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06-01-2018, 01:23 PM
51

Re: Thatcher

Originally Posted by Bruce ->
When I visited a few years ago it was a completely different place - much improved, I would say almost unrecognisable compared to 1989.
Oh, well that must have been Compo's influence then!
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06-01-2018, 01:31 PM
52

Re: Thatcher

Originally Posted by Rainmaker ->
I'm not sure what you mean by reunification. Do you mean the period since the Second World War or do you mean the period since the reuniting of East and West Germany. Either way, if we go back to the period just after the Second World War the Germans received a great deal of low interest financial help from the allies in order to rebuild. An ideal opportunity to restructure the country, particularly one who is people have the work ethic the Germans have. They had that help up until fairly recently. But credit to the Germans they've worked and worked pretty hard to achieve their position in the world.

On the other hand the UK had a great deal of debt which they had to repay. war loans taken to finance the war which were made usually by the US at normal rates. The reason for the loans was because we were broke due to the First World War. Although Churchill prophesied the war which was inevitable he was ridiculed and branded a warmonger, a label still used today by certain ignorant people. So great deal of money had to be borrowed to build up the war machine.

After the war we were faced with much the same structural damage although not quite so severe as Germany but of course guess what? We had to borrow even more money to start to rebuild again at normal rates in addition to paying off the war loans. Some on here, some years ago now may even remember the Conservative government of John Major announcing the last war loans had been paid off.

Some of the working population went to work to try to rebuild but others, like organised unions seem to be deliberately obstructing the rebuilding for their own selfish ends. Britain became paralysed with strikes and work-to-rule disruption and became known as the sick man of Europe.

That's what Margaret Thatcher faced when she came to power. I'm not saying she got it all right, she didn't, but much of what she did needed doing and she was tough enough to do it and thank God she was. Personally, I think she stayed in power just a bit too long and became a little bit arrogant toward the end of her premiership. By and large though I think she got more right that she got wrong.
Well said. I wish I'd written that!

Basically, Germany is so successful now because workers (and unions) and management are able to pull together.

I'm afraid that some of our unions are rising again, probably because of our weak government and, once more, we seem to be sinking into the mire.

As I have said before, unlike the Germans, we are only capable of pulling in opposite directions. I'm afraid it seems to be our national characteristic.

Sad.
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06-01-2018, 02:23 PM
53

Re: Thatcher

I liked Thatcher when she was in power but I was only a teenager at the time. My parents were staunch Tory voters and my dad would stick the poster up in the window during elections. All I had known was the grey days of 70s austerity and strikes with lack of investment in infrastructure. In the 80s that all changed. Everything started to look new and shiny. Suddenly people had opportunities to make lots of money and buy houses and lots of things that were never even available in shops in the 70s. So for a teen who knew nothing of politics or economics at the time, it all seemed great.

But we are now paying the cost of the short-termist policies Thatcher put into place. The housing boom created the crazy house prices we see today, the NHS was run down over the Thatcher era and she introduced the internal market, causing disparity of systems and culture and the postcode lottery which different governments have been trying to fix (to no avail) ever since. We now pay far more for the NHS than we could ever have imagined and a lot of that is due to the changes Thatcher introduced and labour developed on.

Selling off the nationalised industries has been deemed a success in some areas (telecommunications) but not others (rail). It has certainly increased competition and investment into the sectors privatised. But it's not something we can reverse and was a one-off gain for the Treasury coffers, invigorating the economy greatly at the time.

Thatcher also had a boost from the increase in North Sea oil production which helped power the British economy and get us out of debt in the 80s. North Sea oil and gas are predicted to run out in ten years. The stuff has kept our economy churning despite political ups and downs ever since.

We are looking at a massive economic time bomb in about ten years when our power sources dry up. But our heads are seemingly stuck in the sand worrying about trivialities like Brexit while waiting for a miracle.
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06-01-2018, 03:49 PM
54

Re: Thatcher

Originally Posted by AnnieS ->
I liked Thatcher when she was in power but I was only a teenager at the time. My parents were staunch Tory voters and my dad would stick the poster up in the window during elections. All I had known was the grey days of 70s austerity and strikes with lack of investment in infrastructure. In the 80s that all changed. Everything started to look new and shiny. Suddenly people had opportunities to make lots of money and buy houses and lots of things that were never even available in shops in the 70s. So for a teen who knew nothing of politics or economics at the time, it all seemed great.

But we are now paying the cost of the short-termist policies Thatcher put into place. The housing boom created the crazy house prices we see today, the NHS was run down over the Thatcher era and she introduced the internal market, causing disparity of systems and culture and the postcode lottery which different governments have been trying to fix (to no avail) ever since. We now pay far more for the NHS than we could ever have imagined and a lot of that is due to the changes Thatcher introduced and labour developed on.

Selling off the nationalised industries has been deemed a success in some areas (telecommunications) but not others (rail). It has certainly increased competition and investment into the sectors privatised. But it's not something we can reverse and was a one-off gain for the Treasury coffers, invigorating the economy greatly at the time.

Thatcher also had a boost from the increase in North Sea oil production which helped power the British economy and get us out of debt in the 80s. North Sea oil and gas are predicted to run out in ten years. The stuff has kept our economy churning despite political ups and downs ever since.

We are looking at a massive economic time bomb in about ten years when our power sources dry up. But our heads are seemingly stuck in the sand worrying about trivialities like Brexit while waiting for a miracle.

Then you didn't see the mass unemployment (more than 3 Million) and resultant poverty that that evil witch created through her monetary dogmatism.
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06-01-2018, 05:01 PM
55

Re: Thatcher

I do remember the news of mass unemployment UJ, it just didn't affect me or my parents so all I could see was positive change. It was aview through the eyes of a child. When I eventually went to work, there was plenty about.
 
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