Party Vibe

I can understand people in the South and London accepting she created some gains and opportunities but they were very short term.

The current Tories are trying to pull off the same stunts but can’t because she did it by selling off lots of things that should have stayed as public assets in a European country (and many countries have still kept in public hands) and you can’t sell these things twice…

I grew up and became politically aware in the 1980s and the only reason Thatcho came out on top was because the Left was divided by infighting especially around ethnicity and gender issues, as even lefties weren’t as right on as today, many 1970s trade unions brushed casual racism and sexism under the carpet and thus lost out on a lot of supporters, and the Tories discovered the value of spin doctors around that time. Even so, many mainland European countries stayed far more left wing than the UK and still had all the innovations and prosperity associated with the era, and also much better lifes for teenagers growing up (for instance setting up a anarchist bookshop at 16 like !sinner69! and his friends did would be unheard of in the UK, teenagers wouldn’t be able to get those resources).

TBH every politician “did what had to be done” in the 1980s but is not a time folk should view too much with rose tinted specs. Political violence was rife across Europe whereas today other than isolated terrorist bombs its comparatively rare, the Iron Curtain stood strong and paranoia on both sides, Germany was overrun by American troops (some are still there) and we came close to all being blown into radioactive ash on a few occasions.

And yes over the years I might have “moved up the ladder” but that came from skills I learned in the Blair era, not the time of Thatcho.

@Mezz 539026 wrote:

Maggie did sell off lots nationilised industry, but the industries she sold off were massively subsidised inefficient dead weights dragging the country down and being run into the ground by mad commy unions. Personally I’d prefer the health & other essential services being nationally owned ( But NOT run by politicians ), but given how bad things had gotten I dont see she had any choice.

There were a few power cuts caused by shortage of coal which may have been due to strikes, the telly went off for a few weeks due to some other strikes but it was hardly the end of the world compared to what went on in Europe around the same time for the same reasons where in many cases shots were fired and bombs went off (more than in the UK and the IRA). The Post Office/British Telecom and the regional electricity companies weren’t actually that badly run by the 1970s and at the very least the infrastructure parts should have been kept in national hands. They were also starved of investment specifically to make privatisation attractive and an adversarial stance taken between management and unions, whereas in other nations the public utilities, unions and government worked together to make the best of things (this isn’t that apparent unless you read stuff in other languages).

Those North European countries who kept their public utilities in national hands until the EU forced them to privatise them are the ones which now have more reliable power and high speed broadband even in rural areas…

And Maggie didn’t free Europe from the Cold War, the Europeans on both sides did that of their own accord, as they decided for themselves living under a nuclear shadow wasn’t a good thing. If anything Britain profited from the Cold War as we blatantly sold electronic equipment to both sides as the UK remains very good at building surveillance equipment.