An impressive career, although i disagree with the policies she enacted and the course she led society down. Economic revitalisation and the expense of thousands of peoples jobs, homes and communities. Its no surprise there was a lot of resentment to thatcher, i also don't think breeding 'new labour' is anything to be proud of.
Hindsight is of course 20:20, but tearing up the railways, closing the mines and the heavy industry in the UK were terrible decisions all made under her leadership.
Not targeting this entire post but I was told the mines were running out anyway? I thought that was the reason she didn't give into their strikes, when the strikes went on, the miners turned violent. Again, as I mentioned beforehand, not my first hand account, that is what my Grandfather has said. I take no responsibility!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/datablog/2013/apr/08/britain-changed-margaret-thatcher-chartsThat seems quite informative for graphs etc for certain things, I don't know how accurate it is because its a newspaper writing it but it visualises some things nicely. To be honest, I don't know if the Guardian is for or against Thatcher but that seemed to show good points and bad points although I can't see how the life expectancy comes into play since medical advancements are usually the major driving factor for that.
The major ones I would say are the economy stimulation, the unemployment rates & the decline in manufacturing. My favourite one however is the pay-gap between men and women, I would have expected it to have shot drastically towards equal for women, but it only started in the latter years of her office and continued.
One thing about this whole debate has spurred me to look at the class system that Britain has today. I've learnt a lot actually and I am starting to understand how it is such a problem for some people. I always understood that I was bloody lucky to be in the position that I am in today, my parents are well off, they're still together, I'm at University, I'm employed (multiple at once too) and generally speaking my life has been damned easy, everything has been given to me, I've not had to fight for anything but reading up on the "classifications of people" I have really started to see how much of a divide there is, what the characterisations are and hilariously how my accent effects peoples views of me.
"Stealing British jobs" is just not something that happens these days and for my person views on it, the majority of the people who use it as an excuse are those who would much rather sit on benefits. I can understand the people who are actively looking for a job, those who want to get onto the market but I also believe that they are just using it to vent their frustration of having someone else picked over them, regardless of their ethnicity. I'm more than happy to have someone beat me out of a position if they are better than me, if I were the employer, I would pick the better person too, I'd be pissed off/disheartened but I can't resent them for that, it just means I have to improve. If you want to come over here and work and you want to work hard, then by all means, you're welcome, but if you want to live off our frankly ridiculous benefits system, then bugger off.
I'm a strong believer that benefits should be a last resort. If you're injured and need support, then its there when you need it, if you are out of work then its there if you need it. It shouldn't be a "oh, its okay, I'll use the benefits" situation and it certainly shouldn't be a trap. What I mean by that is that it shouldn't be economically better for you to stay on benefits than to work so you don't bother.
