Margaret Thatcher 1925-2013

Didn't she destroy the steel manufacturing in britain? And we call her the iron lady! How ironic or maybe she liked ironing and I got the meaning all wrong, heyho. Never liked her.

Tony,

i know you started this thread and I know in the past you have asked the mods to close some of your threads but.........................

please, you ain't a mod and you ain't the headmaster.

cheers

Don

It's OK, I'm watching.  Some forums ban any discussion involving politics or religion, mainly because such online discussions always get ugly. I can see the point.

Say your piece, pay your respects or otherwise, but then please then show some respect to Naim and move on.  I'm sure that given time and cooler heads, history will be MT's judge.

Well put  that man.

Don,

Are you really serious? I nearly choked on my cornflakes.

Please read some of  my other comments above. I think Mr D's  job is safe.

Since we're on the subject, I did ask him ONCE to close ONE thread. The reasons why are between me and Mr. Dane.

Sun is shining in LondonTown.

Have a lovely day.

KR

Tony

I try to be honest and fair in what i do.

These are my views on some of our past/present Ministers

Thatcher.....never liked her from the start

Cameron......i like the guy,comes from a monied background,he aint perfect,but is doing his best with a very hard job.

Brown......a devious sod,if he told me night follows day i would want a 2nd opinion.

Blair.......what a great dentist the man has,but not much else.

Last......good old George 0......a lovable plank,keep eating the pasties George.

What are other peoples views on our various ministers ??

Mista H

PS   Richard is up early this morning !!

You asked......

So....

Thatcher....Had her convictions. Unfortunately, they didn't include compassion.

Cameron....If he's doing his best, God, I'd hate to see his worst.

Blair...Had no moral compass. How anyone can ignore people marching against the war on Iraq because he believed the country had WMD when we all knew they did not is beyond me. Perhaps all those people should have worked for MI6 then the disaster would never have happened.

George O....Caught in the headlights. And he doesn't like it.

Minister For Audio: Paul Stephenson. Doing a great job. Fully supportive.

Yes !

But do have a lovely day too.

cheers

Don

general agreement here. with a few adjustments, but I'm not expecting many to agree, other than with your last entry !!

Cheers

Don

Just to add my views on 3 more MPs/ex MPs

Ed Milliband.......jury is still out on this guy,early days

Ed Balls.......the name says it all,this joker wants to spend our way out of trouble,a very dangerous game to play......when this guy plays Russian Roulette he dont put one bullet in the gun before he pulls the trigger he goes for five.

Ann Widdecombe.......I miss this lady,think we could have done with a few more like her in the House.

Must go now orf to see Blairs denist,gonna get my molars polished.

Mista h

Where is the appropriate news felch from 'The Day Today' when you need it?

Bring on Peter O'Hanraha-hanrahan, Ted Maul and Collaterlie Sisters I say.

John.

Discussion over lunch with Mrs D.

I said I think the Tories have made an error of judgment in orgainising a Ceremonial Funeral.

Mrs D thinks that as our first and to date only lady PM, the Ceremonial is appropriate. She can't think of any other redeeming features in Mrs T.

I asked her which of the PMs that followed Mrs T were more outstanding. After some thought and almost unable to visualise ANY of the subsequent bunch, she said Tony Blair. I suggested TB made an error of judgment regarding Iraq. Mrs D agreed, but siad "He's the only subsequent PM with any sort of charisma".

I suggested the Tories, and David C in particular, might be able to salvage some sort of advantage from the current controversy if they were to list Mrs T's big mistakes and promise to start putting them right before the next General Election. Mrs D simply commented "but they won't", then added "and neither will the other lot!"

Cheers

Don

Dear All,

In 1977-1978 i worked for a company that had been part of the original Bristol Airplane Co but was broken off from it as were Bristol Cars by previous Govts.

Anyway the Company i worked for were world leaders in its field. Sadly the Unions decided they wanted to blackmail the company. They began strike action, and as i at 19 years of age was not that political so not in the union, was called a scab and worse. The strike was pretty unpleasant and very damaging to the company. The Directors tried to talk to the unions about the risks to the company for failing to comply with contracts with customers and that further contracts were being put at risk. This fell on very deaf ears and the strike continued.

I decided i wanted no part of this so left the company. In a few months after my leaving the company failed and was bought by its largest customer. many jobs were lost and the unions insead of feeling any remorse were pleased the strike brought down the company. Sad for the union members who lost their jobs. but it seems politics was always more important than the members.

In 1979 i was working in another industry and the company was seriously considering moving overseas if Labour got in. Maggie got in the company stayed and we had a big party to celebrate her Govts win.

A Scargill was a foul man who destroyed the miners by his intransigence . Coal was losing its attractiveness as an environmentally filthy fuel and also homes were moving from coal to electric and gas central heating. So as an industry was losing the entire domestic market.

The car factories were always on strike and made cars appalingly , hence most bought Japanese cars.

It was an interesting time and a lot of hardship for many many people.

Blair is a multi millionaire and pays little tax in this country. I wonder what his legacy will be compared to Maggies.

I find it interesting that most of those rioting today are far to young to have been born in her time, and even some may have parents who probably were not either.

Maggie did a lot of good for this country , hence the respect shown by many other countries.

David

Enjoyed reading your very sensible post David, well thought out and written.........apart from the last line.

Mista h

…and the fact that blackleg scabs stab their fellow workers in the back for the most selfish of reasons, have no dignity or self respect, and a very poor interpretation of true events that lead up to management/union confrontation.

yes, but appart from that, David is right, and as he has politely and unemotionally pointed out, the union memebrs at his firm and their leaders just could give a sh*t about anything, appart from bring the company down !

However, if you were also a member of this self same company, you could easily and unemotionally outline your point of view.

How many people on this forum yearn to buy a nostalgic British Layland car built in Oxford in the late 70's rather than a Honda, Toyota or Nisssan built today in Swindon, Derby or Sunderland today ? I don't know the figures, but I'm sure someone here does - are their more workers in Britain's car industry today than in the late 70's or fewer? And is productivity gretaer or lesser ?

Cheers

Don

Mmm regarding the steel industry, she halved the work force in port talbot from something nudging 15000 people in 1981. I worked there for 9years and left in 2007 due to no longer being happy with the working conditions (too dangerous for my liking) and the general resistance to change of the place. The lumbering dinosaur was fighting the changing world. People didn't like it, people there still don't like it but without the privatisation I would wager it wouldn't be there anymore.  It is probably the most efficient iron works in the world now

Without doubting your statement, and out of genuine curiosity, in your view what influence did successive management by British Steel, Corus, and Tata have and how much influence did the workforce itself have on this transformation?

Cheers

Don

About 40 years ago a had a new Morris Marina 1.8.  Great car as long as it did not rain,then i had about 3 inches of water in the boot.

Mista h

+1

steve

.........."British Layland........."  Ha, ha!

Now that's a place I'd like to visit!  Don't know who posted it originally (to be honest, I ain't got the time or inclination to search, it was a quote within a quote within a quote.....)

Please calm down some of you - try and reply to other members as if they were stood in front of you, not hiding behind keyboards....

Keep watching, Richard....please.

Ian

Thanks jim,

One of my nephews who lives in Co. Durham works for what used to be Dorman Long/BSc/Corus/Tata in some sort of research department in or near Middlesbrough.

He joined when it was British Steel, and a bit like yourself felt Corus was a worthwhile improvement.

Cheers

Don

HI backfromoz

Brilliant post I agree 100% people have very short term selective memories and forget the hard times we endured via the militant unions. British Leyland made rubbish cars Ford were always on strike they went on strike once because of the canteen. We were moving over to gas central heating who wanted a coal fire when gas was here. The 3 day week, power cuts, grave diggers on strike, refuse collection I remember wading through rubbish piled up on the back street for weeks. Thanks for post

There seems to be common ground among contributors that much of the UK's manufacturing base in the 70s and 80s needed modernising as did some of the trade unions.  There also doesn't seem to be much dispute that MT contrived a 'war' on some unions and the industries in which they operated.  But two characteristics stick in my mind about the way MT went about this. First she used the police as a weapon - a police service that is meant to serve everybody, rich or poor, strong or weak. I'm sure that the scars from that era hinder relationships between the police and some communities to the current day. Second, once the 'war' was won the towns, villages, communities were effectively left to rot by MT's government.  To my mind that was and is unforgivable.  At the time I remember contrasting the situation with the aftermath of WWII.  Once the allies had defeated the odius regimes in Germany and Japan the political leaders of the day recognised that there was job to be done in putting those countries and their peoples back on their feet.  The Marshall Plan etc  was I'm sure a huge factor in healing the divisions in the world, the benefits of which are still being enjoyed today.

The absence of support for those whose industries, jobs and communities which had been shattered by MT's government likely caused many affected to believe that the 'war' was personal, hence the strong feelings that persist to this day. 

MDS