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A few statistics for all those who proclaim the "Thatcher miracle":
- The rate of GDP increase under her Premiership was 2.0% exactly the same as under the Wilson/Callaghan government of 1974-79.
- In terms of purchasing power per head we were 13th in the world in 1979. We hit a low of 18th in 1981 and 1982 and it was only in 1989 that we managed to get back in relative terms to where we were in 1979.
- Levels of consumer debt tripled between 1982 and 1989 from £16bn to £48bn. In many ways the good times of the Thatcher years were financed on the never-never.
- In 1979 there were 3,456 personal bankruptcies this figure was 13,987 in 1990. There were 4,537 business bankruptcies in 1979 which became 15,051 in 1990.
- The overall percentage of GDP being paid in taxes (the tax burden) actually increased from 33.1% in 1979 to 37.6% in 1989.
- Government expenditure fell from 44% in 1979 to 39% in 1990.
- In the Second Quarter of 1979 there were 23,145,000 employed workers against 1,100,700 unemployed. In the last quarter of 1990 these figures were 22,622,000 and 1,704,000 respectively.
- Benefit levels as a proportion of average income plummeted from 39.8% in 1979 to a pitiful 18.1% in 1989 for a single person while for a married man with two kids these figures are 59.7% to 33.1% in 1989.
- There were 4.9 million people living on below half average income in 1979, this figure was 11.8 million in 1988.
- In 1980 3,480 properties were repossessed, in 1990 this was 43,890. In 1980 there were 15,530 mortgages 6-12 months in arrears, this figure was 123,110 in 1990.
- In 1980 there were 4,710 people living in temporary accommodation, this figure was 45,170 in 1990.
Non white people make up less than 4% of the UK, so the chances of having a non white PM are almost 0. We have had mrs T our only fem PM, and a ery proiminent and successful one too. But she was a CON, when do you think we will get the first fem Lab leader?
Care to repute any of my comments? Please be my guest, but try and put a point of view forward with out calling people, ****s, twats, dickheads etc.
Actually the industrial unrest of the seventies started under Ted Heath, a fellow Conservative.:cool:
Shouldn't people have the right to call themselves what they want?
Thatcher is the most hated PM in contemporary British political history.
Every relevance when he writes "I'm pretty sure that if some of the people giving her the most flak here had lived through the late 70s, they'd have a different opinion." when he blatantly didn't.
I, on the other hand, do remember the 70's.
Thats the relevance. :rolleyes:
Like you replied to my points about what constitutes British culture on another thread?
You're a racist, pure and simple. Fuck off back where you came from www.bnp.org.uk :mad:
So? She couldn't have been hated by everybody because some people still call themselves 'Thatcherites'. Besides, some people are still calling themselves 'Marxists' when Marx died eons ago... then again, socialists are still hanging around.
I call myself an 'eco-feminist'... so you gonna say that I shouldn't call myself that because feminism is apparently outdated and environmental groups are hated by some people?
Well these Thatcherites are misguided. New Right theory IS outmoded. And there are different kinds of socialists; Marxists are only one type.
:rolleyes: I doubt it.
Thatcher IS hated and not by 'some people'.
Got any proof?
Or is this simply your opinion?
Really, do tell... how's about a few examples?
Yet not by everybody
Heard of democratic socialists and social democrats?
Is there any proof to the contrary?
Thatcher may have left a legacy (in an economic sense) but purely Thatcherite policies would not be whooly popular today.
Thatcher wasn'ta libertarian. :rolleyes:
Blair? The Third Way? Thatcherism under a new name.
Errrr...yes she was. Maybe not much of a social libetarian, but her economic policies were very much libertarian. Belief in private enterprise and the "free" market etc. Very much a big part of Libertarian thought.
Sweetheart, I'm a sociology student, not a politics one. I was simply asking. I'm more in to psychology, current issues and ethics to be honest. Politics is too... well I hear enough about it from my mate who's also obsessed with Greece and Rome.
Um, I asked if there was proof because you made the statement and didn't back it up. I didn't make a statement saying she was still popular. My Nan was a Thatcherite actually
And maybe Thatcherite ideals are still popular. Some people still adhere to nazi ideals
Thatcher's a conservative, not a libertarian.
Social freedom is just as inherent to libertarian thought as economic freedom. :cool:
Depends on your brand of Libertarianism.
You're revealing a lot of ignorance on this thead monocrat.
I have a degree in politics, so who is 'ignorant'? Visit here - http://www.libertarian.org if you think I am stating falsehoods..... :rolleyes:
You're so full of shit. :rolleyes:
Was Thatcher a free market anarchist? An minarchist? Was she one of these kinds of libertarians?
No.
Her economic policies were libertarian. Not all of her policies were, but the basis of the free market, dismantling the welfare state, emphasis on private rather than state enterprise etc are all from libertarian econmoic thought are they not?
BTW The American definition of liberal varies from what we in Britain define as liberal so I don't think linking to an American liberal website helps clarify matters.
US liberalism is social democratic. Libertarianism is not. Don't tell me kevlar doesn't know the difference?