Thatcher has died

mishap I am with you there!

And now a state funersl..might book a holiday!

Mags (@_maggiemayhem)
08/04/2013 14:06
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The reason I think that she had such a profoundly detrimental effect on our psociety is....

- she inappropriately introduced the idea of privatisation and (worse still) competition into public services.
- she did not trust professionals to do their jobs and destroyed trust in the teaching, medical and other professions
- she took away professionals' sense of vocation and job satisfaction.
- she promoted money and profit (not evil in themselves) as the main aim of society.
- she encouraged the tendency towards individualism rather than community.

Apart from all that, she was just great!

I think it bemeans a person to be known as 'Mrs' as if who she was married to or married at all mattered in terms of her political life. The title baroness was given in recognition of her public life..nothing to do with her marriage. so says Ms nanaej!

Thats it Greatnan knew it was something like that!

Francois Mitterand said she had the lips of Marilyn Monroe and the eyes of Caligula.

Can't remember who said it but one foreign politician said she had the lips of Marilyn Monroe and the brain of Atilla the Hun! (May not have got the quote exactly right - in need of a caffeine fix!)

sunseeker She never ignored the fact that she was a woman or considered it irrelevant. She was a blatant flirt and, bizarre thought it seems to me, apparently regarded as incredibly sexy by some men in her government.

Do you remember the Arabs made her an honorary man when she visited?

As far as I'm concerned she's the one who taught Britain it was ok to be greedy..............

Agree j08 it would have been nice to have Mrs in the thread title.
It's 21 years since Mrs Thatcher left politics.
If she set the country in a wrong course, subsequent politicians have had plenty of time to change things since.
I feel sad that she suffered the indignity of dementia; no one deserved that.
I remember Ken Livingstone saying that he hated her politics but admired her very much as a person. I admired him for his honesty and gallantry.
Then there was the time she was on the Today programme with the late lamented Brian Redhead, and he inadvertently addressed her as 'Margaret'. He quickly recovered himself and said 'Oh ... if I may call you that ..'
'Oh, Brian,' purred the Iron Lady, 'I do wish you would.'
She did have a warm side.

I shall avoid the television/radio for the next few days. I hope there isn't a grand funeral of any kind.

I admired her strength and determination, but obviously she made mistakes and she was a bit of a bully think that's an underestimate

She was a strong leader when we needed one. Some are complaining that she did nothing for women coming after her but I think she considered the fact that she was a woman was irrelevant. I didn't agree with everything she did but she took over when the country was in a mess and never lost an election, it was her own party who ousted her and I think they have been poorer for it ever since.

I'm surprised they did n' t break into radio programmes with a news flash.

Its sad for her family but I won't be shedding any tears, I remember being very briefly hopeful when she was first PM but my hopes were almost instantly dashed..

That's a good quotation, nanaej; sums her up well.

And yes, folks, endless TV programmes coming up. Oh deary me.

Gally I agree with you. Whatever we might think of her policies we would have to agree that she believed in what she did and stood her ground. Even Roy Hattersley has been nice about her on the radio.

I do think it is time we stopped blaming her for all our ills. It was a long time ago and there has been plenty of time to put it all right again if the political will was there. Recently I was talking to someone who used to work in HR in the NHS and she blamed MT for everything and when I asked what could be done about it now as that was a long time ago she said it was too late to do anything!

The media have had plenty of time to prepare lots of programmes about her and her biography has been written but not to be published until after her death so that will hit the shelves anytime soon. We do all have an off button if we don't want to know about it.

No love lost here, she started this mess we're in. Now we're going to days if not weeks of television presenters telling us how great she was.

"In the course of her life, Mrs Thatcher took on half of the British population and tried to coerce them to her will and she did not succeed. But she was a conviction politician, a sign post not a weather cock; but one that I always felt was pointing the wrong way" - Tony Benn

I agree with Tony!

Her friends and family will be sad but I am not sad about the death of someone I only knew as a public figure and also I did not like the things she promoted.
As I said I wish I could admire her more for her for her political success as a female. Whilst sticking by your convictions can be a strength sometimes it can be a sign of absolute arrogance and lack of empathy.

And that's supposed to be a compliment?!

If Baroness Thatcher (let's give the lady her due title) were still P.M. today, she would still be the only real man among the members of both current and shadow cabinets.

I am not exactly heart broken to be honest. The first woman prime minister did not bring the feminine qualities that one had hoped - she was exspecially bellicose over the Falklands at huge cost to life on both sides.

I did not share her politics.

I liked her for her attitude towards stay- at-home mums. as illustrated here

RIP to a courageous lady