Thatcher.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

A thought or two for Mr X (Tory cunt) and Mr SD (Tory cunt in the closet)

 

Tory spin on coal masks fact that 80 per cent of coal jobs were lost under Thatcher | Left Foot Forward

 

Amid the concerted attempts to reinvent the Thatcher years in recent days, an intriguing, counter-intuitive claim has been doing the rounds that rather than being the enemy of coal mining Margaret Thatcher was actually kinder to the industry than previous governments.

The inference seems to be that the lingering animosity towards Mrs Thatcher, particularly in many former mining communities which have celebrated her demise in passing days, is somehow unfair.

Alastair Heath in the Daily Mail (where else?) argued that:

“The slow demise of coal mining has been a tragedy for many communities, and the cause of much suffering. But more mines were closed during Harold Wilson’s two terms in office than in Thatcher’s three – and yet he remains a left-wing hero.”

The point was echoed over at ConservativeHome:

“Then there is the charge that it was Margaret Thatcher who ‘destroyed’ the coal mines and the mining communities. How many times have the BBC broadcast that claim without refutation? Yet the facts show that far more coal mines closed under the Labour prime ministers Harold Wilson and James Callaghan.”

Unsurprisingly, both are being highly selective with the facts. The historical data shows that while 212,000 coal mining jobs were lost under the 1964-1970 Labour Government, under Mrs. Thatcher’s 1979-1990 government, the percentage decline in jobs was actually double that.

43 per cent of mining jobs went in the 1960s under Wilson while 80 per cent were lost under Thatcher. Also, as the trend rate of economic growth was lower under Thatcher than Wilson (just 2.8 per cent compared to 3.4 per cent) and unemployment was considerably higher throughout the 1980s than the 1960s, redundant miners had fewer alternative job options as a result of Mrs Thatcher’s stewardship of the industry.

As former NUM official Ken Capstick put it in The Guardian this week:

“Miners had always known that eventually any of the colleries would close and were always prepared to accept that as a fact of life and find employment somewhere else within the industry, but Thatcher’s attack was wholesale. It was seen for what it was, nothing to do with economics, but purely an attempt to destroy the National Union of Mineworkers by wiping out the entire industry.’

“Thatcher was hardly a benign force when it came to coal mining, despite what some of her admirers would now have us believe. She accelerated the trend decline in coal for ideological reasons, using the 1984-85 miners’ strike to break the industry while waging a wider battle against organised labour. Indeed, she records her attitude to the miners in her memoir, ‘The Downing Street Years’:

“…it was only by ensuring that they lost face and were seen to be defeated and rejected by their own people that we could tame the militants.’ (P.343)”

So striking miners were infamously described by her as ‘the enemy within’, with the security service MI5 was set loose on them. More recently, allegations that officers conspired to lie in witness statements during the ‘Battle of Ogreave’ – (when 10,000 strikers clashed with 5,000 police at Orgreave Colliery in South Yorkshire in June 1984) – have gained fresh urgency following the revelation that the police used the same modus operandi straight after the Hillsborough tragedy.

But many in mining communities also recall the special callousness directed towards them by Thatcher. Striking miners’ wives were denied hardship payments (which they had always previously been able to claim during a strike), with some reduced to selling wedding rings to feed their families as they struggled during the latter stages of the year-long stoppage.

So this attempt to rehabilitate Mrs Thatcher’s legacy is a revision of history too far. I’m afraid many mining communities continue to despise Mrs Thatcher for entirely sound, evidence-based reasons.

[kalasoma]

Update: She's still dead.

[Section_31]

Update: She's still dead.

 

But what about the nine rings she gifted to the race of men?

[zigackly]

Update: She's still dead.

 

[Strontium]

But what about the nine rings she gifted to the race of men?

 

 

Gordon Brown sold them off to the Chinese at the bottom of the market.

[Nightcat]

So no one can explain the paradox of a neo-liberal politicians who advocated for individualism, privatisations, free market, against anything state funded, can receive a £10m state funded service, instead of leading by example and paying with private funds for the service?

[Antynwa]

[Carvalho Diablo]

[dennis tooth]

"I enjoy a good swim my favourite stroke maggie thatchers"

[PestiRed]

Saw this thread. Remembered that's she still dead. Had a little tot of tequila to celebrate.

 

Has Melchett dug her up and punched her in her cold, dead cunt yet?

[Arl arse]

Maggie.......... Friend to the rich and Pedophile

[Son of L8]

When I saw this thread on the first page, I instinctively did the old, "Hunh, did she die? I bet she didn't, and it's just some cunt posting a newspaper article about her."

 

Then I remembered the horrible vermin really is dead, and I smiled.

[Creator Supreme]

I love this forum :)

[Carvalho Diablo]

When I saw this thread on the first page, I instinctively did the old, "Hunh, did she die? I bet she didn't, and it's just some cunt posting a newspaper article about her."

 

Then I remembered the horrible vermin really is dead, and I smiled.

 

[Lee909]

You would think this would be a bit bigger news wouldn't you. British government planning to murder a elected PM

 

MI5 asked a loyalist paramilitary group to assassinate the Irish prime minister during the height of the conflict in Northern Ireland, according to claims in newly released government documents.

The records show that in 1987, Prime Minister Charles Haughey was informed by a letter sent from the Protestant Ulster Volunteer Force that British Intelligence wanted him dead.

In it, they claimed to Haughey that “in 1985 we were approached by a MI5 officer attached to the NIO [Northern Ireland Office] and based in Lisburn, Alex Jones was his supposed name,” the UVF said. “He asked us to execute you.” The letter was among the Irish government archives released today.

The UVF said they turned down the request, telling the Taoiseach: “We refused to do it. We were asked would we accept responsibility if you were killed. We refused.”

 

The letter was on UVF-headed paper and included tidbits about Haughey's ostentatious personal lifestyle -- his cars and mansion in Dublin, and Inishvickillane, an island off Ireland's southwest coast he bought in 1974. The paramilitaries warned Haughey that these details would be used in a smear campaign against him.

But loyalist paramilitaries, as the letter said, had “no love” for the Republic of Ireland. On May 17 1974 the UVF murdered 33 people in car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan.

 

The UVF warning to Haughey came two years after Margaret Thatcher signed the landmark Anglo-Irish Agreement, which laid the foundations for the 1998 Good Friday peace deal that ended the Northern Ireland Troubles.

 

Most Northern Ireland unionists and loyalists opposed the 1985 agreement, staging huge street protests denouncing a perceived “sell-out” by London.

Other Irish archive papers released today suggested that despite tensions over Northern Ireland, Thatcher and Haughey otherwise had a warm relationship.

 After the Conservative Party's 1987 British election win, Haughey penned a letter to Thatcher suggesting that her landslide win was "a well deserved tribute to your great personal qualities, particularly your skill and resolution." 

[Lee909]

Why the fuck is this in the FF

Just googles Liverpoolway and thatcher

[moof]

I love a bit of GF on the FF

[RobbieOR]

Shame they didn't succeed, Haughey is the worst politician to ever come from this island. 

[cloggypop]

Still dead. Good stuff.

[TheBitch]

Still dead. Good stuff.

I feared the worst when I saw this thread had been bumped.

[cloggypop]

It's OK. She's not for turning.

[El Dangerous]

Was a shit left back but had a mean elbow.

[VladimirIlyich]

It's OK. She's not for turning.

Only when adding the Barbecue Sauce.

[Pureblood]

Happy dead bitch

[kalasoma]

She's still dead. Happy New Year!