Bluff and myself will be coming, we will wear our Tweed jackets and Jodhpur leggings to ensure we fit in and don't embarrass you.
I'd love to get a costume of the coroner of the Munchkins, Think he's ace. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHQLQ1Rc_Js
Crumpet, my last post was meant to be humerous - hence the laughing smiley at the end. The point that I am still trying to make is that those who were too young or not yet born during the Thatcher years only have commentaries upon which to base their judgements. Those of us who were there have the sights, sounds and smells of what happened against which to evaluate those commentators claims. When I was teaching MBA students Corporate Strategy I often used a Harvard Case Study on Honda's Penetration of the US motorcycle market. Splitting then into 2 groups they were asked to read the case study and prepare a short presentation of the contents, their findings and judgements. What each group did not know was that there was 2 case studies - Honda A based upon the recollections of Honda executives who were based in the US and led their asault, and Honda B which was a report by the Boston Consulting Group which reflected their thinking upon corporate direction. Both case studies concentrated upon the same events. It soon became clear to the students that whilst both studies were accurate, they presented a very different picture of what happened and why. But if both accounts are accurate, where does the truth lie? This same dielma covers the Thatcher 'heritage'. Billy, saint, RHC, Page and I grew up in a very different era and we lived through the Thatcher years - they impinged upon us immediately and directly. They challenged the pillars of what held us together as a society. They therefore directly influence our feelings and memories and hence our judgements of those times. For us what we shout about IS our truth. It IS our history - we lived it. However, it cannot be the ONLY truth. Problem is there is no point 'somewhere in the middle' that the real truth resides.
Can't disagree with you at all there but you (may) have underplayed the knock on effects of Thatcher's reign to the next (my) generation. Thatcherism never truly died and the job security in the public sector is at an all time low now the Tories are back. I will not be a home owner for years (if ever), I may have to wait months for a job having to compete with 500 or so other people. None of Thatcher's policies were sustainable and we are all feeling it now.
Part of the great sadness of the Thatcher years for many of us is that the consequences were almost immediately too difficult to reverse eg privatisation. For me an almost equal sadness lies with the inability of the Labour party to define a rational economic policy and embrace the recommendation of In Place of Strife. This was then further compounded by the internecine battles which ultimately led to the abortion of Socialist principles that called itself New Labour. Unfortunately, we now have a society that has been brainwashed into believing that socialism is an evil and that the pursuit of profit and individualism are the only true goals.
That's because the Tories appealed to one of the worst sides of human nature, one that is near irresistible - greed.
It's also because the politicians and activists of the Left engaged in tribal warfare rather than coalescing to create a new and more vibrant policy
Acoording to the BBC there are large crowds for the funeral, but the streets look less busy than usual. And it is a "humble" £10m service.
Satan tells me shes getting on his tits already, privatised torture and has tried to quash the power of Satans torture Monkeys. Pleased I didn't get her TBH.
Can't believe the hypocrisy of the right-wing media tut-tutting at dissention, looking fakely solemn and the faux dignity, yet at the same time they're all feverishly watching the polls before, during and after the funeral to see if they give the Tories a desperate boost. £10m party political broadcast, and let's not ever fool ourselves again that the monarchy is politically neutral.
Good documentary on here about Thatcher, bluntly honest and well, she ain't coming off good at all. Focusing a lot on her stupidity on the Falklands and her ignoring any diplomatic route and how the well off made quick easy fortunes from privatisation and mainly how the well to do in The City are the ones who really benefited from her destruction of public services that were sold off. She launched conspicuous consumption by the rich and how she poisoned Europe towards England, a feeling which still lasts in many aspects and how she above all saw the common working man as a pleb mob to be oppressed. Not really surprising how those outside of England see her for what she was Ruthless ****ing bitch. Hitler would have been fond of that ****
If you want to see the legacy of Thatchers policies then read this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22233389 and then think about what her successors are doing to our Welfare State.
