Who is most hated - Thatcher or Blair

[jmorgan]

LordGrover said:

I wonder what state we'd be in now had Mrs Thatcher not taken on the unions?
Do the haters not remember the mid-late seventies? The WInter of Discontent? Three day weeks? Rubbish piling up in the streets? Even grave diggers were striking!
The unions were out of control and ruining this country. I was unable to get to my place of work because striking steelworkers had travelled from South Wales to picket our gates.
Does anyone really believe the mines and steel mills were viable in that climate? Should I be expected to fund the loss making industries from my hard earned taxes? I'd rather it was spent building a better economy than holding up a failed one.

The overwhelming memories if I were to recall any were of the dreary state. Rubbish mountains were something though, should have taken up climbing.

The steel works would keep someone on to sweep the floors at the same rate rather than suggest that that post was no longer there and perhaps re skilling or the tin tack.

[turbobloke]

LewG said:

Blair. Evil bd that has left this country in a wonderfully stty situation, and one that we'll all be feeling for a very long time to come.

He's certainly nowhere near as popular as Thatcher.

A YouGov poll with a sample of 1,893 (so nearly twice the size of election surveys) found that Thatcher came top of the post-war prime ministers with 28% of the vote, Churchill was in second place with 24% then Bliar was third with 10% about a third of Thatcher's vote. Not even close.

[gruffalo]

LordGrover said:

I wonder what state we'd be in now had Mrs Thatcher not taken on the unions?
Do the haters not remember the mid-late seventies? The WInter of Discontent? Three day weeks? Rubbish piling up in the streets? Even grave diggers were striking!
The unions were out of control and ruining this country. I was unable to get to my place of work because striking steelworkers had travelled from South Wales to picket our gates.
Does anyone really believe the mines and steel mills were viable in that climate? Should I be expected to fund the loss making industries from my hard earned taxes? I'd rather it was spent building a better economy than holding up a failed one.

This is bang on.

Thatcher was needed, she may not have done what was popular but my god was it needed.

In the latter years she seemed to loose the plot a little but I dont want to think what would have become of this country had someone with her focus not changed things.

In my living memory there have been two extended periods of a labour government and both times they have left power with the country on its knees financially.

[E24man]

gruffalo said:

LordGrover said:

I wonder what state we'd be in now had Mrs Thatcher not taken on the unions?
Do the haters not remember the mid-late seventies? The WInter of Discontent? Three day weeks? Rubbish piling up in the streets? Even grave diggers were striking!
The unions were out of control and ruining this country. I was unable to get to my place of work because striking steelworkers had travelled from South Wales to picket our gates.
Does anyone really believe the mines and steel mills were viable in that climate? Should I be expected to fund the loss making industries from my hard earned taxes? I'd rather it was spent building a better economy than holding up a failed one.

This is bang on.

Thatcher was needed, she may not have done what was popular but my god was it needed.

In the latter years she seemed to loose the plot a little but I dont want to think what would have become of this country had someone with her focus not changed things.

In my living memory there have been two extended periods of a labour government and both times they have left power with the country on its knees financially.

The issue I have with Thatcher haters is that they have no real answers when it is made clear what the late 1960's and early 1970's were actually like. They either just regurgitate what they've been told or tell how it immediately affected their own job, village or town without a thought for the state of the Country that the Labour Party and the Unions had put us all in.

[Guybrush]

LewG said:

Blair. Evil bd that has left this country in a wonderfully stty situation, and one that we'll all be feeling for a very long time to come.

Completely agree. Thatcher rescued the country from Labour; Labour and Bliar reversed virtually all of the country's improved economic situation. Lefties may like to airbrush history and influence gullible younger ones who didn't experience what the country was like before Thatcher, but fortunately many know what happened.

[Kermit power]

Westy Pre-Lit said:

Kermit power said:

Ruskie said:

Thatcher. Destroyed communities, families and individual lives. I understand why but it doesn't make it right. Those same communities have never recovered and probably never will.

Can you give one single solid reason why you think those communities could've successfully carried on without Thatcher, rather than inreasingly taking the rest of the country down with them?

Once she had destroyed industries and communities etc , what investments were / have been put in place to fill the voids so they can recover ?

Can't stand or chose from either of them, but her, Lovely woman.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2707333/Th...

Quite why some think the sun shone out of her backside is beyond me.

I take it that's "no, I can't give you one single solid reason why those communities could've successfully carried on without Thatcher" then?

[TommoAE86]

Being to young to remember Mrs T I can only look back at the legacy and from that I am not able to hate her, there were positives that she brought and it's good she did what she said she was going to do, however unpopular, rather than lying to the press and doing something else.
Asking my parents who did live through her time and they are very anti-her however both ended their views on her by saying "however she did do [xyz goods things for the country] and she did what she said she was going to" and they cannot hate her for that. Both are of the opinion that if she hadn't done something about the unions we would've ended up in a terrible situation.

Whereas with Blair they can't find a single positive thing to say about him and what he did. I was aware enough when he was enacting his tyranny and to me he doesn't deserve anything other than a CIA "fight" that is continuously refuelled. I hate him and everything he did to ruin this country, he's a lying, manipulative fk and I would cheer if something terrible happened to him.

[HenryJM]

Most of the major changes made by Thatcher we were retained by subsequent governments, particularly the long stint of Blair.

When she became PM we have steel (British Steel) being made by the public sector, as were cars (British Leyland), railways, electricity, gas - you name it. They have all become private competitive industries and far better for it and never proposed to be reversed by Labour Governments.

Now more latterly in her time things were less positive, but anyone who thinks that the changes in her early years were not major positive improvements for us - even ones that saved us from pretty disastrous situations - needs to really look at it and learn more about what actually happened.

[Stevanos]

Triumph Man said:

That's because thatcher haters are generally noisy chavs and apparently now students.

This resonated with me, I was sat in an office with quite a few people in their early 20's, when the news of Thatchers death came, there was an unpleasant reaction from the early twenty somethings. I thought what on earth are these people on about, most of them were not even alive when she was in power. So, I assumed that they were probably of that group of young people who are deliberately leftie just because they want to be cool with the kids rather than any form of intelligent historical reasoning.

[Guybrush]

Stevanos said:

So, I assumed that they were probably of that group of young people who are deliberately leftie just because they want to be cool with the kids rather than any form of intelligent historical reasoning.

Classic Labour target market.

[Morningside]

Guybrush said:

Stevanos said:

So, I assumed that they were probably of that group of young people who are deliberately leftie just because they want to be cool with the kids rather than any form of intelligent historical reasoning.

Classic Labour target market.

Hence the reason why Labour want to lower the age of voting to 16.


Thatcher may have caused damage. BUT Blair has caused decades of repercussions by allowing open immigration or centuries worth of damage with his mate George.

Edited by Morningside on Friday 12th December 11:10

[crankedup]

Thatcher divided Society and I despised many of her Governments policies. Having said that the Lady was sincere and passionate along with that strong will making a formidable P.M. Stand any of the current bunch of lightweights, masquerading as politicians next to her qualities and she 'blows them back into the cabbage patch' where they belong.

Blair, he came and went, now we have the mess he left as a legacy we could do without.

Its all one reason I am a Lib-Dem.

[prand]

Guybrush said:

Classic Labour target market.

How does that quote go?

Something like:

"If you’re not a socialist before you’re twenty-five, you have no heart; if you are a socialist after twenty-five, you have no head."

[Hackney]

Wheat said:

Getragdogleg said:

Both as hated but the people that hate Blair hate him for different reasons to those who hated Thatcher.

The Blair haters are less likely to make a song and dance about it and hold the grudge for the next 30 years and are more likely to shrug and think "that's politics" whereas the Thatcher haters are more of the knee jerk-never forget mindset.

Spot on, couldn't of put it better myself.

Couldn't *have* put it better myself.

See, that's what Thatcher did to education in this country!

[Hackney]

I just looked up "hypocrisy" in the dictionary and found this

J4CKO said:

Blair just makes my skin crawl, odious.

weirdly, don't mind David Cameron.

[LordGrover]

^^ DC's a bit of a twerp, but not in the same league as Blair.

[Hackney]

TheChampers said:

Over 40 with a memory and a capacity for critical thinking? Blair every time; utter tosser

Thatch, over 40 with a memory and a capacity for critical thinking? The best we could have hoped for at the very worst of post-war times. Not perfect, but in the circumstances, the best we could have had. Just think of the alternatives available at that time in her party and the others

I'm sorry but this isn't about context. We can't judge Thatcher based on the opposition because they were not PM. We can only judge based on Thatcher's rule.
Using your methodology Blair cannot be hated because the alternative was Major.

[Hackney]

Westy Pre-Lit said:

Once she had destroyed industries and communities etc , what investments were / have been put in place to fill the voids so they can recover ?

Can't stand or chose from either of them, but her, Lovely woman.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2707333/Th...

Quite why some think the sun shone out of her backside is beyond me.

This

[Hackney]

CamMoreRon said:

I don't think so.. (1) Blair is thoroughly hated by pretty much everyone who was old enough to see / know what he was doing, whereas Thatcher is hated only by people who were old enough to be affected by what she was doing. (2) I know she f**ked some things up, and set this country down a path it may never recover from, but a lot of people love her for it so opinion tends to be polarised. Blair on the other hand.. opinion seems to range from "smug git" to "execute him for war crimes".

Anyway.. TL;DR version: I think Blair will be hated for a while once people forget about Thatcher.

1 I think you're wrong about that
2 This is an incredible statement. She set us on the road to ruin, we might not recover. But she's blue so it's OK

[Turbodiesel1976]

Blair. There is not a genuine bone in that sneaky wee bd's body