Thatcher state funeral to be privatised - e-petition

[johnboy1974]

I've got a list as long as tshirts on that power crazed evil Tory. But as it Christmas Eve and I was supposed to be a bed a long time ago I'm not getting mega into it.

For starters though (and I'm trying to stop here...) She ripped the heart (and everything else) out of hundreds of minning communities in...Wales, Northern England and Scotland. Many of these communities haven't recovered after all this time. Was it any coincidence that these areas were Labour hartland? The Tory voting rural and Southern England prosperd, whilst the rest of the UK suffered. And as for Ireland thank God Major and Blair showed a bit of foresight on the UK side.. She glorified in what was happening in Ireland and seem to genuinely want the troubles to continue. She used it to whip up national hysteria - like she did with the Falklands, which thanks to the likes of The Scum helped her to remain in power.

Matty excellent posting and every word true- I dont know how anyone can condone what she done to this country northern ireland included. Good hard working class families suffered immensly under her policies while the rich got richer and more powerful.My only regret is that the ira bomber never got her up the backside with the bomb he planted in her toilet in brighton. I dont condone the ira or any terrorism but they would have been doing us all a favour. One evil woman who was supported by cowardly so called men too scared to stand up to her.

[Snowy79]

If you look into the history of the mines they were costing the Tax Payer 1 Billion per year to subsidise. I'd hate to think what that equated to in todays money. All but 15 mines were closed by the Conservatives and these were eventualy bought out by Private Companies who have since opened more profitable deep and open cast mines.

Inflation which was running at 18% (thanks Labour) was reduced to 8.6% saving the Tax Payer even more money. Although the actual figures for the unemployed increased what some people forgot to realise that unemployment benefits were then paid to more people and the way the unemployed amount was calculated was changed. A bit like when Labour implemented different criteria to who was and wasn't unemployed to make their figures look good.

The Unions shafted the working man who had been brainwashed into believing that only Labour was any good as they kept getting subsidies from the Labour Governement. If it wasn't stopped we would have been in even more shit than we are in today. If Labour was so good why were there so many strikes when they were in power?

Before anyone thinks I'm into the Conservative party I don't support any one party. They all have their good points and they all have their bad points. I just read a variety of publications that are each biased towards different parties so I see the good and bad each party does. You'll never find a Football Club saying how good another Club is and it's the same with Newspapers.

[GastonJ]

I also recall BT, British Gas, BP and the rest were all making a loss until they were sold off, funny coincidence that isn't it?

Not forgetting the things that she did:

Introduced community charge
Stood against sanctions against South Africa - most likely Dennis had links to companies there
Supported and trained the Khmer Rouge
Joined the ERM and watched the interest rate rise to all time highs
Allowed for bombing by the US of Libya from UK bases

To name but a few. However Arthur Scragill is still a tw@ and destroyed miners lives. Bet he's still drawing his pension as well.....

Almost forgot to mention, she also sold off the TSB, which oddly enough was making a profit of ?77 million in 1982 before the so called privatisation.

[Snowy79]

All Political parites are as corrupt and as useless as each other. Especialy when they are dealing with those that pay their bills.

Labour have been sleeping with the Unions since day one, giving into demands that strangle productivity and profit. Conservatives are bribed by big businesses to go against the Unions and bring in tougher working regulations etc.

Add to this most public funded organisations are famous for having more workers than jobs. It used to be a standing joke about one Council worker doing the job and three standing around supervising.

If they Privatise Thatchers funeral you'll probably find it will be done by 100 people for a million pounds but if the council do it, it will take take thousands. cost billions and the majority will go sick with stress afterwards.

[GastonJ]

If they Privatise Thatchers funeral you'll probably find it will be done by 100 people for a million pounds but if the council do it, it will take take thousands. cost billions and the majority will go sick with stress afterwards.

You'll probably find that a lot of people will do it for the price of a box of matches and a gallon of fuel today..... I don't support any of them, I know I grew richer under a conservative government, however it doesn't mean I agree with them. I don't think labour are as in the union's pockets as they used to be, however the conservatives are there for "what's in it for me and my mates", always have been and always will be.

As for the liberals, they are as bad, if not worse than the conservatives.

[ruudvandan]

If you look into the history of the mines they were costing the Tax Payer 1 Billion per year to subsidise. I'd hate to think what that equated to in todays money. All but 15 mines were closed by the Conservatives and these were eventualy bought out by Private Companies who have since opened more profitable deep and open cast mines.

The is exactly the problem with Conservatives, they care only about money and nothing else. They do not realise that there is more to political decisions than economics. If the coal mies are unprofitable and need to close then fair enough, but what about the people? Instead of helping the workers to retrain to become productive members of the workforce, Thatcher left them to rot with no jobs, or even prospects of a job in remote towns that existed only for their now-closed coal mine. Is it any wonder that these people were stuck on benefits? What about their children? Families who had a working parent as a role-model for the kids were now dependent on benefits. The children grow up with this as a normal way of life and so do the same, and so do their children etc, hence the welfare state we have today created by Thatcher. People blame Labour for the excessive benefits, but I blame the Conservatives for institutionalising the benefits system.

As for the liberals, they are as bad, if not worse than the conservatives.

Worse. In their election manifestos they made promises that they were unable to deliver. Why did they do this? They prostituted themselves so they could win as many votes as possible, knowing that in reality they had zero chance of actually getting into power so wouldn't have to deliver on their promises. The prime example of such a policy is the student tuition fees which we all know they said they would scrap.

Let me tell you about Andrew Stunnell, my local MP (Lib Dem), who incidentally I voted for. He's stood for every election since 1992 when he nearly got in, he got elected in 1997. In EVERY campaign since '92 the headline on his leaflets were along the lines of - Labour can't win here, vote Liberal to keep the Tories out, with the voting figures, which to be fair, backed that up. The reason I voted him in (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) was to do just this, to keep the Tories out. Now instead of representing his constituents what does he do? Exactly the opposite. How is this democracy I ask? The Constituents of Hazel Grove got the exact opposite of what we voted for. In such circumstances we should have a way of sacking our MP.

[Jaffa]

.My only regret is that the ira bomber never got her up the backside with the bomb he planted in her toilet in brighton. I dont condone the ira or any terrorism but they would have been doing us all a favour. One evil woman who was supportd by cowardly so called men too scared to stand up to her.

Come on Johnboy, you are better than that, wishing the provos killed her is not the way m8. Yeah she was a fekkin bitch but to be murdered at the hands of cowardly bast***s is not the answer. 5 people died in their attempt to get her.

She fekked my country up the ass, she helped destroy manufacturing in Britain (but Labour were also to blame), their strikes made firms look elsewhere for better deals, but she did inherit a shit heap from Labour.

I have paid union dues for over 30 years (part of which go to the Labour party) and IF I had the option to vote Labour....I wouldn't do it nowdays. The are the Tories in disguise.

Should she have a state funeral...YES she should, she was prime minister for 11 years...voted in by the people. We live in a democracy, if people don't like things, they can tick the box to change it.

btw...Can anyone at all tell me of a time when the liked any government ??? Because all my life I have only heard people complain about goverments that are voted in. (including myself)

[Snowy79]

One of the main reasons the mines were subsidised was due to the fact that there wasn't enough coal left to remove safely. The miners were already working in dangerous conditions so it would have only been a few years before the mines would have became unviable anyway and the work force would have had to relocate. As a lot did when private companies opened profitable mines in other areas.

Added to this we had the tree huggers demonstrating about the amount of polution and damage to the environment and cheap coal being available on the continent.

I'm all for keeping someone in a job but unfortunately this money must come from somewhere and you can bet it doesn't come from the well off. It would have come from reducing money spent on other areas of the community. We're seeing what is happening today with the money being wasted on the Olympics. Community groups are having their funding slashed.

It's about time the Government and by this I mean any Government uses our money to fund our people and when money is short take it from our oversees aid first.

[GastonJ]

ah the coal thing, the UK has around 400 million tons of it in the ground, and that's according to UK Coal.

UK COAL : Britain's largest coal mining company - Coal Around the World

Enough to last for around 20 years, so I don't know why they say they can extract it and make a profit if as you say "One of the main reasons the mines were subsidised was due to the fact that there wasn't enough coal left to remove safely"

[Snowy79]

There can be as much coal as you want but we've moved on a bit to North Sea Gas and oil. As the mines were going belly up we had discovered vast supplies of oil which was cheaper and easier to get to.

At the time we could buy coal from China and have it transported half way around the world for less than we were digging it out of the ground. Today there is only a fraction of the people working on Coal Mines as machinery has replaced manpower yet production has vastly increased.

Maybe we should just bury Maggie down one of the mines.

[rupeshbmnoob]

I'm of a younger demographic so please forgive me for my lack of knowledge on these parts!!!

Was it a big thing when Thatcher became PM - what with the first woman in such a role must have been historic to say the least?

Let's face it, for some, it was a big historic landmark moment when Obama became president as he was the first black president ever.

Did a similar sentiment exist when Thatcher became the first (and only, as of yet) female PM at a time when surely sexism was far more prevalent that anything now?

Lastly, do all former PMs automatically gain entitlement to a state funeral and would there be a period of state mourning for her?

[johnboy1974]

Come on Johnboy, you are better than that, wishing the provos killed her is not the way m8. Yeah she was a fekkin bitch but to be murdered at the hands of cowardly bast***s is not the answer. 5 people died in their attempt to get her.

She fekked my country up the ass, she helped destroy manufacturing in Britain (but Labour were also to blame), their strikes made firms look elsewhere for better deals, but she did inherit a shit heap from Labour.

I have paid union dues for over 30 years (part of which go to the Labour party) and IF I had the option to vote Labour....I wouldn't do it nowdays. The are the Tories in disguise.

Should she have a state funeral...YES she should, she was prime minister for 11 years...voted in by the people. We live in a democracy, if people don't like things, they can tick the box to change it.

btw...Can anyone at all tell me of a time when the liked any government ??? Because all my life I have only heard people complain about goverments that are voted in. (including myself)

Sorry jaffa you talk about living in a democracy and ticking ballot papers- In scotland thats exactly what we done and the tories ended up with not one single mp in scotland but governed scotland. Oh and did i mention the poll tax was rolled out here a year before the rest of the uk got it. How very democratic.

[GastonJ]

I'm of a younger demographic so please forgive me for my lack of knowledge on these parts!!!

Was it a big thing when Thatcher became PM - what with the first woman in such a role must have been historic to say the least?

Let's face it, for some, it was a big historic landmark moment when Obama became president as he was the first black president ever.

Did a similar sentiment exist when Thatcher became the first (and only, as of yet) female PM at a time when surely sexism was far more prevalent that anything now?

Lastly, do all former PMs automatically gain entitlement to a state funeral and would there be a period of state mourning for her?

Her thoughts, and actions, are well documented and coming out in the news now.

BBC News - Thatcher ***039;considered arming police***039; during 1981 riots
BBC News - Thatcher urged ***039;let Liverpool decline***039; after 1981 riots

As for a period of mourning, for some it will be a period of partying and singing "the witch is dead..."

[Bulld0g]

Is it any wonder the witch is hated here in Liverpool. There will be street parties here when the evil bitch pops her clogs.

[ruudvandan]

Is it any wonder the witch is hated here in Liverpool. There will be street parties here when the evil bitch pops her clogs.

I'd be there but I'd be too busy celebrating on my own street