Andrew Marr's History of Great Britian

quote:

Originally posted by Mick Parry:

The point I am making was that pre Maggie, owning a foreign property was rare now it is very common. That was mainly down to Maggie for turning the country around.

So, this wealth creation that Lady Thatcher led - has it resulted in benefits for all? Are there less poor people in Britain now?

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:
The question [non party political] is this really. Do I work to live, or do I live to work?

I work to live, and hard at it too, but I am damned if if I will ever fall for the live to work game!

It depends what one does for one's bread and cheese, I suppose. If you're a concert violinist or an archaeologist or a wine taster, I suppose you might well end up living to work. If one has the misfortune to be an engineer, work is a sentence, and one spends one's miserable little life casting around for a means of escape!

EW

Dear EW,

Quite right. If I was creative, and talented I would happy live to compose music!

I might even be content to live to perform it, but as it is I live to appreciate it. Unfortunately, in this money oriented world, this activity brings no financial gain.

ATB from Fredrik

quote:

Originally posted by Jono 13:
Another thought on this series, would a set of programs of this quality and interest on this subject be made anywhere else?

I don't think so.

Up the BBC, long may it rule!


Jono

Very true - I often wonder why it is I pay a TV licence and each year they produce something like this. Well worth the licence money alone.

So the point of the show is that 'the British are best, and I wouldn't give tupppence for all of the rest'?

Wasn't that song written by Flanders and Swann? And didn't they write it as a satire on patriotism?

Again, the human race, and each individual member of that race, needs to look past the knife and fork end of his arm. The seeds of victory are often found in failure, and the seeds of defeat, in victory.

Given the choices made by voters all over the Western world, political power has devolved into the hands of people who think success is measured only by coin.

They're proudly building something that will be very close to Marx & Engels' last stage of capitalism. It's possible that another Great Depression will be potponed by war, of ocurse, as it was 100 years ago, but I don't find that comforting at all.

Excessess by labor unions have done far less damage than excesses of 'capitalists'. Weigh the brilliant 'I'm All Right, Jack' against...Enron, child labor, slave labor, bribery, Conrad Black, trade with Iraq-Iran-N. Korea-Sudan via subsidiaries, use of lead paint in stores, adulteration of medicines and cosmetics with poisons, illicit dumping of polluted materials, polluting our environment because 'it would cost too much' to do otherwise.

Oh, yes, let's not forget the British traders' lament - we have to sell opium to the Chinese - it's the only thing we have that they'll buy. And besides, the Indian colony will go broke without opium sales....Now THAT's British capitalism at its finest!

But, hey, they let the French, teh Germans, and the Americans in on their deal, too, so virtually the whole West is based, in part, on pushing the hardest of drugs.

You're a patriot? Hmmm...you know, if you really want to prove your patriotism, you should invest in the bridge I'm trying to build from London to Reykjavik...I have a few shares I'm willing to part with, but only if the buyer is a true patriot....

quote:

Originally posted by Phil Barry:

Weigh the brilliant 'I'm All Right, Jack' against...Enron, child labor, slave labor, bribery, Conrad Black, trade with Iraq-Iran-N. Korea-Sudan via subsidiaries, use of lead paint in stores, adulteration of medicines and cosmetics with poisons, illicit dumping of polluted materials, polluting our environment because 'it would cost too much' to do otherwise.

...don't forget Union Carbide and Bhopal.

quote:

Originally posted by Deane F:

quote:

Originally posted by Mick Parry:

The point I am making was that pre Maggie, owning a foreign property was rare now it is very common. That was mainly down to Maggie for turning the country around.

So, this wealth creation that Lady Thatcher led - has it resulted in benefits for all? Are there less poor people in Britain now?

A news report this morning said that several cases of rickets have recently been diagnosed in Dundee. This was a disease thought to have been eradicated 50 years ago and its reappearance is hardly a good sign.

quote:

Originally posted by Phil Barry:
So the point of the show is that 'the British are best, and I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest'?

Wasn't that song written by Flanders and Swann? And didn't they write it as a satire on patriotism?

Actually it was ' The English, the English, the English are best....' and they had a good pop at the Welsh, Scots and Irish.

I think this is interesting, because in the 1950s and 60s we didn't take ourselves too seriously and were prepared to laugh at this kind of pomposity. What Thatcher did was make us all so f*ing serious about ourselves and how important we are. And that really bores me to tears...

quote:

...don't forget Union Carbide and Bhopal.

Or Westland helicopters, Orgreave, Battle of the Beanfield, Belgrano etc.... etc.... etc...

Rupert,

Thanks. Flanders & Swann were too good to be misquoted without correction.

I hadn't thought in terms of taking ourselves too seriously as a problem, since I perceive absurdity all about me (and I've joined in willingly, of course) - but I think you've made a good point.

I intended to type 'lead paint in toys'; somehow I wrote '...in stores' instead.

Regards.

Phil

Regards.

Phil