If we had been at home tomorrow would you have wanted a minute's silence/applause? Me?....NO! Objectively I could admire her single-mindedness and conviction; and there were national matters to address by whoever was PM at the time. However I loathed her. Her approach lacked any humanity and she made our society more divided and encouraged the 'get rich at all costs' mentality. As a former PM she deserves a grand funeral, but it has now got daft, and the idea of the Queen attending is wrong. No! If any City fans have an opinion on this...feel free to comment.
Can't stand her but i think people should respect her funeral tbh. But i wouldn't give her silence or applause because that would imply she did something good.
Im younger than a lot of you i was born in the 80's so i dont know much about her. im not really into politics so i dont know what she stood for but i heard she was PM for over 10 years so if she was as as bad as people say, how did she stay in power for so long? obviously she done something wrong and upset a lot of people but i dont know the info on what it was. but people are celebrating her death more than they celebrated bin laden and saddam put together so it must be bad. a song is in the charts now due to her death "ding dong the witch is dead" bit harsh her poor family.
Yeah that is a good point about Bin laden and Saddam. I was only young in the eighties to so didn't know anything about it she left office 23 years ago and some of these protesters were even born then she had bad points and good points like most people but I know one thing Blair is far worse then her.
Hated her with a passion at the time, hated the Tories but over time I come to understand it, it's all one big vicious circle. Labour in party 12 years in power spend spend spend till recession kicks in housing market drops. Public think it's time to change! Tories come in gets tight with the money helps the rich etc, but interest rates rise housing market suffers again. 12 years in little seeds start to recover in time for public to thing enough is enough time to change. Labour come in and we are going round again. Hated her but her stubbornness holding out over Europe could of prevented a massive problem in this country! Imagine going through what Spain and Italy are now? The Poll tax shambles, looking back on it probably turned out to be the fairest system, compared to what we have now. But enjoyed the demo's and smashing things up But to P49 it has no place in football, and as far as I was aware even Thatcher herself didn't want a state funeral. For the younger one's found this on Facebook if someone can actually change this link to a photo for me please https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...317169814234.2120900.1417918418&type=1&ref=nf
i posted this in the skull and crossbones but seems fitting here as well.... WARNING contains bad language. [video=youtube;u-Tcd3q60wI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-Tcd3q60wI&feature=player_embedded[/video]
Irrespective of any ones politics Baroness Thatcher served and represented our country at the highest level. A minutes silence,hardly a stretch as we would give that to a footballer or a person that we had never seen or perhaps heard of before. Sometimes we need to step back from the edge and gain some perpective,we are all human, life is short whoever you are. May I suggest that there should be no issues respecting a one minutes silence for anyone. However I also agree that any individual has the right should they wish not to observe the request for silence. COR COR
In response to CJS let me just give a quick synopsis of why Thatcher was either respected or despised. From the sixties when Macmillan coined the phrase âYouâve never had it so goodâ Britain had been on a steady decline. We had seen poitical policies swinging regularly between Left and Right government. Poorly managed companies struggled to get by and Unions were calling strikes at the drop of a hat (coined by the rest of the world as âthe British Diseaseâ). Restrictive practices by both Nationalised industry and Trade Unions were bringing the country to its knees. We had seen three day working weeks and rubbish piled up in the streets for weeks on end. Thatcher was elected in 1979 with a single minded purpose which was to put Britain back on the world stage in economic terms. What happened was economically effective, but the cause and effect of her policies were painful and unacceptable to many people. She took a free market approach. Companies would stand or fall on their own ability. âLame Ducksâ would be allowed to disappear. The public were encouraged to take up share issues on what had been Nationalised industries; Rolls Royce, Steel etc. e.g. Post Office Telephones became British Telecomm. etc. So large sums of private savings finished up in the Countryâs coffers. Subsidised companies like the car industry were eventually privatised and stood or fell on their ability to survive on the open market. Lots of previously featherbedded jobs in the Nationalised industries were lost as their privately owned successors refined the working practises in order to make profits. One of her major decisions was to sell of Council Housing stocks to the incumbant tenants at prices which I believe reflected the length of their tenancy, so at prices well below the market rate. The monies received by such sales were frozen to prevent Councils spending those funds. Her second and most divisive policy was to tackle the Trade Unions and set up rules and regulations to prevent the âthe tail wagging the dogâ The coal minerâs had always received a vote of public sympathy when wage demands were raised, after all the coal face workers put their lives at risk on a daily basis. The NUM was the most powerful union in the country. Unfortunately for the miners, it was cheaper to buy imported coal from Poland etc. So the coal industry became a lame duck. Mines that were not seen to be profitable were put on the close down list. So Thatcher had a double whammy; both a lame duck and the major trade union. And in addition a prize twat at the helm of the NUM. Not only did Mr Scargill apparently decide to call a national strike without reference to the membership, he called a coal strike when no-one wanted any coal in the Springtime. The second biggest union, the ITV and film industry followed with another a long term and very public dispute at Channel Four. The coal industry and the unions lost on all counts, but the loss of jobs and distress caused particularly to the close-knit mining communities will never be erased from peopleâs memories. Unemployment initially rose to 3 million. She also tackled the European Union over Britainâs contribution and has to date saved this country from paying about £75 billion. At the end of her reign Britain was in a very healthy economic position but some would say âat what costâ.
Well put Saphire I said before I detested her when in power, as I was one of those 3 million out of work. Leaving school at the height of the unemployment height, I blamed her. Nothing to do with the fact I was the next generation of the war children and the population boom. But looking back at her and seeing what has gone on between I have to admire her ability to become the first women in a mans world with bigger bollocks than the ones we have now! She stood up against so much in her mind to protect her country. Could you imagin if she was in power now and we had these terrorist and hate Britain citizens being protected by human rights. No they would be out this country once they raised their ugly vile outburst speeches and prevented the hatred some have against people just because they come from the same country as these fundamentalist. But P49 asked if we should have a minutes silence in football. It's still a no from me, where would it end? Would we have one for every popular actor and musician. She meant nothing to football so if people want to respect her, do it by having a minutes silence on the day of her funeral. Even though she said she didn't want us to have one for her, probably because she knows the cost of these things.
Excellent post Sapphire. With hindsight I can see her strengths, but for me the tipping point is your question 'at what cost?' All the blame cannot be laid at her door, but the avarice prevalant in so much of society today; and the lack of empathy for others, stem from her period of office. On a lighter note...I understand there will be 90 minutes silence in her honour at the Gate today....hope someone notices!
I wouldn't want to take sides on this one. There is too much malcontent on the down side issues. For me on a personal basis I took a large whack of voluntary redundancy, set up my own business and never looked back. Others were less fortunate. If for example you were American, you would probably say she was the best thing to grace the planet! Those favouring more left wing views are already expressing themselves to the contrary. Should we have one minutes silence? Just where do we draw the line as others have said? Not my call fortunately.
No to a minute of silence. The trouble with a lot of folk is either there to young or have forgotten what went on in the 70's. The Unions were incredibly powerful, especially the Miners, Car and Print workers. They held the country to ransom time and time again. Something had to change. We lived through power cuts, I worked a 3 day bloody week, you couldn't bury the dead, the refuse was piled high in the streets - do I have to go on. I didn't like the way she went about things at the time I have to admit. But you couldn't keep subsidising lame duck Mining, Car and Print etc industries. Cheap coal from abroad killed mining communities, not Thatcher. Imported and better value cars killed the Car industry, not Thatcher. Cheap European printers killed the Book printing industry, not Thatcher. And Guys, if all Thatcher did was wrong then why didn't the useless successive governments repeal it all.
cheers sapph for the detailed comment sounds like from all the comments she had good points and bad points. does she deserve the parties thats been thrown due to her death? a song is in the charts to do with her 'ding dong the witch is dead' seems i tad unfair as well. i feel sorry for her family. worse people have come and gone and not had this effect on people. again i said this before but there has been more celebrations and parties thrown than when saddam and bin laden combined was dead. i odnt know the funeral arrangements but i hope she doesnt get buried as i can see the way things have gone that people be dancing on her grave which will be on youtube!
