And the point being? Look at vitrually every post in the 2 threads about Maggie, everyone is happy she is dead, yet forget about this event in her terms in office.
I'm too young to fully appreciate what life was like under Thatcher. All I can do put my in their shoes- the position that if where I lived was invaded, the country has a duty to act in response to this. Whether this is the Falklands, Isle of Man, or Kidderminster matters not.
**** off, she was told that the Argentinians were building up for an invasion 6 months before it all kicked off, had she sent her flotilla of vessels earlier, she would have saved the lives of 255 British servicemen. Instead she -as the most unpopular post war leader this nation has ever known and near certain not to gain a 2nd term in office, delayed her response until the Argentinians had actually invaded. Be comforted in the fact that people died so her government could whip us all up into a jingoistic nationalist frenzy and enable her to call for an early election.
Don't forget what she tried to do to ALL football fans - ID cards, no away fans, blaming Liverpool fans for Hillsborough etc. ...and she told us all up here to stop being Moani ng Minnies!
What and left the lads on South Georgia stranded? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...ok-on-Argentine-Falklands-invasion-force.html
The reason those servicemen died was hardly because of Thatcher wishing to win an election. It was made clear to her by senior figures in the navy that if she didn't send a task force when the Argentinians invaded, then Britain's word would mean nothing (they had told Argentina they would 'kick them out' if they invaded). As regards not sending ships earlier, no one thought Argentina would invade. Thatcher may have won the 1983 election on the back of the Falklands War but it was hardly planned.
Bit of a curate's egg. Good at first, putting right the union-inspired "Winter of Discontent", which made a ****ing shambles of our economy. And I'm glad Michael Foot wasn't PM when the Argies invaded. Right-to-buy for council houses was a good policy too. Good for a laugh annoying the Europeans. On the bad side, mass privatizations, the poll tax, destroying our shipyard, buggering the coal industry, well pretty much everything after 1984 really.
You are totally missing the point...The government of the day had been warned what Argentina could do, and could have easily sent a couple of ships into the area to warn them off..The fact that her government chose to ignore this cost hundreds of lives..
Easily sent a couple of ships? It took an awful lot more than a couple of ships to warn them off. The point is that Argentina would have had a two week head start on any Royal Navy ships sent to the South Atlantic and there was already a small garrison of of British marines out there (not that anyone, including most in government, knew where the Falklands were). Argentina were free to invade, especially since spending cuts had depleted the Royal Navy further. Anyway, Britain was actually in negotiations with Argentina regarding sovereignty of the Falklands (Britain considered the islands to be of little economic or strategic value but the Islanders themselves were hostile to Argentina) so no one in government would have expected an invasion. That is, until the drunken Argentinian leader Galtieri decided to boost his popularity back home by grabbing Las Malvinas from Britain.
