tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post1806450222343493898..comments2024-03-28T09:46:24.020+02:00Comments on A Political Refugee From The Global Village : Margaret Thatcher has died, of a stroke, aged 87Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-75644817548687204832014-09-13T16:22:07.564+03:002014-09-13T16:22:07.564+03:00Cameron is a centrist Macmillanite and Whig. Cameron is a centrist Macmillanite and Whig. Political Refugee from the Global Villagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03523068770529814044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-67591271654152164122013-05-20T18:08:17.203+03:002013-05-20T18:08:17.203+03:00You have all missed the point, Thatcher and Murdoc...You have all missed the point, Thatcher and Murdoch had a secret lunch to give him a media monopoly and her the Falklands War popularity to win elections. Cameron gave us the Leveson Inquiry that exposed the pair. UK has a culture of favoring monopolies and cartels and so Murdoch still roams free. We deserve the austerity, riots and socialism that the cartels have given us. Thatcher acted to defeat both Unionism and Capitalism. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05120456869760411776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-64453885238101805372013-05-01T20:56:32.946+03:002013-05-01T20:56:32.946+03:00Alan that is just the sort of thing you would have...Alan that is just the sort of thing you would have said at school. Odd how people do not change.Political Refugee from the Global Villagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03523068770529814044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-83965835396366634042013-04-13T09:24:58.801+03:002013-04-13T09:24:58.801+03:00I completely agree Anonymous - but I gave her no c...I completely agree Anonymous - but I gave her no credit for this at the time because it was unemployment more than legislation that broke the unions but thank God they were broken for everyone's sake. Alan Clarke was asked by another Tory MP what achievement do we have, to set against three million unemployed? He answered 'well we have three million unemployed'. A very cruel joke but unemployment. did shake out some bad things like union power, at a terrible human cost. But unemployment was scarcely an achievement and it was not intended. To some extent it replaced what Norman Tebbit called 'hidden unemployment' meaning overmanning and low productivity but the cost was terribly high to individuals and communities. What the Wets did not understand was that it was not as high a cost as in the 1930s because of more generous welfare and greater opportunities than then for the unemployed - the world had changed out of recognition since then. But still a unemployment is a terrible thing. Norman Tebbit's changes to employment law were a great achievement I see now - far better than Heath's corporatist reforms. I met Lord Tebbit, as he then wasn't, in around 1981 and was very impresses by his brain and understanding of Edwardian labour history. He has what Cambridge men smugly call a first class mind.<br /><br />Political Refugee from the Global Villagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03523068770529814044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-82967799516812727702013-04-13T01:18:05.600+03:002013-04-13T01:18:05.600+03:00Richard Vinen's book Thatcher's Britain se...Richard Vinen's book Thatcher's Britain seems to vindicate much of the critique I made of her at the time - that England was not doing so badly before - but I feel it misses the point that she restored England's belief in herself and released a huge amount of energy in the country which had been sent to sleep by social democracy. He makes the point well that she was a very pragmatic politician and that things were surprisingly liberal in her time. Her administration's policy on AIDS for example. I think the fact that AIDS did not lead to a moral backlash is sad but the Conservatives disagreed. http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/features/book-review-thatcher-s-britain-by-richard-vinen-1-1037353Political Refugee from the Global Villagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03523068770529814044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-78665333882455879952013-04-13T00:29:21.069+03:002013-04-13T00:29:21.069+03:00Thatcher became leader of the Conservative party i...Thatcher became leader of the Conservative party in response to the unions using their power to bully. Without that bullying Callaghan or Heath would have continued to be PM. Seeing the country run into the ground with insufficient fuel to produce electricity, secondary picketing businesses generally were being destroyed. We always hear about the poor mining communities but what about the families in those other businesses destroyed by union action? Most illustrative was Eddie Shah and his attempts to produce a newspaper. Certainly my grandfather's business was closed and all staff unemployed because of union action.<br />So what was England going to do? Continue do decline and wait for the IMF to enforce conditions as is happening in Greece or Cyprus? Or to find someone with the courage and a plan to take on the unions? I think we are very lucky to have had Thatcher to rescue us and the unions were unlucky to have Scargil, Jones and Murray whoc didn't know when to stop and made the result much more destructive.<br />And I do wonder how much the destruction of industry is due in part to North Sea Oil. Why? Because with North Sea Oil the pound was artificically high which made wage and industrial costs artificially high and uncompetitive. Generally an economy with a high oil production does not have a flourishing manufacturing industry.<br />Anthony Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-41468573192229673312013-04-12T19:49:51.926+03:002013-04-12T19:49:51.926+03:00Paul, as Robert Peston noted, like most English pe...Paul, as Robert Peston noted, like most English people, I have mixed feelings about Thatcher. The sad truth, however, is that whilst in the case of many nationalised industries all she did was turn the life support machine off, the wholesale wipe out of manufacturing was not necessary. It wasn't simply about being uneconomic, her supply side approach to economics and the drive to push down inflation at any price was devastating. More fundamentally, it wasn't that change needed to be implemented that makes her so divisive, its the cold indifference to the human effects of her policies that. The total destruction of whole communities is not a matter of pride. Where before people may have been described as working class they now either had now work to do, or were kept on part time, short term, or temporary contracts, were outsourced and pushed into what became known as the underclass. A group with no work, or work that pays so little as to keep people just above the poverty line, but offers no meaningful prospect of a better life and no meaningful stake in society. Peston describes how the combination of de-industrialisation, tax change and the loss of public housing shifted Britain between 1980 and 1990 from being one of the most equal societies in the developed world to one of the most unequal.<br /><br />The mocking of mutuality, with the Building Societies Act, wasn't a swipe at socialism, it was an attack on a view of life based upon community self help that dates back to before the industrial revolution. That so many Building Societies resisted the character that most personifies her reign - Harry Enfield's Loadsa Money - and the carpet baggers provided a refuge for ordinary peoples savings in the current financial crisis. A crisis that is entirely rooted in her policies of deregulation, allowing commercial and merchant banking to merge together. Its effects have been far worse as a result of the over-dependence upon London and more specifically financial services that her policies created.<br /><br />She did indeed represent a time when politics had sharper edges, was a great leader and changed the culture of the country in way that only the post-war government did during the twentieth century. Britain was almost certainly a better place in 1990 than it was in 1980, but lets not forget the terrible social price that was paid by an entire generation. The fact that she may have had nice legs is to miss the point by a wide margin.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-13954491330507956812013-04-11T20:13:37.382+03:002013-04-11T20:13:37.382+03:00Thatcher has been vindicated in every way. UK went...Thatcher has been vindicated in every way. UK went from being bailed out to the strongest economy on Europe.<br /><br />We can also see the disastrous effect the Euro has had on economies and she was the only one opposed. If only anyone had listened to her the Euro crisis would have been avoided.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-36685655331475709362013-04-11T16:01:19.505+03:002013-04-11T16:01:19.505+03:00Romania does, to some extent, but not England. Tho...Romania does, to some extent, but not England. Though I do not see why Romania should not decide for herself about corporal punishment or smoking in restaurants.Political Refugee from the Global Villagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03523068770529814044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-4974302040058206162013-04-11T15:41:21.884+03:002013-04-11T15:41:21.884+03:00She was something. But, in my opinion, we need mor...She was something. But, in my opinion, we need more Europe, not less. This is where i think she make a big mistakeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-24997360356645712362013-04-11T13:29:18.725+03:002013-04-11T13:29:18.725+03:00well-wriiten Paul. I enjoyed it. Yes in comparison...well-wriiten Paul. I enjoyed it. Yes in comparison to the Billy Bragg/Ken Livingstone nightmare that Britain has become with London fast declining into a third-world happy hunting ground, the 1980s seem positively halcyonicAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-13432347870924636972013-04-10T23:36:23.441+03:002013-04-10T23:36:23.441+03:00I don't think I agree with your politics but i...I don't think I agree with your politics but it's a pleasure to see a balanced, thoughtful and knowledgeable post like that. Peter RisdonAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-69781677639636184932013-04-10T21:32:07.429+03:002013-04-10T21:32:07.429+03:00but only part of local expenditure came from the t...but only part of local expenditure came from the tax, the rest from central government<br />Political Refugee from the Global Villagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03523068770529814044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-51093135501923478092013-04-10T21:31:31.250+03:002013-04-10T21:31:31.250+03:00Everyone in each municipality had to I think but i...Everyone in each municipality had to I think but it is fuzzy...Political Refugee from the Global Villagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03523068770529814044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-61422365891481000182013-04-10T21:27:01.965+03:002013-04-10T21:27:01.965+03:00It was long ago and in another country and besides...It was long ago and in another country and besides the wench is dead.Political Refugee from the Global Villagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03523068770529814044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-37873583206426146862013-04-10T21:23:33.453+03:002013-04-10T21:23:33.453+03:00 ... every adult was expected to pay the same tax,... ... every adult was expected to pay the same tax, the same number of GBP ? Emil Perhinschihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10710579823013077273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-46237078097935914592013-04-10T20:53:44.555+03:002013-04-10T20:53:44.555+03:00it replaced rates which was a tax on property - a ...it replaced rates which was a tax on property - a very fair tax in my opinion but hated by people who could not understand the concept of a property tax - it is to do with the deep obsession the English have with owning houses. A very class prejudiced move though MT's intentions were not class prejudiced. The real problemn was that after the war Labour gave the vote to everyone in local elections not just property owners.Political Refugee from the Global Villagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03523068770529814044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-14766013500188917832013-04-10T20:51:28.164+03:002013-04-10T20:51:28.164+03:00http://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/margaret-thatcher-...http://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/margaret-thatcher-poll-tax-was-beginning-of-the-end-1-2884066Political Refugee from the Global Villagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03523068770529814044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-36591456890781659872013-04-10T20:37:08.511+03:002013-04-10T20:37:08.511+03:00Paul, can you explain, or link to a good explanati...Paul, can you explain, or link to a good explanation, what was the "poll tax/rate tax" problem ? All that my google-fu is helping me find is about the riots.Emil Perhinschihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10710579823013077273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-60538130036728954112013-04-10T19:48:59.377+03:002013-04-10T19:48:59.377+03:00a fair-minded and well-written articlea fair-minded and well-written articleAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-32639024518752565132013-04-10T19:45:16.277+03:002013-04-10T19:45:16.277+03:00not very fair reallynot very fair reallyPolitical Refugee from the Global Villagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03523068770529814044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-63448414960359057282013-04-10T19:44:05.971+03:002013-04-10T19:44:05.971+03:00She sliced up and sold off this country piece by p...She sliced up and sold off this country piece by piece to foreigners. Is that a fair assessment?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-19610728194000082312013-04-10T19:43:38.144+03:002013-04-10T19:43:38.144+03:00I should have made my career as a writer not seduc...I should have made my career as a writer not seducing Romanian lawyers from their employ. Thank you very much my dearPolitical Refugee from the Global Villagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03523068770529814044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-45033103351165374422013-04-10T18:52:34.206+03:002013-04-10T18:52:34.206+03:00Paul has such a stunningly original way with words...Paul has such a stunningly original way with words. He makes every word take a form of its own. I dont always agree with what he writes but I sure like the way he phrases his statements. Congratultions Paul!!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-891289711377156224.post-34046615154094165222013-04-10T16:54:47.642+03:002013-04-10T16:54:47.642+03:00a very individual takea very individual takeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com