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Margaret Thatcher and her legacy Margaret Thatcher and her legacy
(6 months later)
Grocer's daughter to PM sounds like a meritocracy to me but merit isn't enough to endear. Of course she wasn't everyone's cup of tea, more like a strong espresso. Bound to offend due to her natural strength of character. I feel that like Churchill she will be judged more fairly a few decades after her passing, when everyone has calmed down.
David McMillan
Glasgow		Grocer's daughter to PM sounds like a meritocracy to me but merit isn't enough to endear. Of course she wasn't everyone's cup of tea, more like a strong espresso. Bound to offend due to her natural strength of character. I feel that like Churchill she will be judged more fairly a few decades after her passing, when everyone has calmed down.
David McMillan
Glasgow
• The passage of 20 years has enabled us to assess the long-term impact of Margaret Thatcher's politics. 1) By destroying her party's standing in Scotland she did more to promote the eventual break-up of the UK than any other individual. 2) Two economic depressions caused by her ideology created the unbalanced economy and unstable society from which we suffer today. The demise of British manufacturing destroyed the skilled jobs that once gave working-class families a high standard of living, leaving Britain divided between the extremes of affluent professional-business employment and low-paid service work. 3) By promoting the sale of council homes and preventing the building of new ones, she created the current housing crisis in which many pay high rents (she abolished rent controls ) and immigrants get blamed for a shortage they did not cause. 4. Privatisation of sectors such as energy, water and railways exposed Britons to private companies that exploit their captive customers by raising prices endlessly to enrich their shareholders.• The passage of 20 years has enabled us to assess the long-term impact of Margaret Thatcher's politics. 1) By destroying her party's standing in Scotland she did more to promote the eventual break-up of the UK than any other individual. 2) Two economic depressions caused by her ideology created the unbalanced economy and unstable society from which we suffer today. The demise of British manufacturing destroyed the skilled jobs that once gave working-class families a high standard of living, leaving Britain divided between the extremes of affluent professional-business employment and low-paid service work. 3) By promoting the sale of council homes and preventing the building of new ones, she created the current housing crisis in which many pay high rents (she abolished rent controls ) and immigrants get blamed for a shortage they did not cause. 4. Privatisation of sectors such as energy, water and railways exposed Britons to private companies that exploit their captive customers by raising prices endlessly to enrich their shareholders.
No single individual has done more damage to Britain – unless you blame George III for losing the American colonies or Charles I for provoking the civil war.
Martin Pugh
Hexham, Northumberland		No single individual has done more damage to Britain – unless you blame George III for losing the American colonies or Charles I for provoking the civil war.
Martin Pugh
Hexham, Northumberland
• Broadcast coverage of the death of Lady Thatcher has made much of her supposed defence of British national interests, particularly in relation to the EU. But by privatising public utilities and other national assets, she ensured the eventual transfer of these assets not to families, as she claimed, but to corporate and private equity interests.• Broadcast coverage of the death of Lady Thatcher has made much of her supposed defence of British national interests, particularly in relation to the EU. But by privatising public utilities and other national assets, she ensured the eventual transfer of these assets not to families, as she claimed, but to corporate and private equity interests.
Like the companies that supply my water and electricity, many of these are owned outside the UK, and owe no loyalty to British consumers or the UK economy. But many remain controlled within the EU, where profits generated from former UK state assets now support competitor economies. Something of an own goal, perhaps?
Iain Forbes
London		Like the companies that supply my water and electricity, many of these are owned outside the UK, and owe no loyalty to British consumers or the UK economy. But many remain controlled within the EU, where profits generated from former UK state assets now support competitor economies. Something of an own goal, perhaps?
Iain Forbes
London
• An elderly grandmother has died, a matter of great sadness for her family and friends. What is tragic for the country is that we have not yet buried her politics.
Laura Parker
Milan, Italy		• An elderly grandmother has died, a matter of great sadness for her family and friends. What is tragic for the country is that we have not yet buried her politics.
Laura Parker
Milan, Italy
• Attlee vies with Thatcher as the most successful peacetime British prime minister of the 20th century. The former's successors broadly accepted Attleeism until it crumbled 30 years later. Thatcherism seemed a simple answer to its failings. Thirty years on again, Thatcherism has itself crumbled but we are flapping around to find an answer to its failings.
Roger Broad
London		• Attlee vies with Thatcher as the most successful peacetime British prime minister of the 20th century. The former's successors broadly accepted Attleeism until it crumbled 30 years later. Thatcherism seemed a simple answer to its failings. Thirty years on again, Thatcherism has itself crumbled but we are flapping around to find an answer to its failings.
Roger Broad
London
• If there are lessons for today it is that Margaret Thatcher was driven by politics, not economics. In 1981 she said: "People have forgotten about the personal society. And they say: do I count, do I matter? To which the short answer is, yes. … It isn't that I set out on economic policies; it's that I set out really to change the approach, and changing the economics is the means of changing that approach … Economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul." Cameron and Osborne have learnt from this and are completing her attack on the welfare state and public services under the flimsy guise of economic necessity. Let us not forget that theirs too is a political project.
Barry Kushner
Liverpool		• If there are lessons for today it is that Margaret Thatcher was driven by politics, not economics. In 1981 she said: "People have forgotten about the personal society. And they say: do I count, do I matter? To which the short answer is, yes. … It isn't that I set out on economic policies; it's that I set out really to change the approach, and changing the economics is the means of changing that approach … Economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul." Cameron and Osborne have learnt from this and are completing her attack on the welfare state and public services under the flimsy guise of economic necessity. Let us not forget that theirs too is a political project.
Barry Kushner
Liverpool
• Ed Miliband talks of Mrs Thatcher's "political achievements" (Report, online, 8 April), as contemporary Tories seek to complete the dismantling of the welfare state, the establishment of which was Labour's crowning achievement. Rather than praising her, Miliband should be stressing the value of the ideas she despised – the necessity of collective, democratic control over the economy.
Ben Selwyn
Brighton		• Ed Miliband talks of Mrs Thatcher's "political achievements" (Report, online, 8 April), as contemporary Tories seek to complete the dismantling of the welfare state, the establishment of which was Labour's crowning achievement. Rather than praising her, Miliband should be stressing the value of the ideas she despised – the necessity of collective, democratic control over the economy.
Ben Selwyn
Brighton
• Friend of Pinochet, enemy of Mandela. 'Nuff said.
Dr J Frank Walsh
Lytham St Annes, Lancashire		• Friend of Pinochet, enemy of Mandela. 'Nuff said.
Dr J Frank Walsh
Lytham St Annes, Lancashire
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