Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

ony blair wants theparty to follow s leadand become a war criminal he should be tried
for watr crimes he lead the uk to war on DAM LIES the man is no better than a murderer .

Cyners are you really saying if it werent for the Falklands war she would have been re- elected????.

Dont think so, she had a lower rating than Gordon Brown before the war.

One thing I liked about Maggie was she was all for free speech, got to credit her with that even if she did obliterate 2/3rds of the countrys industrial base.

i didn't say or even suggest that ..... falklands war was necessary - i think you'll find the great majority would still agree even if you don't - but undoubtedly the timing was fortuitous for her .....

to suggest that MT provoked the war for selfish political ends - i suspect that's where you're trying to go - would be beneath contempt ..... you might find the papers just released under the 30-year rule surprisingly interesting and revealing

GF - How old were you at the time of the Falklands war exactly? My guess is your still exercising the same mental age :O)

2/3rds of our countries industrial base had already fallen apart when MT signed if off.. The Unions were reponsible for that.

Dont be silly cynic Im not suggesting that at all, more like a comment from nice but simple chris is that not you.

Shortie and yes look what maggie promoted the SERVICE sector, exacly why were in the -hit now.

You mean she scrapped loss making industries. The actual statistics show that industry declined any a slower rate under Thatcher. Many industries expanded as she attracted inward investment to the UK including large investments from Japanese car makers. We had outdated unproductive industries dominated by closed shops and 29 million days lost to strikes per year. The figure is now 2 million per year and almost all of those are called by still militant leaders.

And there was me thinking we're in the current mess because Labour reduced the Teir 1 Capital Ratio and encouraged the banking sector to take more risk... Nothing to do with MT..

And by the way Unions wanted change they wanted new capital re-tooling in fact went cap in hand to management asking for re-tooling....... granted on their terms but it wouldnt have ended like it is today with all the ill feeling and the country divided in half. Poor management was at fault in the 8os both private and nationalised.

Cant see why Maggie should have such a grand swan song.

Cynic,

I agree with you she didn't provoke the Falklands War.

I doubt she knew where the islands where before the Argentinians attempting to move back in.

Personally, I think she saw the opportunity to bolster her failing political fortunes and jumped at the opportunity to parade herself as a War time leader.

Again, I thought she was "bonkers", likewise for Blair and Iraq.

Total up the cost in lives and money of the interventions in the way they were carried out in the name of vanity.

I thought McMillan's international political approach was more realistic and abreast of his period the periods after him.

Maggie appealed to the tory wishes for the grandeur of long lost periods in British history

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Cynic,

Bad taste, are you cooking again?

Jokes about political leaders have always been made about deceased political leaders Hitler, Stalin etc. and I know many about Tito.

Many of the jokes are perceptive and others less than humorous.

You and others are allowed to venerate you "heroes and heroins" as you feel fit.

But sometimes I consider it is of less consequence and more honest to attempt to "humiliate" the dead than do so to the living who are unable to defend themselves.

Besides, I see the "veneration" of Thatcher, by this tory party is attempting to associate a failing leadership with past periods of useless euphoria.

errr shortie sept 8 2008........... David Cameron speaking....... "we need far less regulation of the Banking sector, Bankers should be able to use capital so that they get the biggest returns possible".

he he, brilliant comment Fred your a dry so and so, great reading your comments....

"I doubt she knew where the islands where before the Argentinians" LOL.

satire has long been a part of political life ..... it is not necessarily distasteful, but i believe this is (haven't even heard a note of it, so i'm on dangerous ground i know)

with regards to the falklands war, you do a great disservice ...... only the likes of you would suggest that she lacked great personal integrity; it's irrelevant whether or not you agree with her view .... as i wrote for sticky, avail yourself of the papers just released under the 30-year rule, and you may learn a lot

Cyners worked out where your local golf course is........ its Bude isnt it.?

Them 30 year papers could do her a lot of harm. Be carefull.

if they do, they do, but at least they're true and accurate

By the end of the 1970s there were 12 million union members as opposed to 5 million plus now. The figur is falling fast year by year with more than 100,000 being lost every year. This is part of the reason that we get less industrial strife. The militants still exist in the shape on Bob Crowd and others. There remains a shrinking rump of members of the Socialist Workers Party that looks forward to the revolution. When my son was at 6th form college, his politics teacher said she wished we could go back to the days when she could just call her fellow workers out on strike for whatever reason she chose. She hated all forms of automation as it reduces jobs. She hates PCs and all form of computers, checkout scanners, online retailing etc. She tried hard to indoctrinate the pupils, get them to skip college to attend protest marches. Groups like the SWP are a cancer in our society.

Well cynic the one good thing about Maggie was her thirst for free speech.