Do you mean withdrawing the arctic survey ship?
Their intelligence was also awful. All the Admiralty Charts of the Southern Ocean were bought up by the Argentines and nobody noticed!
Caviar socialists they will be then! But on a serious note, I am a bit like Carol - without presupposing her early life and background - but my family too were dyed in the wool socialists, with a good dash of liberal that turned red into “burnt amber". Dad was a council bus driver, mum worked on the line at Cadbury’s in Bournville. But my personal experience with unions - in my case the press unions - in the late 70’s wasn’t what I had been brought up to believe. They were as alien to me as an indoor toilet had been when I was a nipper. They didn’t need Thatcher to teach them avarice by any stretch.
To say that I am disillusioned with any sort of doctrine would be an understatement. I guess now I would describe myself as a conservative socialist with liberal tendencies. Or perhaps more accurately, a political cynic.
Just before she resigned I remember watching an interview and saying to my mum that she had 'mad eyes'. I was convinced that something was not right with her; she seemed borderline manic (my bro is bi polar and she reminded me of him when he is in a manic phase)
What p****d off Dad and many colleagues was that they were all career diplomats from all political spectrums who specialised in their respective fields. Maggie came in with virtually no foreign policy experience.
I even heard stories about how the Falklands could have been avoided and that the invasion was a direct result of one particular decision she took against the advice of the UN, British military chiefs plus the FO. I was still at school so just eavesdropping in on conversations when at home (I was VERY nosy as a child) but it had a great effect on me not least because of my friends whose dads got sent to war.
A bit like a comment a friend made re Thatcher along the lines of his sympathies being with Satan that day
Ah the spectre of the tumbrils again! Tis a far, better thing I do now........Osborne's father was a successful purveyor of wall paper who could afford to send his son to Eton. Nothing too aristocratic methinks. Most aristocrats in the UK have difficulty paying the council tax these days let alone private school fees. It's the Russians, Chinese and entrepreneurs who are sending their children to such schools and the British economy is doing nicely out of it too, whether at home or abroad. Were Bliar or Pitt "freshfaced" as well, or is it compulsory to look worldweary and hagard to be a prime minister? We know about ageism but youthism became unfashionable some time ago. These days the oldies are stacking shelves at Tesco, presenting programmes for daytime TV or living in France.............
I am getting there! But it took our break up and her seeing her son miserable to make her realise that she was in fact hurting her own and not just the opposition. She tried to cheer him up by buying him a swimming pool (she always uses money to get what she wants) but when we got back together told me she would be there every day to swim as she had paid for it (ie continue to be omnipresent).
She then asked me if I would save her if she started to drown as there was once a family discussion where she said she would save everyone on sinking ship apart from me. I replied with the well known retort ''only if I decide to take my foot off your head'. My father in law cracked up so she had no choice but to take it well.
But I won't miss her if she pops her clogs before me and in terms of not speaking ill of the dead, my partner now accepts that I will behave responsibly but I will not lie about my feelings
I believe that all people have good points or bad points. If they have just good points that might seem just a bit too saintly to be true. If they were all bad, well maybe one should feel sorry for them and that they hadn't been able to enjoy the admiration and love of other people. Washing the feet of sinners is an early example of forgiveness. But there is also another crime that is very difficult indeed to forgive- It's called being boring.
I'm still trying to figure out what Maggie actually DID to cause all this ill feeling toward her! She closed the mines, broke a corrupt & greedy union & fought off a hostile bid to invade sovereign territory & introduced the poll tax. It is really only the latter which did me no favours, my rates jumping from £68 to quite a few hundred!
The mines were unprofitable. They were also, dangerous & unhealthy places to work. Needed closing under H & S regs then... At the time I had a second job as a minicab driver. One evening I was called to take 3 striking miners to a night club ( this rather made it difficult to see them as hard up, hard done by workers). On arrival at the pick up point they were already well lubricated & on the way one of them asked me if I wanted to hear a joke. He then went on to relate the story of a minicab driver who had been killed earlier in the week whilst driving a working miner to a pit. Because I failed to laugh at his joke he then launched a physical attack on me! As we were doing 50 mph at the time I had to take a few hits until his friends managed to pin him down. It was this sort of mindless violence which was used to dissuade other miners who wished to work - mob rule sanctioned by unions. It doesn't matter what your political orientation is, surely nobody can condone bullying?
If Maggie was wrong about the mines why didn't the NUM buy them & run them themselves as a workers co-operative? And why didn't the Labour government re-open them? It wouldn't be because - heaven forbid - she was right?
By all means love her or hate her, but I think all these "celebrations" are rent-a-mob BS. Just like the NUM then...
I was on a committee with Robin Cook. He was intelligent, as honest as the day is long but had a bit of a temperament. He warned against Blair way back, said things like 'all ambition but no vision' about him.
Really? Im not so sure...and all politicians who bring about change are divisive...whether for good or bad...most people dont want change...unless it suits them...many people are very insular and translate everything that happens to their condition in life....not looking at the big picture. De Galle was very divisive in his time...and only missed the state funeral because he expressly stated he did not wish to have a state funeral, thus the President did not attend his funeral....but otherwise, he most certainly would have had a state funeral.
I was translating this thread to my partner yesterday evening and his comment on the ceremonial funeral front was that he believes it would never be allowed to happen in France should they have such a divisive figure to lay to rest.
It always has been the case that Labour governments have had the mantra " spend , spend, spend" and eventually the electorate wake up and elect the conservatives to sort things out.
Do you remember one of the last Labour Ministers left a note on his desk saying that there was no money?
We had the extreme Labour councils thinking up the weirdest jobs to show their PC thinking, and they always carried huge salaries.
We had Jim’s Tai Chi teacher and his wife to supper yesterday, he very kindly offered him extra tuition to get him up to scratch after his operation. We learnt that the French call Champagne socialists, caviar socialists. Not allowed to bad mouth Champagne here in France!
LOL (for the third time)
Must try this
LOL (again)
I was still young and he sadly wasn't leader for long but I was always very interested in what he had to say and it appealed to me as a young graduate who was finding her feet
LOL
There is obviously an organised attempt to use MT’s death to come out on the streets and show off the worst of British youth. As Mark said these kids were toddlers when Maggie was first democratically elected.
It seems to be a game to them, perhaps we should fit them with controls and then we could manipulate them via their own Playstations and X boxes?
Yes Doreen....I think all the comments about her later life correct...she did lose the plot and become power mad....but I honestly believe she thought she was doing the best for people when she was in power.
Foote was as you say, nice. He was never leader material, but a quiet intellectual happier left on his own. The Kinnocks were ambitious and looked after themselves first and foremost...