Cheer up! It's not all bad

[InsaneApache]

It's the tories!

I dunno how many of you were around in the 70s but it wasn't a very nice time to live in. A bit like now, nothing worked. Thatcher was a response to the growing awareness that the unions had buggered up the economy. The winter of discontent did for Labour then as sure a McRuin has done for Labour today.

It's bit simplistic to blame Hilda. IMO the rot had started many years before. I know, I was around. To me the biggest act of social vandalism was when whole swaths of the country were 'developed' in the sixties. Entire communities were uprooted and sent packing to 'new towns'. Great examples of which are Cumbernauld, Milton Keynes and last, if not the worst, Skelmersdale.

This fractured communities that had developed over the previous centuary. We still havn't recovered forty years on. When I was a nipper, everyone in the adjacent streets knew who I was, where I lived and who my parents were. The chances of getting away with mischeif was low. Not so today.

Coupled with the failed social engineering experiment of the last couple of decades, it is and was a recipe for disaster.

[Pannonian]

It's the tories!

I dunno how many of you were around in the 70s but it wasn't a very nice time to live in. A bit like now, nothing worked. Thatcher was a response to the growing awareness that the unions had buggered up the economy. The winter of discontent did for Labour then as sure a McRuin has done for Labour today.

It's bit simplistic to blame Hilda. IMO the rot had started many years before. I know, I was around. To me the biggest act of social vandalism was when whole swaths of the country were 'developed' in the sixties. Entire communities were uprooted and sent packing to 'new towns'. Great examples of which are Cumbernauld, Milton Keynes and last, if not the worst, Skelmersdale.

This fractured communities that had developed over the previous centuary. We still havn't recovered forty years on. When I was a nipper, everyone in the adjacent streets knew who I was, where I lived and who my parents were. The chances of getting away with mischeif was low. Not so today.

Coupled with the failed social engineering experiment of the last couple of decades, it is and was a recipe for disaster.

Call it a disaster, but have a look at what kind of disaster it was, and what kind of disaster we have now. Although I wasn't around at the time, I'm aware of the kind of place Britain used to be back then. I give Thatcher full credit for dealing with it, extraordinarily effectively. However, what I also give Thatcher credit for, but which you do not, is her solution to the problem she saw. Britain suffered from stagnation, so she destroyed the old order and put in place a new order which was far more energetic. In addition to its merits, the new order also intrinsically had its demerits, which is the me, me, me culture. Thatcher was aware of that, but deemed it an acceptable price to pay. You give Thatcher credit for the positive things resulting from her actions, but blame Blair and Brown for the negative things that were also a result of Thatcher's actions. The bad old England is no more, thanks to Thatcher. What we have now is the bad new England, also thanks to Thatcher.

[Idaho]

It's the tories!

I dunno how many of you were around in the 70s but it wasn't a very nice time to live in. A bit like now, nothing worked. Thatcher was a response to the growing awareness that the unions had buggered up the economy. The winter of discontent did for Labour then as sure a McRuin has done for Labour today.

It's bit simplistic to blame Hilda. IMO the rot had started many years before. I know, I was around. To me the biggest act of social vandalism was when whole swaths of the country were 'developed' in the sixties. Entire communities were uprooted and sent packing to 'new towns'. Great examples of which are Cumbernauld, Milton Keynes and last, if not the worst, Skelmersdale.

This fractured communities that had developed over the previous centuary. We still havn't recovered forty years on. When I was a nipper, everyone in the adjacent streets knew who I was, where I lived and who my parents were. The chances of getting away with mischeif was low. Not so today.

Coupled with the failed social engineering experiment of the last couple of decades, it is and was a recipe for disaster.

How about when small industrial towns in your part of the world lost all their manufacturing and primary economy? Turning them into the sad, directionless heroin towns they are now?

[gaelic cowboy]

Ah the merits and demerits of Thatcherism to be honest as an Irishman if someone could just send me a nice brand new shovel in the post to me I promise to dig a deep deep hole and deposit her in hell personally.

[Vladimir]

Ah the merits and demerits of Thatcherism to be honest as an Irishman if someone could just send me a nice brand new shovel in the post to me I promise to dig a deep deep hole and deposit her in hell personally.

So, are you saying Ireland is hell?

[Banquo's Ghost]

So, are you saying Ireland is hell?

If you discount the drizzle, it's a passable facsimile at the moment.

[Vladimir]

If you discount the drizzle, it's a passable facsimile at the moment.

Tell me about it.