Originally posted by jaden101
Here's some photos of Thatcher will her palsSo that's her with Augusto Pinochet. Genocidal dictator of Chile. Robert Mugabe, genocidal dictator of Zimbabwe and Jimmy Savile. Britain's worst mass offending paedophile.
As a working class Scot, I couldn't be happier that this evil, vile woman is finally dead and gone.
Well here is a lot of ignorance at work.
Pinochet- fair enough, that was always an unpleasant bit of UK politics, but every leader has those.
Using Saville is just completely ridiculous, obviously.
As for Mugabe- this is a perspective loss. People forget that before he became the figure he is now, Mugabe was regarded as a liberating hero for Africa, a kind of smaller version of Mandela, certainly better than what he replaced and quite the darling of the liberal left. It was a long time before he turned out to be completely nuts.
Meanwhile, people talk about other things of Thatcher as if they are incontrovertible. They talk aboiut destroying manufacturing, but don;t consider that it was dying anyway. What is undeniable is that the UK hugely increased in prosperity and influence under Thatcher, she made a huge impact on the world stage and was one of the primary movers in brining an end to the Cold War via her relationship with Gorbachev. She was so respected on the world stage that she formed part of US policy decisions and was feted in the USSR. She destroyed the militant union movement- but the public wanted that. She changed politics as we know it, and Labour reformed itself in response to Thatcher.
The fact is, some elements of the left just cannot stand that Thatcher was a very successful leader, almost certainly to be remembered as Britain's greatest post-war 20th century Prime Minister. Heck, look at the tributes coming in from the Labour party even now- everyone recognises that, love her or hate her, she was an immensely impressive and effective politician, and not some kind of evil demon. You just don't win three successive elections by being the person some people want to make her out to be.
And before you take this as evidence of my Thatcherism- god no. Her views about the relationship between society and family were absolutely poisonous and thank god that view has been killed off, and her administration has alarmingly homophobic also (V for Vendetta was in part a response to Thatcherite policy on homosexuals). I prefer Blair to Thatcher. But if you try to argue that she was pure evil and a net negative to the nation, your perspective is completely broken.