Grey Carter said:
B Goy said:
You forgot blind Thatcher-hate based on nothing.
You mean aside from that part where she destroyed an entire industry, leaving crippled and dying towns strewn across the north?
You mean when Harold Wilson closed down more mines (~36,000 per year between 1964-1970) then Thatcher ever did (12,500 per year), or when she aided in the re-starting of the car industry by sending the Nissan plant to the North East instead of an area where she could have sent it to an area where she could have increased Tory support. Under Wilson, coal output went from 200 million tonnes to 140 million tonnes while under Thatcher it went from 105 million tonnes to 85 million tonnes.
I'm not going to say that Thatcher was perfect. I'm trying to say that many people hate Thatcher because not only did she do her reforms, against all opposition, but she won and her lack of charisma and "like it or lump it" attitude meant people were turned away. Not only that, but the left never got their scalp, instead of losing an election badly due to poll tax and other things, she just got overthrown in an internal affair due to Europe. This caused dislike to turn into hatred in some quarters and causes ludicrous hyperbole to emerge such as "Thatcha stole mah milk so I'll dance on 'er grave" (not that I'm accusing you of such things) from some who were only children or not even born during the 80s. To those who go "MILK-SNATCHER" I direct you to Patrick Walker. who began the process and Shirley Williams, who completed it, for that.
The hate mostly comes from a source of comfort, what's honestly better to hear, "Sorry but years of stagnating industry and overly arrogant, ideological trade union leaders have meant that the economy is in the crapper and the necessary solution involves you guys failing, sorry but thems the brakes" or "FATCHA RUINED EVERYTHING! The 70s were awesome and everyone was happy until she came in, hate her and forget about that depressing crap"? It does happen on the other end of the spectrum. Thatcher was far more pro-Europe then the Telegraph likes to think and she u-turned and negotiated a lot more then people think but the Thatcher-hate outweighes the Thatcher-love sometimes.