Hilda buys the farm.

[InsaneApache]

Maggie Thatcher has died. The best Prime Minister we have had in my lifetime.

Look at this lot;

Macmillan: Douglas-Hume: Wilson: Heath: Wilson: Callaghan: Thatcher: Major: Blair: Brown: Cameron.

She did more for Britain than this lot put together.

R.I.P.

[HoreTore]

I am as saddened by this as I was when Saddam took the rope.

[Lemur]

For the tender, young Orgahs, who may not appreciate Maggie's significance:

Her Wiki page.

[Strike For The South]

good riddance to bad rubbish

[InsaneApache]

good riddance to bad rubbish

[Strike For The South]

Taking away milk from Welsh and Scottish school kids so the southern fairies could power their finance industry

And 20 years later the whole thing implodes. Color me unimpressed.

[InsaneApache]

Taking away milk from Welsh and Scottish school kids so the southern fairies could power their finance industry

And 20 years later the whole thing implodes. Color me unimpressed.

You obviously have no idea what you're talking about.

[Fragony]

Ahum, she just died. Not on day one, remember

[Lemur]

Excellent point about Thacter's legacy versus Reagan's:

The [...] difference between Thatcher and Reagan is that the Tories haven't gone mad and made Thatcher look like a milquetoast moderate. In this sense her legacy has been more durable than Reagan's. She re-centered British politics to a place where it's more or less stayed, while today's American right has completely left Reagan in the dust.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I don't agree with her economic policies by any means, but she was an honest politician that meant well.

Stay classy, guys.

If you watched the above, you'll notice people gathering in George Square, Glasgow, to celebrate Thatcher's death - dancing, playing the bagpipes, and flying communist flags.

It's shameful, and it cements me in my refusal to identify with or participate in Scottish political life.

[Pannonian]

Excellent point about Thacter's legacy versus Reagan's:

The [...] difference between Thatcher and Reagan is that the Tories haven't gone mad and made Thatcher look like a milquetoast moderate. In this sense her legacy has been more durable than Reagan's. She re-centered British politics to a place where it's more or less stayed, while today's American right has completely left Reagan in the dust.

The greatest of the post-WWII British politicians in terms of influence on the zeitgeist. Whether or not one agrees with her politics (and I don't), she has unarguably repositioned British politics so that every modern British politician peddles varying versions of her politics. Before Thatcher, there were still Tories and Socialists. These no longer exist in any meaningful number, and in their place are varying colours of Thatcherites.

[Major Robert Dump]

I wasn't alive back then, so I have no opinion

[Pannonian]

I wasn't alive back then, so I have no opinion

If you've heard any of Blair's speeches aimed at the British electorate, that's the Thatcherite influence to a tee. All the catchwords for freedom to, right to, etc. Americans probably take all that for granted from their founders and their lyrical odes to liberty. However, in Britain liberty was more of an understanding, and it was Thatcher who put them to words and formed an ideology and policies to suit. What opponents dislike is the side effects of those policies, but with the mainstream well and truly taken over by Thatcherite politics, there is no political language that both addresses these issues and is electable.

"If Margaret Thatcher is re-elected as prime minister on Thursday, I warn you. I warn you that you will have pain – when healing and relief depend upon payment. I warn you that you will have ignorance – when talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right. I warn you that you will have poverty – when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a government that won’t pay in an economy that can't pay. I warn you that you will be cold – when fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don't notice and the poor can't afford.

I warn you that you must not expect work – when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don't earn, they don't spend. When they don't spend, work dies. I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in large crowds of protest in the light. I warn you that you will be quiet – when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient. I warn you that you will have defence of a sort – with a risk and at a price that passes all understanding. I warn you that you will be home-bound – when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up. I warn you that you will borrow less – when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income.

If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday, I warn you not to be ordinary. I warn you not to be young. I warn you not to fall ill. I warn you not to get old."

A magnificent speech from the hugely underrated orator-politician Neil Kinnock, and the prophecies have largely been proven true as the side effects of Thatcher's policies. There's no chance of anyone giving that speech ever getting into a position of power though. That is the legacy of Margaret Thatcher.

[HoreTore]

I don't agree with her economic policies by any means, but she was an honest politician that meant well.

Stay classy, guys.

If you watched the above, you'll notice people gathering in George Square, Glasgow, to celebrate Thatcher's death - dancing, playing the bagpipes, and flying communist flags.

It's shameful, and it cements me in my refusal to identify with or participate in Scottish political life.

Completely off topic, but...

You're a scot?!?! I thought I had you nailed down as a welshman. What gives?

[Papewaio]

Thatcher was an interesting, strong, smart conservative.

Her time as Prime Minister was at the peak of the Cold War, massive UK privitisation, Falklands War, The Troubles and many more complex issues.

UK isn't Portugal, Italy, Greece or Spain. Part of that is the market reforms made under her stewardship.

Whilst not all her policies were popular or well received. At least she appeared to deliver them from a consistent belief system and was fairly transparent about it. Sure it wasn't a popular, mud slinging backstabbing we hold in such high regard of today's politicians. But it was a quaint time and her policies had all the transparency of a Croquet mallet to the family jewels.

[HopAlongBunny]

R.I.P.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I think she did a lot of damage, and a lot of good.

Those dancing on her grave are doing something inherently evil, rejoicing in the death of another human being. Thatcher was not a terrible person, not even remotely close.

RIP

[InsaneApache]

A magnificent speech from the hugely underrated orator-politician Neil Kinnock, and the prophecies have largely been proven true as the side effects of Thatcher's policies. There's no chance of anyone giving that speech ever getting into a position of power though. That is the legacy of Margaret Thatcher.

Oh is that the guy who was opposed to the EU. Until he and his wife earned millions (our taxes BTW) and then found an epiphany as a die hard EU supporter. Traitor.

Whilst not all her policies were popular or well received. At least she appeared to deliver them from a consistent belief system and was fairly transparent about it. Sure it wasn't a popular, mud slinging backstabbing we hold in such high regard of today's politicians. But it was a quaint time and her policies had all the transparency of a Croquet mallet to the family jewels.

Election after election she increased her popular vote. Unlike Blair.

[LittleGrizzly]

I think she did a lot of damage, and a lot of good.

Those dancing on her grave are doing something inherently evil, rejoicing in the death of another human being. Thatcher was not a terrible person, not even remotely close.

RIP

For me it is just the same as those who celebrate the deaths of other people that they might not like.

I am not equating them but many celebrated when Saddam and Osama died.

RIP and my thoughts to her friends and family.

[Major Robert Dump]

I really enjoyed her in Tootsie.

[a completely inoffensive name]

RIP in peace. If Strike is right, then I hope that she may continue to milk Welsh and Scottish cows for her fellow Britons in heaven.

[Kadagar_AV]

FFS...

No, I won't ever congratulate her on her politics.

FFS, give some cred to one of the women up there with Cleopatra in a man's world, giving her all for what she believed in.

She has my respect and gratitude, not for doing what I want, but for doing the things she did.

[Fragony]

https://www.anpfoto.nl/search.pp?pag...22976538&pos=0 nice, apparently the police had to mob a party in London. Thatcher was a visionary, one of the greatest politicians of the 20th century. Southern-Europe wouldn't be in this mess if the eurocrats were as smart as she was.

My favorite:"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money [to spend]."

She was even a technical genius, unlike the unions she understood that electrical trains don't run on steam, so there was no need for a coal-shoveler. What a woman

[Ronin]

https://www.anpfoto.nl/search.pp?pag...22976538&pos=0 nice, apparently the police had to mob a party in London. Thatcher was a visionary, one of the greatest politicians of the 20th century. Southern-Europe wouldn't be in this mess if the eurocrats were as smart as she was.

My favorite:"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money [to spend]."

She was even a technical genius, unlike the unions she understood that electrical trains don't run on steam, so there was no need for a coal-shoveler. What a woman

yes, and apartheid was a swell idea and Mandela was a terrorist...

Rust In Peace I guess.

[Greyblades]

Some good things(Falklands, her speeches were pretty good), some bad things(Union busting, privatization, South africa, Milk cuts,) some grey areas(IRA), either way thatcher was human, faults and all, and should be allowed to R.I.P. without people dancing on her grave.

My favorite:"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money [to spend]."

And the problem with capitalism is that you are hostage to the whims on the psychopathic monied few. A balance between the two is best and all she did was try to go back to hard capitalism.

She was even a technical genius, unlike the unions she understood that electrical trains don't run on steam, so there was no need for a coal-shoveler. What a woman

Yes, if only we hadnt at the time recently bought a fleet of new steam trains that we had to scrap before they had a chance to earn our money back. And it would have been nice to have coal to sell and maybe have something to fall back on when our financial sector had it's decadely crisis, do something with the inheritance from the workshop of the world instead of throwing it away and becoming a country completely dependant on the whims of a fragile market of bubbles and busts. Technical genius, maybe, but economic twit at best.

[Fragony]

Sure she made mistakes, but I strongly doubt you will get someone with her qualities very soon. The UK has lost all the respect it had with her when she resigned. She was quite something, I heard a bit of a flirt as well

[Rhyfelwyr]

The UK has lost all the respect it had with her when she resigned.

Wasn't Britain widely hated because of the Falklands War? Don't get me wrong I completely support her stance on that, but Britain was not particularly popular under her.

She coped well with some extremely difficult political issues. She protected the Falkland Islanders, and she stoped the Troubles in Northern Ireland from escalating into something more serious than it had the potential to do. People that say she was too harsh forget that there were two sides to appease in that conflict.

I think she meant well but a lot of what she did was counterintuitive. She took a conservative stance on social issues, and yet her economic reforms damaged the traditional family and led to more divorce, abortion etc. She hated the fact that the state helped subsidise a chunk of the population by supporting their industries, yet created a situation where those same people became entirely dependent on the state. She wanted to improve council estates by letting people buy their own homes, yet that simply meant that the slightly better-off ones were able to move, leaving the estates to the poorest sort and turning them almost into ghettos.

The fact she is a divisive figure should hardly be suprising when she created much of that social division herself.

Whether the alternative of continuining along the path of Old Labour would have been any better is another matter entirely.

[Lemur]

[Greyblades]

Sure she made mistakes, but I strongly doubt you will get someone with her qualities very soon. The UK has lost all the respect it had with her when she resigned. She was quite something, I heard a bit of a flirt as well

Now that I think of it I cant think of any nation in the last 10-20 years that has had any leader on the level of her. It's like such strength has dissapeared and the capable politicians died with the colonial age.

Personally I theorise that when america "won" and became the last superpower it made everyone with both capability and determination give up on politics, without conflict, viable competition and the possibility to change the world even america has devolved into fools and fat cats.

Come back next week for another installment of "The modern world sucks and why I wish I was born in the 1800's British middle class."

[Tellos Athenaios]

Come back next week for another installment of "The modern world sucks and why I wish I was born in the 1800's British middle class."

Come back the week after that for "The 1800's British middle class really sucks and why I wish I stayed with the modern world".