I actually voted for Mrs T because the alternatives ie Worzel Gummidge etc were pretty frightening ! How come Mr Mitterand spent his way out of trouble by investing in the infrastructure etc for example ? (everything is relative of course...)
The good things done by her Ladyship were indeed, good but some of the mega problems with the UK infrastructure nowadays were due to the financial restrictions imposed at the time.
I'm not a political animal. I just try to give my views as I see them.
That's a quite sound round-up there, David. Nothing to add.
...not forgetting introducing the "right to buy" housing scheme, lowering the basic tax rate from 65% to 25%, reducing unemployment & increasing productivity whilst encouraging entepreneurs & foreign investment - what a cow!
Fewer mines closed during her office than under Labour - in 1964 there were 545 mines. In 1979 there were 219. In 1990, 65.
'Scuse me! A little family silver may have been sold but one had to wait for that idiot Brown to sell the family gold in a depressed market, just before it shot up in value. Prudence indeed! At the time school rolls were reducing (especially in certain areas) and there had to be a rationalisation. As for "free" well we all know that nothing is free! At least Madame T kicked butt where it deserved it! Later on she did start to lose the plot, but most politicians do that. Absolute power and all that.
Conspiracy theories tend to remain that and mostly remain unproven either way, often with enough sound evidence to tip the balance toward demanding they be open up completely, which the Airey Neave case is a good example of. But they are not and thus everything remains theory.
I know what it is to be who I am as a published author whose name can be searched out by people wanting to know more. I, for instance, now know there was an American football fullback born 25 years after me who I could not possibly be as well as there having been a namesake born the same year as me, within a mile or so and perhaps even the same birthing room of the small local hospital. Whenever I am asked if I am either of them I used to get annoyed, now I shrug it off, but I have had things 'invented' and introduced into my profile by people who have found namesakes. How on earth a John Smith gets through that in the Anglo-Saxon world is beyond my imagination. So, the point is that I am not who some people want to believe I am and have not done things they believe I have done. All of that is much like the formation of any conspiracy theory.
Nonetheless, without them too many things would be consigned to silence that need to be questioned and when historians open them up do so because a glimmer of interest has been made and kept alive by conspiracy theories.
Wot Shirley, selling off the family silver, closing schools and hospital wards and ending free school milk for example ?
I should explain first of all that if you like conspiracy theories and if you have enough time on your hands you can find my name on the internet in connection with at least two that I know about (to with the Holy Grail/Templars and an organisation called Common Purpose). I also found one of my sons mentioned as an international arms dealer or some such. All three are utter rubbish. BTW I am not a mason either but I was a member of the Tory Party and the Bow Group so therefore highly suspect. I also know the Nairac and Neave families so I have a somewhat jaundiced view of all the manure being thrown about. Some of the stuff about Wilson may have been not unconnected with his descent into senility (nor was he virgin pure -Gannexgate!)
What the haggis bashers did at Bathgate was not what Brummies did at Longbridge.
"Don't believe everything in the Mail" - zut alors! What are you saying David...?? :)
The only RAF I met were several B of B pilots (Stamford-Tuck, Bader, Johnson et al) and I am sure I prefer my lot.
Absolute rubbish mate! Yes I live south of Coventry now (born in Brum but live in France) but when she was around I was up north! Sir Marcus Fox (a good Yorkshire Tory) approved me as a suitable Tory candidate. Thank the lord for Maggie! She had more balls than any of that socialist tribe (I avoid the use of perjoratives which would be numerous!)
Totally correct re hideaways in the production lines. I went in one at British Leyland Bathgate in 1976. They were a very lazy and corrupt bunch.
The UK version is not published until Friday
It was Red Robbo and don't believe all you once read in the Daily Wail.
It was Coventry and BirminghAm that she took on as well. Remember Red Robbie and the union leaders that had their hideaways alongside the production lines?
They were rotten to the core and the only interest they had was self interest.
I remember seeing Ian Macgregor one night when I was driving home from Coventry. It was outside Daw Mill Colliery. Out he came in a government limo with police escort. He was using Daw Mill as a forward base. Daw Mill was UDM whereas all other N Warwickshire pits were NUM and on strike. Daw Mill survived but only so long as the new owners British Coal had time to rob the miner's pension fund and then not have enough money to extinguish an underground fire which closed the pit in 2013. My own local colliery Thoresby is being closed by British Coal despite substantial reserves which could plug the energy gap existing in UK. So when the lights go out in UK just thank the Iron Lady who destroyed the industry in revenge for the failure of the Heath government though she never thanked Ted for anything. Arthur Scargill ought to be ashamed as well. For two or three years before the strike we remarked on the enormous quantities of coal being stockpiled at power stations in the Trent Valley; clearly the Iron Lady ws preparing for battle. Sad that Arthur didn't recognise the signs.
Like
I see the guardian published the cartoon in yesterdays paper & the BBC showed the front of the publication on last nights news broadcasts.
It is brilliant, I have always loved it since school and I don't go great things on poetry, least of all with any religion in them. But the message is how I wish to live and have always tried. I recommend others try that too.
Not asking anyone else to, but I live by this.
desiderata - by max ehrmann
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.
Take kindly to the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
Max Ehrmann c.1920