Margaret Thatcher dies

[Mr Pee]

I believe Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan won his last presidential election with 91.15% of the popular vote. I'm sure he would have met with Thatcher's approval.

Well, we'll never know will we? So your post is, once again, rather a waste of space.

[Stunsworth]

Under the electoral system we have in this country, Lady Thatcher was victorious in three consecutive general elections, each time with a very healthy majority, the like of which today's political leaders can only dream

Similar majorities will occur again. It's not that long ago since Labour had a majority of just under 200, higher than anything Thatcher achieved.

[Stunsworth]

Yes, a tragedy for those communities, and one that could have been avoided had Arthur Scargill not decided to call a strike without a ballot to further his own Marxist crusade

Scargill said that the Tories would close 70 pits. He was wrong, they closed more.

As said earlier, that would have happened regardless of who was in charge of the NUM.

We now have the strange situation of spiralling energy costs while hundreds of years worth of coal lies underground unable to be extracted. A result of Tory dogma and a concentration on the short term.

[eighthobstruction]

While I would agree that Scargill (not even liked by all his family) was a menace....was it right that 104,000 people were affected just in that small snapshot of South Yorks....Just because of one man and shall we say One womans venom towards each other....

Try this :

Mr. Battle: The following table sets out the number of coal miners made redundant from British Coal Corporation over the period 1979/80 up to privatisation in December 1994. Comparable data on redundancies after December 1994 are not readily available.

Year Number of redundancies (28)
1979-80 1,333
1980-81 2,850
1981-82 9,294
1982-83 8,149
1983-84 17,805
1984-85 6,537
1985-86 30,095
1986-87 27,131
1987-88 16,800
1988-89 6,486
1989-90 13,042
1990-91 8,100
1991-92 13,500
1992-93 12,100
1993-94 21,300
1994-95 3,000

= as far as i can tell approx 194,822 miners across the country made redundant........add families = 779288 PEOPLE

[eighthobstruction]

Well, we'll never know will we? So your post is, once again, rather a waste of space.

Richard Barretts posts are anything but a waste of space. But, we notice how sparse and (well one line usually) lacking in information your posts from (where Chichester?) are!! Pwshhh....waste of Pwshhhhh

[MrGongGong]

The script says that

Thatcher "won" the miners strike
and how many coal mines are left ?

like I said before

"The operation was a great success but the patient died"

such stubborn stupidity is extraordinary

(which doesn't make Scargill a saint either but HE was right ....... look how many pits are left ? )

[eighthobstruction]

Having been involved in collecting for the miners.....a vox pop of many of the people I talked to while collecting , told me even after being on strike for 6months or more SOME people still were so uninformed that they thought the strike was about pay levels NOT the closing of pits....

[Barbirollians]

Scargill said that the Tories would close 70 pits. He was wrong, they closed more.

As said earlier, that would have happened regardless of who was in charge of the NUM.

We now have the strange situation of spiralling energy costs while hundreds of years worth of coal lies underground unable to be extracted. A result of Tory dogma and a concentration on the short term.

Not sure about that - Scargill was a fool of the first order . No ballot and starting a coal strike in spring - barmy . The UDM were even more stupid - Major sold them down the river .

I live in South Yorkshire and the effects of the destruction of manufacturing industry are still evident .

She was , in my view , the mother of the underclass - those who know nothing other than a life on benefits due to social deprivation and no background or recent family history of work are all too often the descendants of manual workers thrown on the scrap heap by her .

[Mr Pee]

Richard Barretts posts are anything but a waste of space.

Really? He attempted to draw some completely meaningless parallel between a recent election in Kazakhstan and Lady Thatcher's electoral majorities here, and in an earlier post described her cabinet colleagues as 'rogues and psychopaths'.

Do you really think either of those posts add anything remotely worthwhile to the discussion?

[Flosshilde]

And your posts have added precisely what?

[eighthobstruction]

Really? He attempted to draw some completely meaningless parallel between a recent election in Kazakhstan and Lady Thatcher's electoral majorities here, and in an earlier post described her cabinet colleagues as 'rogues and psychopaths'.

Do you really think either of those posts add anything remotely worthwhile to the discussion?

You know and I know....You know and I know that Richard generally posts in a considered informative and lengthy manner....I think like all of us he is allowed to have a little joke....Eh??....If you use that criteria , you would have disregard 75% of Beef Ovens....and very many of mine and a great many of yours (on other threads)....amongst all this division ,a joke is a good thing....

[scottycelt]

Not sure about that - Scargill was a fool of the first order . No ballot and starting a coal strike in spring - barmy . The UDM were even more stupid - Major sold them down the river .

I live in South Yorkshire and the effects of the destruction of manufacturing industry are still evident .

She was , in my view , the mother of the underclass - those who know nothing other than a life on benefits due to social deprivation and no background or recent family history of work are all too often the descendants of manual workers thrown on the scrap heap by her .

Scargill was no fool. With any other Prime Minister he would almost certainly have won. However, would the same pits have had to be closed anyway considering the dire state of the economy?. Further loans from the IMF and all that. Unemployment was already rising under Labour. If nothing else, Thatcher brought everything to a head and brought forward the inevitable. That's not to say she (or at least her Government) didn't make big mistakes like the horrendous Poll Tax and stupidly and infamously use the Scots (of all people!) as guinea-pigs. She did however allow council tenants to buy their own homes, which otherwise would have been only a dream for many of them.

The following article gives the objectively non-partisan view, imho:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22076886

[eighthobstruction]

Excepting the fact that the 3.6 + million unemployed and it's consequences is under sold....I'd go along with most of that....

[Petrushka]

There are one or two interesting and thoughtful posts in this thread from both ends of the argument but they are swamped by the most tasteless bigoted bile from those not concerned about debate it has ever been my misfortune to have read on the Forum. Indeed, had this thread been about anyone else it would have been closed down long ago.

It brings the entire Radio 3 Forum into disrepute.

[JimD]

Scargill was no fool.

Scargill suffered from Gormley-envy. Probably still does. Perhaps it clouded his judgement.