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Thread: Question to Brits: what is your opinion on Margaret Thatcher's policies and legacy?

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    Default Question to Brits: what is your opinion on Margaret Thatcher's policies and legacy?

    While it is certainly true that Britain in the 1970's was absolutely no shangri-la, what with its constant strikes and high inflation rates, as far as I am concerned Mrs Thatcher's government took things too far. Her radical programme of mass privatisations and deregulation has made us not only a rather more selfish, unequal and dysfunctional society than before, but also more vulnerable to foreign powers and influences, especially when it comes to military manufacturing and utilities ownership. Furthermore, the closure of mining and heavy manufacturing industries, while to some extent inevitable, could have been managed more delicately and carefully, with proper investment and retraining programmes in the most affected areas. All the same, there were two crucial areas which she was absolutely right about: taming the trade unions, by insisting they should actually carry out votes before going out on strike, and winning the Falklands War. What do others here think?

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    You sent me this link, but I am only British by blood so I don't really feel comfortable talking about her policies since I don't live in the UK. All I will say is that ideologycally peasking, both me and Thatcher are alligned, which means I share liberal policies and I see with good eyes her management of the unions, the privatisations done by her and also her dealing of the Falklands War, which are not and will never be Argentinian.

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    Giving my opinion from the outside for what it's worth.

    She had the courage to make unpopular but necessary reforms in a country under depression with a decaying economy and deep social problems, a youth affected by rampant hooliganism, widespread gang mentality etc , for some reason she was called the Iron Lady. I admire her for her courage, strength and determination, plus doing all she did, the painful reforms and forced to a war being a woman and under constant insults, deserves extra recognition for it.

    Wasn't Tony Blair the great globalist who sold Britain always with a smile on his face ?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sebastianus Rex View Post
    Giving my opinion from the outside for what it's worth.

    She had the courage to make unpopular but necessary reforms in a country under depression with a decaying economy and deep social problems, a youth affected by rampant hooliganism, widespread gang mentality etc , for some reason she was called the Iron Lady. I admire her for her courage, strength and determination, plus doing all she did, the painful reforms and forced to a war being a woman and under constant insults, deserves extra recognition for it.

    Wasn't Tony Blair the great globalist who sold Britain always with a smile on his face ?
    Interesting points, except that if anything British youth have become MORE antisocial since the 80's.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tooting Carmen View Post
    Interesting points, except that if anything British youth have become MORE antisocial since the 80's.
    Perhaps for while but the economic reforms allowed a recovery and prosperity some years later. The problem of making reforms is exactly that, it takes courage to sacrifice the present in order to have a future. Most politicians run from it because they think about their popularity not actually what is the best for the country. Mrs.Tacher belonged to another kind of politicians. She was the best since Winston Churchill.

    Your opinion about Blair?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sebastianus Rex View Post
    Perhaps for while but the economic reforms allowed a recovery and prosperity some years later. The problem of making reforms is exactly that, it takes courage to sacrifice the present in order to have a future. Most politicians run from it because they think about their popularity not actually what is the best for the country. Mrs.Thatcher belonged to another kind of politicians. She was the best since Winston Churchill.

    Your opinion about Blair?
    Well I will say that football hooliganism specifically is far less of a problem now even compared to twenty years ago, though I think the main explanation for that is the very high prices for football matches and associated embourgeoisement.

    As for Blair, some of his welfare reforms were very good: New Deal, Sure Start, the minimum wage, Working Families' Tax Credit. He also deepened our ties with the Continent (subsequently reversed now, of course). Nevertheless, his foreign wars - especially Iraq - were becoming an increasing liability, plus in many ways he sold out too much to big business (not least his constant resurrection of the utterly vile Peter Mandelson) and on social issues he was actually very much a small 'c' conservative, even sometimes highly authoritarian.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tooting Carmen View Post
    Interesting points, except that if anything British youth have become MORE antisocial since the 80's.
    But that is not exclusive to Britain, the whole world has become more antissocial, mainly due the expansion of social media, as ironic as it may seem.

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    I'm not from Britain, but yes.
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    I think the lasting damage to working class communities and the centering of power with the City and global finance, rather than a more economically diverse society, is what matters most.

    The deregulation was only partial, it largely served to cripple the unions, which is not a bad thing to do, but without clear improvements in economic opportunities available to manual workers.

    Germany skilled up its labour, and aimed to produce for the upper range of the market, be it televisions, white goods or cars ... German workers had a much better policy structure to protect their labour market and assure then a quality future.

    Britain went to compete on cost and open the economy, so as to obtain quid pro quo agreements for the city, abroad.

    Privatisation, as with the deregulation of The City, simply bribed a segment of the working class and the majority of the middle class, with easy money, while ignoring the future of the organisations and industries.

    And it also legitimised and gave political cover to the seriously criminal scams of The Blair government that came in the late '90s.

    She also had a "Trump effect" in terms of providing the Left wing with a figure to rally against, and the comics, writers and media personalities born of the anti-Thatcher counter culture, came to dominate British institutions and poison society further, with their own pseudo socialist politics.

    It's under Thatcher, that the media labelled the Tories "the nasty party", giving this false sense of moral superiority to Leftists. This is a cancer that has completely destroyed British politics by undermining fundamental aspects of sovereignty, such as immigration control and restriction, culture and institutional composition, racial tensions and entitlements.

    Yes, her introduction of yuppie culture did erode society, imo, as well as the promotion of a mostly finance and insurance dominated economy. Where arbitrage and cost cutting dominate over innovation, invention, development and other, traditional aspects of economic competitiveness.

    I think trade liberalisation, has also been a largely ambivalent development. Ricardo is good as a simple theoretical experiment but, in practice, as we've seen with the "Asian tigers", comparative advantage is mostly built by policy and so, is rarely some expression of organic and material difference.

    Basically, she could have made Britain "a nation of shopkeepers", but instead sold out to the accountants and the stock markets, and their finance industry.

    I did like her sceptical approach to Europe but, that was likely just an extension of the American influence over Britain, rather than a strong desire to retain sovereignty.

    Socially, I think the Left play up her negative effects, because they always have to have "villains" to feed their need to feel like heroic rebels.

    Racial tensions are worse now, in many ways, as assimilation and respect for the native culture has completely been removed from the conversation. And this is the result of exaggerated anti-Thatcher activism and organisation.

    I miss the presence and influence of the upper class, the Nouveau riche are both a positive and a negative, and the city tends to make too many rich chancers rather than thoughtful patrons that propagate culture. And their anti class zeal just ends up dragging standards down, as it often aligns with envy based Labour social politics.

    The globalisation that she helped catapult, thanks to 24/7 City trading and the City's capture of the financial sector, has robbed Britain and Brits of a sense of identity and history. It's done the same to many other developed nations, too. Creating a homogeneity that, everywhere, irritates the natives (France and Jose Bove, for example), and thus can only exist under the conspiracy between corporations and national governments.

    In terms of social liberty, I'm not sure she was at all regressive, the sexual mores changed independent of her, and were largely running on the momentum given by WWII and the '60s .

    The social welfare, well the Tories hardly ever contracted that commitment, for all the papers said about the Major government. And it wasn't really wrong about the damage of single mothers ... Just not honest about the causes.

    Anyway, going off topic, waffling on ...

    Thatcher wasn't great, not even good. Sadly, things have gone downhill so much that, in many ways she seems like a competent and sensible PM, now. She wasn't, and has left lasting damage. It's just that others have been worse, since.

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    As I saw it back then, the issues were the class system and militant unionism. The selling off of strategic industries was unnecessary. Solve the class system and militant unionism, many of her industries would have survived imo.
    Nine out of ten concerns are completely unfounded.

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