1983 General Election and the ''Golden Age'' of Thatcherism

[forsythbill1]

Obviously as a Scottish nationalist I have mixed views about her she was perhaps, as an English nationalist, the best thing yet for Scottish nationalism,incidentally Blair is English.

[midlantica]

Thank you Maggie :)

[jayou77]

Good ol Maggie, i'd have her back tomorrow (obviously not in her present condition!)

[Threepwoodist]

@jayou77 Well that's never going to happen, and I laugh at your loss. She'll be dead soon, and I'll throw a party when she finally dies. You can come if you want.

[Schniddo]

A Tory talking about the French Revolution... it's enough to make me vom over my keyboard

[17Hongo]

"In 1983, Margaret Thatcher gave her re election speech while giving the V for Victory sign the wrong way round. She talked about economic boosts and a new age, while telling the nation to f*** off at the same time. In the coming years, little would change" - John O' Farrell

[custard49]

Hopefully this post will appear. How this woman won 3 elections escapes me? Hopefully we won't have to put up with The Tories as long this time. Cameron couldn't even get a majority and hopefully won't make a 2nd term.

[custard49]

Do posts ever appear?

[darioso5]

Murderer of 900 Argentinian boys.

[pimpUK1]

@darioso5 well if Argentineans could fight better than the Brits then they wouldn't of died, you sore loser, it’s no one else fault that the Argentineans were too thick to properly defend the island when they invaded, They knew the British were heading south slowly, so surely anyone with half a brain would think let’s build bunkers and get plenty of defences ready. The British military has hardly ever been out of conflict in its long and glorious history, so not a force to pick a fight with

[pazzerhead]

imagine if thatcher had been 35 in 1979 and could have stayed in till now(31 years),this country would've been mint,one of the big boys in the world-with a real leader(all be it power crazed bitch)like that in,bring back the good old days

[RacManRhythm]

@pazzerhead Are you out your head, this woman was an elitist, she had no time for the working class the majority of the UK that is, she did next to nothing to help the miners and any other industry she let slip through her hands, when your a PM your supposed to try and help your country not pander to the already wealthy, where you this "big boys" crap from I do not know.

[pazzerhead]

@RacManRhythm i disagree,there's loads of working class people who made money under thatcher,you could actually buy your own council home,sell it,set your own buissness up as a sole tradesman,for instance british gas,first privatised,second many engineers who worked for them set up themselves

[RacManRhythm]

@pazzerhead Your the 1st person, of working class I presume? to prosper under the Tories government of the 80's, and I'm not doubting you, but in my area and of I know many others who suffered lots under this womans leadership, there should have been a certain amount of decent area council houses kept in reserve (and not slum like areas where people find it hard to get out of) when people can't afford to buy.

[RacManRhythm]

@pazzerhead Also, people don't want to be tied to the banks, ie having a mortgage for the norm of 20-25yrs or more, but thats the thing they are, the banks have far too much control than they did 30yrs ago, to buy a house you need be in a very steady job (which no job is these days) and to then sell it to start a business is too risky for many, also many don't have the skills to have trade and make it.

[RacManRhythm]

@pazzerhead Thatcher's government set the blueprint for what we will get from Cameron, too much cuts to fast and and not targeting the culprits of the credit crunch and now really affecting low income families, again this goes back to the banks the ones having too much control and irresponsible lending in the UK this started by Thatcher's globalization cut & thrust.

[pazzerhead]

@RacManRhythm i don't know who you're sticking up for,but what i'm trying to say is that when you've worked in the house of someone who is a benefits cheat,who has a 50" plasma TV and getting stoned all-day,taking the piss because you've gone out and got a job,then i say is that all labour stood for,some people don't want to work

[RacManRhythm]

@pazzerhead I'm sticking up for people who geniunely sick, not cheats who are criminals, I've been there and life was very hard on benefits, yes some cheat the system but not the vast majority like the government would want people that are in work and fit to believe so they stigmatize and tar everyone with the brush, if these people they you have 50"plasma TV's then all I have to say is when I was on benefit I certainly couldn't afford luxuries like this.

[RacManRhythm]

@pazzerhead You also have more or less tarred everyone on sick benefit or JSA with the same brush, I like others also that have been on benefits have never touched drugs of any kind, and take as an insult that you think this, it sounds you've never had been out of work or had the misfortune to be ill, people like you are lucky to be in work and be thanking your lucky stars your in employment.

[jasonleigh1974]

@pazzerhead I bet you're a Sun or Daily Mail reader. Being fed propaganda by the right wing press. At a time when George Osborne is announcing massive cuts and stating that 'Benefits is not a lifestyle choice!' all of a sudden we get lots of stories about single mothers with ten kids who've got 50 inch plasma screen televisions as if this is common place. I lost my job last year and I'm on JSA...it certainly ain't a lifestyle choice. Try living on 65 pounds per week. ;)

[pazzerhead]

@jasonleigh1974 no dickhead,i'm someone on benefits,looking for work,because of the major recession we are in there is no work in north east england-i feel better off that the pricks who spent all the money are out of power now.

[jasonleigh1974]

@pazzerhead Wind your neck in mate. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't there alot of investment in the North East throughout the New Labour period? I remember the Thatcher years and she wrecked the North of England. A global financial crisis took us into the recession...wouldn't have made any fucking difference if the tories had've been in power instead. They went along with Labour's economic policies. If you think they would have done anything different you're deluded.

[17Hongo]

@jasonleigh1974 she wrecked everywhere that wasn't the south east. Unwilling to wait for the industry to develop naturally, she shut down all the raw materials and manufacture industries, in the hope that the country would develop. Of course, it wouldn't; it didn't have the money. As a result, The north and south west of England, Scotland and Wales all became massive unemployment concentrations.

[Dalek1230]

@jasonleigh1974 GO TO BLOODY WORK , then you can get hundreds of them

[jesoby]

1983, LIB/DP alliance got 25% of the vote but only 23 seats - call that democracy?

[jesoby]

1983, SDP/LIB alliance got 25% of the vote and only 23 seats - call that democracy?

[MTheChequeGuy]

I think the conservative party could have won with a slogan with "We're not the Labour party!"

[bripat22]

The Labour Party needed to be strong in the face of Thatcher ( after all, she was terribly unpopular until the Falklands and even then, Michael Foot had the more eloquent voice) but the SDP split and the Bennite nonsense weakened the party terribly until it started to revive slowly under Kinnock

[billyysands]

the labour party in 1983 deserved to lose

[sargcullen1]

@billyysands I agree. In 1983 the Labour Leader Michael Foot promised to abolish the House of Lords, to also disarm all nuclear weapons, withdrawal from the EEC (precursor to the European Union) and renationalisation of almost every privatized British Industry (e.g. British Aerospace, British Shipbuilding Company). If Michael Foot won 1983 with a large enough majority, then Britain would probably have slipped below being a Super Power to a Great Power. Thank-you to everyone that voted Tory in 83

[happylad65]

Interesting that Thatcherism was still something of an unknown quantity in 1983 according to this fascinating clip.

[Scoforever]

And in 1979, 1987, 1992, 1997 (Doh), 2001 (Doh), And 2005 (Doh).

[abhudson14]

A dreadfull woman only won that election because of the Falkands and look how she brought this counrty down right upto 1990

[PBLEY]

If people knew back in 1979, what type of policies she would implement in the next ten years, they wouldn't have voted for her.

[abhudson14]

because peole fell for the lies she was telling

[DuckCasey]

>>If people knew back in 1979

I'm afraid it was no mystery what she intended to do and indeed, she was re-eleted twice thereafter. Your answer to this is that people were too deceived or ignorant to know what they were doing. My answer is they simply disagreed with you. I'm sure you haven't found that uncommon in life, I certainly haven't. One needn't develop a historicism to explain it.

[UnitedBritannia]

DuckCasey is spot on.

It speaks volumes about the Socialist mind set that AbHudson and those with a similar outlook don't think the people can be trusted to make a sensible decision about political leaders on their own.

[skeletorphd]

For gods sake, they are voting BNP now. Do you really believe people voting BNP as a "protest" or have been scared into not voting Tory because Alistair Campbell has convinced them that they would somehow be bringing Thatcher back into office can be trusted to decide sensibly about politics?

& after taking just 13 years to bring the country to its knees, the polls are still "wobbling."

[skeletorphd]

But to be fair, they can't.

They voted the Socialists back in twice despite all the lies and the illegal wars and the increasing trade deficit and the government debt and the warnings of basing an economy on debt.

The real argument of Free Market Capitalism vs Socialsm has gone and most don't understand it because they just see capitalism as a dirty word summing "everything wrong with Tories." All thanks to Alistair Campbell.

[flametaledfox]

If it were not for the Falklands then maybe this film would have been about Roy Jenkins and the SDP!

Thatcher was dreadful in her first term (infact all terms), but she used the Falklands to win the public's heart how naive her voters were.

She has killed the traditions of our state, crushed the working class, and buggered up our nation. Britain became too Right wing under her.

[somekidnamed]

Dreadful woman.

[flametaledfox]

Here here

[thatcheritescot]

i miss her too

[UnitedBritannia]

''Michael Foot was right'' God help us.

He would of abolished our nuclear deterrent - we've seen how Russia has been behaving in recent months - was he right about that?

He would of indulged in the sort of crass-Keynesianism that would make even Gordon Brown blush; admitting that taxes would have to rise across the board soon after. Taxing away prosperity - was he right about that?

AND he would of returned power to Scagill and his militant unionists - was he right about that?!

[PsychoPunk1965]

I like Michael Foot and OLD Labour socialist values.

[PBLEY]

Michael Foot proposed in the1983 Labour manifesto to nationalise the banks.

Considering the recent behavior of the greedy gangster Thatcher like ultra capitalist banks, its a pity Michael Foots policy was never implemented.

[brettlampitt]

@UnitedBritannia yeah he would of wooden he your so clever

[Schniddo]

@UnitedBritannia "was he right about that?"

err... yes?

[roll1968]

An evil, evil woman who wrecked my life and those of millions like me.

[unrealharry]

Wrecked your life? Gordon Brown and Blair have destroyed all of the ENGLISH peoples lives!

[we5026]

@unrealharry not really lives worth keeping, in all honesty

[RacManRhythm]

@unrealharry why did you put ENGLISH in capital letters? do you forget theres more than only England as a country in the UK, anyway who do you come to the conclusion Blair & Brown destroyed your lives when it was Thatcher that started her brand of capitalism that got Britain into the mess its in today, think when you say they destroyed your lives, Thatcher did just that to Northern England & Scotland's industries in the 80's.

[gopconservative78]

How I miss Lady Thatcher