Mrs Thatcher - rather different from todays politicians

[andymadmak]

Unlike our MPs these days, with their porn films, duck houses and flipping residences it seems as though Mrs T had some morals when it came to her expense claims:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20800549

[andymadmak]

rohrl said:

She married a rich businessman and thus had no need to line her own pockets.

She was also BFFs with Jimmy Savile -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/jimmy...

What are you insinuating?

[andymadmak]

colonel c said:

Well they say 'Thatcher sold the family silver' (Privatisation) so guess he was in good company.

'They' don't know what there are talking about.

[andymadmak]

crankedup said:

Even taking inflation into account half billion was a pittance (no pun intended)Loosing a whole National industry for such a paltry sum is a scandal IMO. Strange that we are now 'happy' to throw thirteen billion overseas in the name of aid and yet wouldn't support our own industry.

I am not sure you are correct. Taking inflation into account would suggest that the figure today would be more than 5 billion. And that's assuming that there would have been no additional costs in terms of equipment, safety related changes to work practices etc. In reality we might have been spending double that had we kept the coal industry. The other thing that is very clear is that Governments make crap managers of industry. They tend to make investment decisions for political rather than sound business reasons. You can imagine that investments in efficiency would be ignored if that meant making people redundant in marginal constituencies... or the investment in critical equipment such as rolling stock or production machinery would be delayed because Government wanted to spend money on vote winning policies.
One of the reasons ( I do say one!) that rail costs have risen in the way they have is that successive Governments of all colours saw the railways as a place to not spend money - just enough and not a penny more, unless there was a rail disaster/tragic accident of some sort and then lots of people would be wise after the event. The railways are far safer and more efficient than they were 20 years ago. (But still no where near perfect due to the silly privatisation model used) The cost has been high, but I honestly don't see that it would have been any cheaper in state hands, indeed it's likely it would have been more expensive!