Who was worse? Blair or Thatcher..

[Morningside]

Nattering to someone last night and of course politics came up.
People still hate Mrs Thatcher with a passion after all these years and John Major has been completely forgotten!
So who was worse overall?

[marshalla]

At least Thatcher believed that what she was doing was right. Blair & co. just wanted to be in power for as long as possible.

[Eric Mc]

Thatcher still, more or less, believed in parliamentary procedures. Blair looked on the House of Commons and Cabinet Meetings as a hinderance to his ambitions.

[drivin_me_nuts]

Blair. A cheap MR2 pastiche of a Ferrari. He believed his own crud but as vapid as Willo-the-wisp. Mrs T, love her or loathe her, she stands apart from the dross that followed.

[Ruskie]

You must be joking?

Thatcher systematically destroyed towns and industries.

[kambites]

Ruskie said:

You must be joking?

Thatcher systematically destroyed towns and industries.

Whereas Blair did it accidentally.

[chris watton]

Ruskie said:

You must be joking?

Thatcher systematically destroyed towns and industries.

I think you'll find the unions had more than a hand in that....

[Mikeyboy]

Politically incorrect to say that Thatcher was good for the country even if she did some things that people either didn't like or were misguided.
Blair however sat through ten years of mispending, cronyism, erosion of civil rights, taking us into more wars than any Prime minister since the 19th century, reactive rather than proactive policy making and to cap it all a wilful disregard for the mechanisms of our democracy.

Is this really open to debate?

[sleep envy]

Mikeyboy said:

Is this really open to debate?

unbelievably so, yes

[marshalla]

Ruskie said:

You must be joking?

Thatcher systematically destroyed towns and industries.

I didn't say I liked what she did, but at least she had some principles that she followed.

[Plotloss]

Ruskie said:

You must be joking?

Thatcher systematically destroyed towns and industries.

Cobblers.

[Swilly]

Ruskie said:

You must be joking?

Thatcher systematically destroyed towns and industries.

Thatcher didnt destroy anything.... she just allowed the doctors to turn off the life-support machine of a patient that was a long-time brain dead.

Good leaders are born, great leaders are born at the right time.... Churchill and Thatcher are examples of that. Neither stayed around for long after their 'time' had passed.

[Ruskie]

Swilly said:

Ruskie said:

You must be joking?

Thatcher systematically destroyed towns and industries.

Thatcher didnt destroy anything.... she just allowed the doctors to turn off the life-support machine of a patient that was a long-time brain dead.

Good leaders are born, great leaders are born at the right time.... Churchill and Thatcher are examples of that. Neither stayed around for long after their 'time' had passed.

Northern working class towns where she could not get the votes where stripped. Mining communities for one where hit hard.

3 million unemployed under Thatcher ring any bells?

[chris watton]

When I was 18, I hated her, as I really didn’t know any better, being brought up on working class union attitudes – but I was, as with most people at that age (and beyond) impressionable, no doubt I would have swallowed MMGW and erosions of my civil rights to aid the war on terror too – as you know no better.

Looking back, I am sure that if Thatcher didn’t come along at that time, there’s every chance that the UK would now be a Third World country. The country desperately needs another leader of her ilk, they need to cut out the cancer than labour have willingly left to propergate unchecked.

[chris watton]

Ruskie said:

Swilly said:

Ruskie said:

You must be joking?

Thatcher systematically destroyed towns and industries.

Thatcher didnt destroy anything.... she just allowed the doctors to turn off the life-support machine of a patient that was a long-time brain dead.

Good leaders are born, great leaders are born at the right time.... Churchill and Thatcher are examples of that. Neither stayed around for long after their 'time' had passed.

Northern working class towns where she could not get the votes where stripped. Mining communities for one where hit hard.

3 million unemployed under Thatcher ring any bells?

Surely you don't think that the UK has any less unemployment now, do you?

[Ruskie]

chris watton said:

Ruskie said:

Swilly said:

Ruskie said:

You must be joking?

Thatcher systematically destroyed towns and industries.

Thatcher didnt destroy anything.... she just allowed the doctors to turn off the life-support machine of a patient that was a long-time brain dead.

Good leaders are born, great leaders are born at the right time.... Churchill and Thatcher are examples of that. Neither stayed around for long after their 'time' had passed.

Northern working class towns where she could not get the votes where stripped. Mining communities for one where hit hard.

3 million unemployed under Thatcher ring any bells?

Surely you don't think that the UK has any less unemployment now, do you?

It is well below 2 million although on the rise.

As a sidenote how people can vote for David Cameron is beyond me but the worrying factor is who do you vote for? Labour are all over the place.

[chris watton]

Ruskie said:

chris watton said:

Ruskie said:

Swilly said:

Ruskie said:

You must be joking?

Thatcher systematically destroyed towns and industries.

Thatcher didnt destroy anything.... she just allowed the doctors to turn off the life-support machine of a patient that was a long-time brain dead.

Good leaders are born, great leaders are born at the right time.... Churchill and Thatcher are examples of that. Neither stayed around for long after their 'time' had passed.

Northern working class towns where she could not get the votes where stripped. Mining communities for one where hit hard.

3 million unemployed under Thatcher ring any bells?

Surely you don't think that the UK has any less unemployment now, do you?

It is well below 2 million although on the rise.

As a sidenote how people can vote for David Cameron is beyond me but the worrying factor is who do you vote for? Labour are all over the place.

And are the figures calculated differently to what they were 25 years ago? What would the real figure be, I wonder, if they actually counted everyone out of work and on benefits, regardless of dodgy 'disabilities'

[Maxf]

Ruskie said:

3 million unemployed under Thatcher ring any bells?

The reporting goalposts have simply changed under new labia.

I did a report on a northern town a few weeks ago which had 21% of working age residents on perminent sick. They aren't unemployed - but are they working? No.

[jonnyb]

I think that Maggie Thatcher was the best thing that happened to this country.

She believed in personal responsibility, something that is sadly lacking today. Remember "there is no such thing as society"

[Dunk76]

Maxf said:

Ruskie said:

3 million unemployed under Thatcher ring any bells?

The reporting goalposts have simply changed under new labia.

Currently, there's a smidge over 5 million claiming out-of-work benefits. Either JSA or Incapacity.

As for the question, it's a stupid one.

All Tony Blair really did, when you look at it on a macro level, is unwind all of Thatcher's work.

We're dangerously close to where we were in the mid to late Seventies: Increasingly powerful unions, yawning wealth divide, heavy state infrastructure, inflation rising, massive public debt, and crippling fuel costs due to massive taxation.

Edited by Dunk76 on Tuesday 19th August 13:48