesn't surprise me although it is a little disappointing that none see the damage she did which we are still all suffering from !

[niceone]

I never liked her or her policies, however that does not mean I went dancing in the streets !
Early in her term, she sold off British Aerospace and Cable & Wireless, which was followed later on by British Telecom, Britoil, British Gas, and Jaguar. In her third term, British Airways, British Petroleum (or BP), British Steel, Rolls Royce, and electric and water companies were privatized as well.
This now means higher bills for all consumers as these companies have to make fat profits.
She also had the benefit of huge north sea oil revenue
What benefit did/do we see from all that money?
The policy of selling off council houses means there is very little inexpensive housing for people on low incomes, meaning they are forced to rent privately and often have to claim housing benefit to pay as it is too expensive,so it is the British taxpayer who is paying
I have family or friends mostly in the North who were badly effected

[Aitchie]

As an ex-colliery worker of those times, I say niceone "niceone", but however much I disagreed with her policies that was her business, it did not make her a bad person and I cannot condone the celebrations taking place over what will be a sad time for her family. May she rest in piece.

[Marions]

Agreed Aitchie. People become great historical figures because of all that they did and making decisions for millions of people can involve risks and wrong choices, and there are ALWAYS the 'victims' of policy changes and enormous decisions. I admire Thatcher and all that she did, and it seems that people have their grudges based on their own area of life - trade unionists seem to dislike Thatcher more than most, and yet i would not like to have been an employer n the 1970's - remember it all?
there is really only one question to ask these people who branded her as wicked, evil etc, etc - COULD YOU HAVE DONE THE JOB????? No further comment!

[elizabeth]

I never liked her or her policies, however that does not mean I went dancing in the streets !
Early in her term, she sold off British Aerospace and Cable & Wireless, which was followed later on by British Telecom, Britoil, British Gas, and Jaguar. In her third term, British Airways, British Petroleum (or BP), British Steel, Rolls Royce, and electric and water companies were privatized as well.
This now means higher bills for all consumers as these companies have to make fat profits.
She also had the benefit of huge north sea oil revenue
What benefit did/do we see from all that money?
The policy of selling off council houses means there is very little inexpensive housing for people on low incomes, meaning they are forced to rent privately and often have to claim housing benefit to pay as it is too expensive,so it is the British taxpayer who is paying
I have family or friends mostly in the North who were badly effected

I totally agree with everything said in this post, she was the most hated PM in many years and your opinion depends on where you were during the Thatcher years and how it affected you and your family.
Despite that I do find it disgusting that people are celebrating her death, many of who weren,t even born during her premiership.
As for a military funeral, I fail to see how she merits that and find it quite offensive.

[Aitchie]

I too disagree with the funeral arrangements, especially as it will be the ordinary tax payers who will be footing most of the bill! I cant see there being many celebrations held over this decision, quite the reverse, I would think that this one decision will have done more for the Scottish Independence cause than William Wallace ever did!!

[belle]

Margaret Thatcher deserves the full ceremonial honour of her funeral, she was a true Great Briton, she loved her country unlike the mining scum that along with the other unions were bringing the country to it's knees. The miners were paid stupid amounts of money and maybe if they had saved some of it, they would not have been living on £1 per day as quoted by some idiots, Scargill was a traitor who ripped his own people off.

The celebrations that are taking place are a bloody disgrace and show those morons up for what they are... TRASH.

RIP Maggie.

[cyprusishome]

The best PM we ever had.

However I do think the funeral arrangements are a step too far. Yes some form of state funeral may be appropriate but what is happening, IMO, may well trigger off some unfortunate consequences. Please have a rethink of the plans.

To answer some of the critiscism the family are paying towards a sizable chunk of the costs.

[elizabeth]

Margaret Thatcher deserves the full ceremonial honour of her funeral, she was a true Great Briton, she loved her country unlike the mining scum that along with the other unions were bringing the country to it's knees. The miners were paid stupid amounts of money and maybe if they had saved some of it, they would not have been living on £1 per day as quoted by some idiots, Scargill was a traitor who ripped his own people off.

The celebrations that are taking place are a bloody disgrace and show those morons up for what they are... TRASH.

RIP Maggie.

How dare you, my father and brothers were miners, they were honest and hard working men, not scum, that is disgusting and offensive.
As for what they were paid, have you ever worked in a coal mine, on the coal face, my father did and was badly injured twice in his working life, until you have been there you have no right to describe people in such a way.
The Thatcher government may have been of benefit to some people but certainly not to all and in my opinion she does not deserve a full military funeral.

[Aitchie]

Belle
As a former member of the “mining scum” community that you refer to may I just say that it was us scum that went down into the bowels of the earth, into the most insanitary, inhospitable environment as was at that time, to dig out and send to the surface the energy source that kept the lights on and gave heat to our great British nation, yourself and your forebears included, what stupid amounts of money would it take for you to have worked under these conditions? I like many others, have done it and many did not get paid near enough money to compensate for the respiratory problems that it caused them in later life. I shouldn’t think that your average miner would have been paid anything near as much as the politicians of the day, never mind the Prime Minister, you don’t hear many Politicians complaining because of their work related Silicosis or Eczema do you!!

[belle]

The miners were paid far too much money and please don't tell me differently, they brought this country to its knees, as for the suffering you claim, what about our servicemen that give their lives and get paid nothing compared to the greed of the miners. I do know what I am talking about, I worked for the Unions in my early days and I collected for the miners, I was on the picket lines at Teignmouth until I discovered the truth, disgusting.

All the Unions were Mafia back before Maggie took charge and Scargill brought you down with his pure greed. I left the employ of the Union because I was disgusted at what they were doing to the country.

[Aitchie]

Belle
So exactly how many years did you spend down the pits then?

[sylv]

Shall we just end the post. Someone has died who polarised the UK - insults flying backwards and forwards gets us nowhere.

[Aitchie]

Sylv
My apologies if I have made you feel uncomfortable with my postings, however I feel duty bound to respond to accusations made by anybody who took a percentage of the miners wages in the form of mandatory contributions, took their own wage from that, and then labeled them scum after having no more use for them, I think it’s diabolical myself. However as I have said before, I did not agree with ‘Maggies’ Political stance, but as a person I am sure she was a loving mother to her family, and they will miss her and my heart felt condolences go out to them. May Maggie rest in peace.

[sylv]

A good and gracious way to end the discussion I think!

[cyprusishome]

Seconded.

[Halffull]

It's funny how the workers who suffered from the demise of the unions blame Maggie and not the union bosses who brought the country to it's knees with their unreasonable and unattainable demands whilst living the high life, my father was a factory worker and hated the unions because they were always calling him out on strike and preventing production, but he had to be a member because it was a closed shop!!!!!. My Grandfather took my family out of South Wales because he didn't want his children working in the mines. I know personally people who worked in LLanwern Steel Works in the 70's and because of the unions did an 8 hour shift sat reading a book for 7 hours because the unions would only let them work the 1 and get paid for 8, the bosses couldn't do a thing. That doesn't happen any more and if the miners union and other industrial unions hadn't priced themselves out of the market with their unrealistic demands then the jobs would still be there.

[Rambling Rose]

I agree with Niceone in message 13, we are still suffering from the effects of her extremist policies. I also spent my early years in a mining district, and whatever the behaviour of the unions, nothing can excuse the suffering not just to men who did a dangerous and dirty job, but their familiies and whole communities.

However she has to be respected for her sheer guts. One reaches the stage of just wishing that some of the straws in the wind masquerading as politicians these days, who bow to the least hint of the loss of a vote, shared some of the courage of her convictions - whatever those convictions!

It was sad the see her brought so low in recent years, and those who cared for her must see her passing as a blessed relief. Surely we can accord her a quiet but dignified farewell commensurate with her position of a Head of State of what was once a great nation (even if some of us feel she contributed to its downfall) , and show our own humanity by saying "Rest in Peace now" rather than dancing on her grave.

[paddywack]

Had she not decimated the coal industry, we might not be so reliant on Russian gas and Arab oil.

[Soner]

I haven't seen another Prime Minister fit for the job since Maggie left office.

Whether liked or disliked.... R.I.P. Baroness Thatcher.