[Skunk]

Originally posted by shamrock_uk: I have to take issue with a few of those... She did do several things for the poor, most notably allowing people to buy their (often rather nice) council houses at discounted rates.

Yes, in order to buy their votes. And the result?
The housing stock for poor people was *SEVERELY REDUCED* and councils were forbidden from reinvesting the money gained from the 'giveaway' in rebuilding more homes - which led to the CHRONIC housing shortage and high rents of today..

She didn't take over most government controlled properties, she sold most loss-making government industries (although with varying degrees of success it has to said). If i've misunderstood what you meant by properties, please elaborate.

She did not sell a SINGLE nationalised company that was not making a *massive* profit at the time of sale (ie British Airways, British Telecom, British Steel). And she sold them for peanuts - again in order to buy votes.

The reason for the massive unemployment was the previous Labour government making a bit of a hash of the economy - Thatcher had to bring in a monetarist regime as a condition from the International Monetary Fund. The rest of the unemployment came from the heavily unionised sectors which employed far too many people (from an efficiency point of view that is).

No, the reason for the massive unemployment was the accelerated 'rationalisation' process that Thatcher undertook. It was neccessary (true) but implemented on a scale and speed that was both harsh and caused unneccessary suffering.

Thatcher did a lot for the economy - and Britain is still reaping the benefits. But she did a hell of a lot of bad things too. She ruined entire communities and gave away the nation's wealth to buy votes...

Let's be honest about this.