The GREAT DEBATE: Maggie was the best - discuss

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096699/Oxford-academics-revolt-plans-new-building-Baroness-Thatcher.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9063211/Noel-Gallagher-Britain-had-work-ethic-under-Margaret-Thatcher.html

The debate is brought to you from the hallowed halls of Oxford. On the one side we have Noel Gallagher, on the other we have the intellectuals.

Which side are you on?

Maggie, best thing since sliced bread or a national pox?

I have a deep and entrenched hatred for that woman. I hope she has a long and painful life before rotting in hell.

Gary

After reading the article im not sure he actually said she was the best thing since sliced bread. He stated that we had a better work ethic, and i think he was right. love or hate her lots of people would not have the business they run now without her .

His comments on the riots were spot on too.

That was a bit ambiguous Gary

can you just clarify your position a bit more?

It is how I feel, a feeling learnt from bitter experience.

Gary

Were you on a youth training scheme?

You say the nicest of things. To look so young that I could be mistaken for a YTS exploitee. No, there are so many things that I truly hate that woman for but just one of them is that, in order to financially support my extended family of 10 (as a self employed person, I was the only one working) I became an economic refugee and worked abroad for just over seven years thereby missing the growing up of my own children. A choice between unemployment / poverty and keeping a roof over my family's head, food on the table and clothes on their backs. How would anyone feel, separated from their children at that special time.

Gary

I personally think she was the right person for the time, particularly her stance during the Falklands War

Yeh..which leads us on to..

As a Scot I'm one of the few who think Mrs T was absolutely the right person at the right time. Unfortunately so many Scots like Gary completely detest her  which I just can't understand & never will! The alternative was complete Socialist nonsense & who knows what state we would have been in had she not come to power? Anyway, everyone is entitled to their opinion!

Cheers

Derek

I grew up in a very staunch trade union household, albeit one with a very strong traditional working class work ethic.

My dad despises her with a passion which would put Gary to shame. My personal feelings having worked in the public sector is we are dealing with the aftermath of many of her policies to this day.

Unlike my dad (dont tell him) i can take a more balanced view as I was not directly affected like Gary or my father. I've always strruggled with the view that she was the 'right man for the job' however, what does that mean? Right for who? Certainly not for a huge proportion of the country as far as i can tell.

And it was not her changes to the trade unions etc that was the real tragedy, it was the break up of entire communties and the begining of a selfishness which affects our society even now.

As we know generational issues such as substance misuse, worklessness, lack of aspirations affect families, many of these started then. The current government puts a annual estimate of 250 to 350k for these complex familes so the question for me is she may have been the right person then, but look whats happening now? 

There is a clear line which can be drawn in my humble opinion.

Seems like with Maggie she was a politician who polarized opinion. I don't see anyone on the fence here.

I am personally not a fan of politics or politicians, but I have a soft spot for Maggie.

It amuses me slightly that she inspires such vitriol, when someone like Gordon Brown sold half our gold reserve at the lowest point in the market,

whilst the Tony Blair revolution created a bloated client state, a generation of political and social apparatchicks, and insisted on micro-managing a lot of professionals. 

When I see that school in Somerset where they were so obsessed with their academic targets they failed to see the elephant in the room...the peado teacher, 

I put that down entirely to the effects of Blairism.

Sure Maggie was defective in some areas, but overall I think she was a good egg.

I guess she polarized opinion because half the population were well and truly worse off under her stewardship.

All politicians cock it up,and as they say 'all political careers end in failure' and they do.

The difference with Maggie i think is she didnt really care about the effects her actions had, she certainly didnt on those closet to her (her cabinet / party) and certainly didnt on those afffected in her own country.

And let us not forgot that this great conservative hero was well and truly shafted by her own party.

The subject was about that evil woman rather than Blair and Brown so I did not compare and contrast. Trade Unions are essentially big business and are mean enough and ugly enough to stand on their own two feet. They misjudged the market and their support. But caught up in the unholy mess were millions of decent, hard working human beings. Real people, real families and real communities that were destroyed by her and her policies and those that came after. And just in case people think that times have moved on and that history has faded then think on. Cameron was one of the woman's advisors. God help us all.

Gary

And just to show that I am not blinkered by that witch, who was it that liberated the financial services in 1986 and led directly to the destruction of "prudence" resulting in today's recession. And if anyone objects to the word recession, take a wander out of the south east of England.

To me, it is her fault. She caused it, she sowed the seeds of despair that we see in this country.

Gary