Tuesday 28 November 2023

Today Is...Margaret Thatcher Resigns As Prime Minister

Such was the dislike of the Conservative leader that even years after she was seen in tears peering out from the window of a taxi as she was driven away, the mere mention of her name still stirs people to show their disapproval of her.
I made the joke that when she died they would have to bury her under a disco as so many people wanted to dance on her grave which was very harsh (funny though) so after 11 years in the British Hot seat, what was she remembered for?
Possibly the abolition of free milk for schoolchildren which earned her the nickname 'Maggie Thatcher the milk snatcher' or 'Maggie's millions', the 3.3 million unemployed, the highest number of out of work Britain's since the 1930s as the country plunged into recession following her election and led to riots on Britain's streets.
As riots greeted the start of her tenure, the sounds of public protests and charging riot police also saw her out with the poll tax riots, quickly abolished by her successor John Major.
The miners strike was a big part of her legacy, closing or privatising 150 of the 174 coal mines resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and devastating entire communities while some could say that the Falkland Island conflict which gave her flagging popularity a boost just in time for the upcoming General Election.
The case could be made for allowing the US to station nuclear missiles at Greenham Common, supporting apartheid in South Africa and the General Pinochet regime in Chile as well as Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge and the introduction of section 28 which banned promoting the acceptability of homosexual relationships but for me, her must destructive policy was the widespread privatisation she pursued. 
She spread the myth that privatisation would provide a more efficient and cheaper way to provide services and set about selling off nationalised utilities such as gas, water, electricity, British Rail, British Telecom, British Aerospace, British Airways, British Steel as well as the coal mines, ports and British Petroleum.
Someone did make a movie of her time as Primie Minister though called the Iron Lady which contained scenes of a Conservative government that some people may find distressing but on it's release there was some protests outside cinemas but most of us treated it with dignity and decorum and just satisfied ourselves with vandalising the movie posters.

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